There are so many great things about living near Boston (Red Sox, Fanuel Hall, Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Legal Seafood, Paparazzi (the restaurant), the Museum of Fine Arts, Peabody-Essec Museum, the Fuller Craft Museum, and last, but certainly not least, the Harbor Express Ferry to Boston from Quincy, where, as a Senior Citizen, I can ride into one of the great harbours in the world, with a fantastic skyline, and arrive at Long Wharf, go to the North End and eat great Italian("La Summa" comes to mind), and all for $6. round trip (!!!), and $3. parking.
And along the way, you can partake in such spectacles as the Tall Ships ("Op. Sail Boston, 2012"
as witness the enclosed photos.  Talk about timing the ferry ride in with the arrival of the ships.

And last night I looked in on the Satuit Band, my community band for 21 years, from which I retired this Spring, and watched my successor, Charlie Shaffer lead them in a concert in Rockland, and doing very very well, thank you.  Good Band!  Enjoy the photos. (don't forget to double click any one for enlargement.)
 

What a wild and wonderful week.  Susan and I had two of the grandchildren (Jackson, Oliver), and we kept them for five days (!) which meant a trip to Battleship Cove in Fall River, the Heritage Plantation in Sandwich,  and with Cheryl, Scot and Alex, now two, to the cottage on Saquish, down the long spit of sand below powder point. 
And this AM (Monday) I redrove the route to saquish at 6:00 AM to see some birds and had a spectacular morning of Willets, Horned Larks, and Great Blue Herons. Don't forget to double-click the images to enlarge.

Enjoy it all.

Aha, a second day of blogging in a row, good for you.
I am looking forward, with some nervousness, to my Summer, one without the Satuit Band, which i led for 21 years, and a summer without private lessons.  I hope to be able to work with my compositions, and particular to go back to past works and put them into Sibelius.  I will probably do a website for large brass ensemble compositions, and see where that goes.  And what spare time I have, after golf, photography, praciticing the Bass Trombone, will go towards this blog.

I am trying to add to the photography every single day with something worth while.  and some days I come up pretty short, like today, a day of rain and shadow.  One photo worth while, a bug of somekind, about i/2 inch long.  Pretty striking, actually.

It is a slow night, and I have promised myself to try to enter something in the blog every day, and I already skipped Monday.  But my thought go to George "Bunky" Kent, who is retiring from his postion as conductor (and founder) of the Westerly Choral.  I managed to play allmost of of his concerts, starting with a Britten "Spring Symphony" in which I was introduced to the cow's horn, in this case a fibre creation Bunky had made for the concert.  Used a trombone mouthpiece, and had a jump from a Bb to an F, fairly spooky.
I reived to ultimate compliment from Bunky, I played in an Alpinhorn trio at his camp in Maine, Ogontz Camp, and the only thing that topped that was a trip on his lobster boat in one of the coldest days I have ever spent on the water.  The smell on the boat was unique, and I couldn't imagine what it must smell like in the summer. We pulled 21 traps, found 8 lobsters, threw four back, and Bunky gave me the remaining four.  Delicious.
He created such a high standard of performance with his singers, hired some of the great soloists, gave several world premieres, cultivated a veru English sound, created a children's choir which participated in all the performances.  and in general introduced to thousands of people the joys of singing great creations, and the appreciation of all that was so rewarding about classical music.  Even his Christmas Pops and Summer Pops programs could be such powerful experiences.
I had the pleasure of playing a recital at his church, with my own church organist, Steve Young, and that great Fisk organ. 
I am sure things will change, they always do when a new conductor takes over,  and I hope and pray that the chorus will continue to do the great things they have done. And I hope, of course, that they will continue to hire top professional orchestral players, who are very expensive, but are, of course, a huge part of many of the successes of the past.