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.
I'm thankful for friends and family as we come to the end of a busy year.
May peace be with us all in the upcoming year! |