Live Music Ups the Chill-Out Charm of Descanso Gardens

Pastoral reveries may seem like the stuff of paintings displayed inside museums, but they can and do exist outside the gilded frame, right here in this world.

The ingredients can vary, if you plan on recreating such a painting in real life without the benefit of brushes, watercolors, and canvas, but here are a few things you might need: Soft summer sunlight, trees deft at dappling the aforementioned light, people perambulating at a stately pace, and lilting live music, sometimes involves the sweetest strings.

All of those ethereal images will be found on this plane of existence at Descanso Gardens on Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18.

For the pretty La Cañada Flintridge plot will offer not one but two "Summer Music Strolls," which, yes, will feature all of the flowery goodness of the gardens plus musical interludes, all to add airy oomph to the scene.

Your $25 ticket is good for whatever night you select, so if you'd like to attend both, be sure to purchase tickets for both. If you're a member? A single-night ticket is $20.

Adding aural allure to different spots of Descanso Gardens?

The Sakura Cello Quintet, the Paul Livingston Ensemble, and the Yuval Ron Ensemble. Feel free to stand and listen for awhile, or revisit any or all of the groups that especially moved you during your uplifting amble.

Note that this isn't a stop-sit-and-sup kind of happening; arriving with a picnic isn't permitted, nor are chairs and blankets, so do keep the "stroll" part of the name in mind as you ponder purchasing a ticket.

The late-afternoon time window should blunt some of the afternoon's hottest heat, while still providing the all-important sunbeams, which shall illuminate the destination's regal and iconic oaks, wending pathways, and beautifully situated benches, too.