MY TOM THOMSON TIME OF THE YEAR

The autumn season has always been my most prolific time writing......and it was an equally inspiring change of climate enjoyed by Canadian landscape artist, Tom Thomson. As he found the autumn colors and contrasts, of light and shadow, and the drastic changes in weather, appealing for his art panels, I can feel this surge of interest rising as soon as harvest times rolls around. I have also paddled the Algonquin Lakes at this time of the year, and been captivated by the amazing landscape....the approach of a November storm-front, the early snow that sweeps down over the barren hardwoods and then there are the northern lights that Thomson always found so spirit-full and haunting.

Over the past several months I’ve set aside my landscape writing and concentrated on local politics. This is the first time in many, many years that I’ve sacrificed my forays into the woodlands, and the traverses by canoe through this amazing lakeland, to pay attention to the governance, past, present and future, of my, “Our” hometown. It was worth the effort of course, and overall, I was pleased with the election outcome. But now it’s time to set out my own art panels, you might say, and immerse myself back to the nature-watch I literally can not live without.

This town, and this modest homestead, at Birch Hollow, affords me so many wonderful opportunities to celebrate the lakeland. I hope this appreciation for the home region, is reflected in the content of what I compose. As Thomson was thrilled when someone would remark, for example, that his art panel on the Northern Lights, made them feel the bitter air of a lonely Algonquin night, it’s always good to find out that some reader has travelled with me, to some similar vantage point, to see and feel the true haunting of the lakeland.

As Robert Frost wrote, about stopping by the woods on a snowy evening, I too have a wanderlust on gentle winter evenings, to pause, momentarily, to celebrate a wonderful life, with friends, family and this ever-healing solitude.....just down the lane from the soft glow of lamplight in the homestead window.....that calls me back to hearthside.

I will occupy myself this fall and winter, exploring this amazing landscape, and please feel free to accompany this set-in-his-ways writer, travelling along old and familiar trails. Dress warmly. Liberate your imagination. We are now watchers in the woods.

NOTE: You can link with Ted’s other blogs, including his take on Muskoka’s “Walden Pond,” plus his Algonquin and Muskoka Ghosts blog-site. If you are a culinary zealot, check out his sites on Vintage Muskoka Recipes.....where he discusses the relevance of collecting “handwritten recipes.” You can connect with these sites through this blog-site and or by doing an online search of other business and professional links. You can also connect with “Curious: The Tourist Guide,” online, to read his most recent column on Ada Florence Kinton, a year long series in support of the Gravenhurst Salvation Army Food Bank.