On Sunday night I had a beautiful dream. My granddaughter Imp burst through the door, gave me a great big smile and called "Hi Grandma!" It was wonderful and I woke up thinking about her.

I called Luna today to find that the twins have been very ill with the flu, Luna thinks it is probably the H1N1 but this has not been tested or confirmed. Apparently Imp's fever "peaked" on Sunday, just before I dreamed about her.

Imp is recovering now, her fever has diminished. However Elf is currently feeling very poorly and running a high fever, which seems to be coming down now. His cough sounds dreadful.

Tink had a bit of a cough on Saturday, but has not developed a fever. We are all hoping that she is one of the lucky ones who is barely affected and suffers very minor symptoms indeed.

Thinking about my girls, and my grandchildren, led me to remember a song my friend Derek sang when he last visited. Listening to Derek sing his version of Emmy Lou Harris' song Love and Happiness is an experience I'll always hold close to my heart.

We have at last obtained a high speed connection to the internet. Tonight was my first foray into the youtube experience. I've listed to an unknown singer called Holly, singing her version Pancho and Lefty. Then I listed to Townes Van Zandt sing this same song, a performance in a class of its own. Then I moved on to listen to Emmylou Harris sing "Love and Happiness" with Kimmie Rhodes. At last I have access to the kind of entertainment that I do truly enjoy.

After looking at live stage performances, I moved on to my favorite way to listen to music, street buskers. When I lived in downtown Toronto I was addicted to what I called my "walkabouts". I would pack my books into a backpack, lace up my hiking boots and set forth to wander to neighbourhoods of Toronto. I stopped for coffee when I was tired, studied for hours and hours at street side cafes, and listened to live music off and on all day and all evening long. The quality of entertainment on the streets of Toronto is unbelievable, unbelievably bad and unbelievably good. And I loved it all.

I bumped into a video, from the 2009 Busking for Change event, filmed on the streets of Toronto. First I'd like to say that unless I know an artist personally, I don't remember their names. It is not in my nature to adore anyone from afar. It is in my nature to enjoy human contact, including genuine goodwill and real eye contact. When you set forth to listen to buskers, that is what you will encounter, for the most part. Perusing the busking videos, I chose one thinking that the artist looked earnest, focused and not very affluent. I was not sure if I was about to hear something unbelievably bad or unbelievably good or something somewhere in between.

I didn't know the name Chantal Kreviazuk ; what a wonderful introduction to an artist's talent. At the beginning of this video it is difficult to hear her voice and I was thinking, "oh no, this is going to be painful". Then I called to Attila, "hey, listen to this, she is pretty good."

Attila laughed. He knows who Chantal Kreviazuk is and found it hilarious that I thought I had discovered this great talent on the street.

But you see, in a sense I did discover this great talent on the street. For me Chantal will always represent a talented artist singing on a cold windy street, sounding incredible and sharing what nature gave her.