I was thrilled that my short story, Moonlight with Tom Thomson won the South Simcoe Arts Festival Writing Award, and the Phyllis Smallman Award for Great Storytelling.  The story was inspired by the bronze sculpture of Tom Thomson that sits in the Civic Centre in the beautiful Muskoka town of Huntsville.  The town is like a permanent  outdoor art gallery - many buildings are painted with gorgeous murals inspired by the Group of Seven.  

Originally, the story was part of a Canadian Authors Association 'Painters, Prose and Poetry' event.  I'd painted the setting sun and evening sky from my Muskoka Dock, and then wondered - what if Tom Thomson came along for a visit?  The result was Moonlight with Tom Thomson.  Click the title  for a link to this story.  

There's little on Earth that can match the spectacular beauty of Niagara Falls.  In all seasons of the year, it's impressive. This winter, much of the falls froze over, and the surrounding area was captured in a blanket of ice.  Fireworks explode in the sky at night and the cascading water is illuminated in a changing rainbow of coloured light. 
​Magnificent!

The temperature is -23 Celcius.  So cold that the moisture in the air created rainbows on the western horizon. Bundle up - it's beautiful outside and you have to experience it.
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How lucky can a person get? This is from a workshop in Raleigh NC at the Art of the Carolinas. In the centre of the photo is renowned artist, Linda Kemp doing a demonstration for her lucky pupils in one of her classes. Why am I lucky? She's my sister.  We started taking lessons together when we were 8 and 10 years old. We've both had careers in the art world, but this is the first time since we were little girls that we've had the chance to spend time together. Fabulous conference and I hope we'll be lucky enough to be back again next year.