Sunday was a really long day…. it was the day of a choral festival at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown LA. After singing at church that morning, we went to the Cathedral for rehearsals starting at 1:00 pm, and went basically straight until our concert at 7:00 pm. The festival was in honor of Fred Bock, a composer and choir director very well known in Los Angeles. The guest of honor was John Rutter, who is a very famous British choral composer whose music we really like. And did I mention that there were 1400 singers? As you can imagine, it was rather chaotic. I sat in the front row at the end so that I could slip out and play on one of the pieces. I also happened to be sitting next to the Festival conductor and next to him, John Rutter! Unfortunately at the end of the concert Rutter was mobbed from the podium, so I wasn’t able to shake his hand.

Steven and I were both off work for Presidents Day on Monday. We went to brunch and then to Descanso Gardens, a botanical garden that’s close to where we live. It was a very relaxing day and we were glad to spend extra time together! The picture above is one of the many, many Camellia plants that the gardens are known for that are just beautiful. We spent a few minutes sitting on a bench looking at the forest in the picture below. Enjoy!