Seven species of bees have been put on the endangered species list. According to Gary Haldeman, this means that strawberries, coffee and avocados could disappear. Gray wolves are now on that list, and read about the Horned Toad Lizard that Fish & Game voted on Dec. 8 in Suzanne Howarth’s article in this issue.

Rancho Mirage has now broken ground on their fabulous new observatory, they have also opened a new 4.5 acre dog park. Dec. 4 was International Cheetah Day, and the three young ones were allowed to tear around at the Living Desert. We are now down to under ten hours of daylight each day.

The 21st of this month will be the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. While temperatures in San Diego were uneven, it was still the second warmest November on record.

The Geminids Meteor Shower will unfortunately collide with our full moon. Too bad. But the Ursid Meteor Shower on the 21st and 22nd should be better. Do you know that we are one of only 13 “dark sky communities” in the world? A lot of people in this town worked very hard to make this happen.

My friend Marle in Oregon sent me this Chinese proverb. “You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.” I really wanted to share that with you.