A team of white horses, called Schimmels in Pennsylvania German, pull the sleigh with the gathering tank for maple sap. This view of the midseason of maple syruping shows bits of grass and reeds coming through the snow as the warming sun penetrates into the bush. In the background, steam wafts from the louvers at the top of the sugar shanty, giving a hint to the misty warm air inside the building. An alert dog spies us watching the scene but the woman collecting sap concentrates on emptying the tree-hung pail.

Using the general store in Wallenstein, I created a setting in the fabric section that worked with the story. The photos of the mother and of Naomi supplied by the author made my task much easier. Although the author had another store in mind as the setting, I felt that this space worked better.

Using many photos from my files, I created a setting for Naomi. This is the first time that I have painted a view of the sugar bush where the focus is not on the gathering activity. As with all of the paintings in this book, this piece changed a good deal over the month in which it was created.

This was the only piece in the book over which Nan and I had had a debate with the editor. Kathryn's impressions of sugaring seemed to be founded on the Quebec experience of sugaring off in a huge cauldron outside, not in a sugar shack.

The poem that spawned this painting involves the entire family and speaks of the reward of churned ice cream after working hard picking fruit in the garden. I added the cats and the dog as I could not imagine this scene without the ever present, always hungry pets.

It is hard to overstate the importance of food in Mennonite culture. Treats such as ice cream constitute both sustenance and reward. Hard work makes for a good appetite.

I found this painting difficult as I wanted to show Naomi from the view of someone in the field. I had to re-arrange the "ballplayers" many times to get the attention on Naomi without making it too obvious. This scene also could include a Mennonite farmhouse which I find so attractive. Although my images had to illustrate the story, there was still a lot of room to showcase things about Mennonite country that I like but were not specified in the text.

The kitchen on Christmas morning is a hub of activity. As you can see, the gifts are modest but the excitement immense. The doll and the View-Master are the only gifts for the girls but candy and other edible treats add much to the holiday spirit. Food, food, food ... little is so important to any Mennonite special event.

This view was inspired by the beauty of the lights on the wet street as I made my way home from the Duke of Wellington, my local pub. It is rather strange that I had not considered painting such a scene of King Street in Waterloo before. Doesn't it remind you of the many Paris street scenes that you have seen using the shiny street to reflect the lights? In the background you can see the Bauer Lofts.

Typical of small bits of landscape in the Muskoka region of Ontario, this piece of colours caught my eye. Perhaps it was the hues, some of which are almost pink, maybe the spidery skeleton of the fallen tree just off Limberlost Lodge Road, but there was some response in me. From the time that I was sixteen when I had painting lessons from M.F. Kousal, I have felt that I should paint some of the wild country in the Canadian Shield. I have never made a concerted effort to pursue that feeling. Perhaps laziness on my part has kept me from making the effort.

This painting is based on a photo that I took from the Jubilee footbridge looking toward Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I did dramatize the light effect on this scene of the Thames River in the heart of central London to create what I hope is a more effective and focused view. In this piece the wall of the embankment leads us toward the perpendicular gothic creation by Charles Barry assisted by Augustus Pugin. As I love architecture, Pugin is a favourite of mine.

Netherby is a very small village close to the unit that we had rented in an old reclaimed Flax Mill. For two weeks in the summer of 2011 we drove through this tiny hamlet on our way to the supermarket in a nearby town, Beaminster. This part of Dorset, only a few miles from the English Channel, is indented by many valleys that host streams that run down to the sea. Quiet and remote, on the way to nowhere important, this scene speaks of village life many years ago.