Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

Italian Harpsichord This past week Peter and I flew to Boston for the Early Music Festival.   Attending the festival has been on Peter’s bucket list for many years and, of course, I was not going to miss it either. As usual we took lots of photos as we enjoyed the Back Bay area of Boston.      The weather was mostly rainy, overcast with only occasional sun.   I wore my ‘fitbit’ and at the end of 3 days realized I walked an average of 22,200 steps each day!   And yes, most of it was in rain! The Public Garden founded in 1837 was one of our first stops.   There is a lovely ‘lake’ with swan boats that were picturesque and not working that day.   Squirrels chased each other across grass and up trees.   Mother Mallard had her ducklings in tow as they swam.   The Globe Alliums looked like dancers in formation and the roses were in bloom.   But the Dogwoods took center stage with all the trees just filled with bl...

This is such a good time of year for conversation, being thankful and enjoying life.   I watched these two Northern Pintails (ducks) having just such a conversation – at least that’s what I thought!   Today’s blog is a picture story of ‘Conversation’.

Cormorants Visit Santee Lakes and Hang Out! There is nothing like a weekend getaway to widen and relax one’s perspective.   We drove from Prescott AZ to Coronado Island CA and stayed at a friend’s lovely home.   The reason?   An early music concert by Concerto Koln http://www.concerto-koeln.de/home_welcome.php?lang=eng  at Irwin M. Jacobs Qualcomm Hall in San Diego.   What an amazing evening.   The baroque music was exquisite and the hall, designed for the San Diego Symphony, was perfect for the instruments.   The evening’s highlight for me was   Vivaldi’s ‘Concerto for Recorder, Strings, and Continuo in C, RV 443’ with Cordula Breuer playing the Sopranino Recorder.   I had not seen or heard this instrument before.   Picture the recorder you played in grade school and make it 6” long.   It was amazing to watch and listen to an artist playing with her fingers literally flying.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorder Ano...

It is getting cooler in Prescott and ducks are flying in from the Arctic area (too cold with no food there!)    So Peter and I went birding to see how many ducks and what kinds were arriving.   Today we saw Mallards, Shovelers, Canvasbacks, Ring - Necked Ducks, Lesser Scaups, American Wigeons, Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads and one Green - winged Teal.   Then I spotted the eye candy!   Three Wood Ducks swimming in a man-made waterfall area at the entrance to a housing development – a place one would not expect to find them since they like secluded areas like wooded swamps.   The one male and two females caused us to stop the car, get our binoculars and just stand there looking!   The colors on the females were blended so that the blues slid into the greens and browns and then the blue green on their heads caught the sunlight.   It was such a rich color that I just wanted to touch. There was a delicate white pattern around their eyes and an elegant shap...