Keira McArthur

My phone is in Kingston, 200 km of driving sleet and transport trucks ago. I travel through this with my daughter from my aunt to my niece. There’s a rightness to the timing. In the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau I find a plug upstairs after the cafe closes.  There’s a bench with cushions so I […]

A rainy 5:20 am in the darkening northern hemisphere.  It is November 1. I was lucky enough to be on the road every weekend last month, to and from Kingston, Toronto, Peterborough.  I drove through ridings filled with campaign signage, fields of shorn crops, hills of red and yellow trees, towns surrounded by housing developments and the occasional […]

I stayed over because of the cat. He’s not mine, but I care for him over the winter while his owner’s away.  Six toes on each foot. Patti says that makes him magic. He’d been locked in the basement for four days until yesterday when I got the store owner to let me go down […]

I was walking down the street  When I thought I heard this voice say “Say, ain’t we walking down the same street together on the very same day?” “Hey, Senorita, that’s astute”, I said.  “Why don’t we get together and call ourselves an institute?” Paul Simon, “Gumboots”, from Graceland Many marvelous synchronized happenings and conversations these […]

I’m drinking good beer in a sunlit window at Free Times Cafe where I used to hang out with my band in the ’80s.  When I arrived the speakers were playing an obscure (to me) Serbian singer doing everything from traditional love songs to hard rock, but now we’re on to Steve Perry – this […]

One month:  Corelli to Handel to Brahms and Faure to Jensen to Patootie to sereda to Kurt Cobain via Drew Wright.  In between some work re-arranging songs by JTaylor, Norah Jones, Kris Delmhorst and other specials for cello and voice.  Or just cello, or just voice.  And thumb piano (note to self:  revive and nourish […]

Delightful days, these.  In the grand pause of morning I can recall at least one, sometimes three marvelously shocking, transcendent moments for each day of this month – some mine, others I’ve witnessed.  Is this what you get when you jump into Georgian Bay at midnight on Nov 1?  If so I’ll make it annual. […]

So peaceful, this end of September 2013. In the growing dark of the season I can feel what is timeless and eternal – the breathing of the fall wind, the lap of waves on the breakwall of the harbour.  The summer birds have flown, but even the starlings and chickadees that remain are asleep still, […]

I’ve had early morning conversation with one of my rarely seen Incredibles, who is now off to work.  Two others flop in their beds – they will be vertical, and then verbal, soon. but hang on – the snow is blowing from left to right through the alleyway behind my head.  Horozontal snow is normal […]

We hit the road a week ago yesterday for London Ontario for a quickie overnight visit.  This was the fulfillment of an idea that we should mark the last week that my niece would live in Canada before she left on an extended Rotary trip to Germany.  We did so –   there are new […]