Brian Corkill, Bill Ronstadt, John Ronstadt, and Peter McLaughlin 

Sunset Serenade
One of the greatest blessings in my life is the way music is intertwined into almost every aspect of our day to day life.... my husband Brian is an amazing musician and makes music regularly with many other wonderful musician friends.... he plays five or six times a month with 'Still Cruisin', his oldies band and is a guest guitarist in several other groups.

The 'Still Cruisin' gigs are good, loud, fun with lots of dancing and visiting going on, but I think my favorite music times are the ones when we have gathered with our friends, at our home or theirs, and after a meal, instruments come out, chairs get pulled up, and music begins to fill the air... magical.

Last weekend, at a get together Bill and John Ronstadt set up to introduce their friend, Peter McLaughlin, to Brian, we went to Peter's house for pizza.... Peter has an authentic pizza oven that he built in his courtyard, so everyone brought a favorite topping or two, and we made amazing homemade pizzas... forget built in B-B-Q's!! ... this pizza oven was great!... hey, I'm a pretty good brick mason....hmmmm?? :o)

The music that evening was wonderful.... all of these guys are amazing singers and players...our new friend, Peter, is a national flat-picking champion and his folk songs were great (I love folk music!)....... singing together since they were kids, Bill and John's singing and harmonies are always amazing and their pickin' ain't bad either....John's wife, Jeanne, played accordion and added her own sweet harmonies.... in perfect weather, sitting on the patio overlooking Tucson as the sun was setting, watching the city's lights come on, listening to these fellows make their music, I was pretty sure I'd found a little of heaven on earth.

click images to enlarge

Yellow

Almost as if on cue, mother nature has decided to use the happiest color in the crayon box to tint our back yard... i can almost hear her saying "what we need here is a big burst of yellow to banish any remaining remnants of them pesky 'blues'...." ......thanks mom.

The view from my hammock is a study in yellow... the palo verde tree, cats claw vines, yellow oleander and an abundance of wildflowers are bursting with yellow blooms... heck, even the lemon and grapefruit trees still have some yellow fruit on them....it is so beautiful and serene... the birds are singing their spring songs and the temperatures are perfect!... someone pinch me.