The Hub and Siren Bicycles co-owner Mary Metcalf-Collier leads a basic bike maintenance workshop and demonstration at the shop Sunday during a ladies’ brunch, attended by about 20 local bike-loving women.

Temperatures in the morning are in the 20s. Snow whitens the ridgelines. Fireplaces send smoke swirling into the bracingly clear and star-studded night sky. The approaching winter, with an El Niño predicted to be one of the strongest ever, gently moves Idyllwild residents into the warmth of their homes and kitchens. Thanksgiving on the Hill…

Last Saturday afternoon, during a time unlike any we’ve seen and under a “Stay-at-Home” order, I met Lori Brookes at the base of Deer Springs Trail.  Nature is still one of the few places we are still “allowed” to go. We maintained “social distancing,” a term that has quickly become a way of life.  As…