191. Murrayville Cash Grocery - Christmas Eve

Limited Edition Watercolour Giclee Print, sn120, ap12, pp6

(unframed)

14 x 21 (inches) sn $240, ap$270, pp$300

From a Watercolour by Brian Croft

Half way up the Fraser Valley the little village of Murrayville cradles a picture-perfect Christmas Eve. The sun, now set, has abruptly closed the day to tobogganing, sleighing and playing on the surrounding hills. Local children in happy exhaustion, make their way home.

But for these three hardy adventurers, their homeward trek is interrupted. At the main intersection, the window lights in S. E. Mathews’s Murrayville Cash Grocery splash warmly on the snow. Christmas is just hours away and the little store simply radiates with festive joy. Footsteps halted, their imaginations dance unchecked at the shiny glass-bound sights. Only a deepening evening chill will eventually persuade them to move on.

But until they leave, why not pause here for a few moments. Stop making your own footprints in the snow and take time to look over their shoulders. Your imagination will take you the rest of the way and for just a brief moment, if you wish, you can return to that peaceful and uncluttered way of country life that is our heritage.

Brian Croft