March is here!

Besides the anticipation of the end of winter, this is going to be a busy March. We have Daylight Savings time kicking in on Sunday, March 10th, The Vernal Equinox on Tuesday, March 19th (1st day of Spring), Full Moon on March 25th, and finally EASTER, Sunday March 31st.

Does the “Ides of March” sound familiar? In ancient Roman times, March was the first month of the year. Around 700 BC, the Roman emperor added January and February, but before that time, March was the “New Year” and the “Ides of March” (the middle or appx. March 15th) was the equivalent to tax day in the Roman empire or a day for citizens to settle their debts. Also, on March 15th (the Ides of March) in 44 BC, Julius Caesar the Roman Emperor was murdered by 40 senators, starting a civil war that eventually led to the destruction of the Roman Empire. So together with the murder of Cesar and Tax day, people like to say…”Beware the Ides of March”. It’s kind of a bad omen.

I thought the moon was fascinating and complex? It doesn’t even come close to being as complex as stars. Stars are, for me, the most unfathomable object that I have attempted to learn about. We take them for granted because they are little pin pricks of sparkly light in the night sky that we gaze upon. Sailors have used them for hundreds of years to navigate the seas. But just start to learn about them, and you will quickly be overwhelmed. Here are some amazing things I learned about stars:

• Our universe (just ours) has approximately 1 SEPTILLION (that’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars in it. (Our Milky Way which is only 1 arm of our universe, has 7 billion stars).
• Stars are born out of combining clouds of gas and dust that form into seething balls of hot gas that live from 1-100 billion years. Each star has a life cycle that can last a few million to trillions of years before it dies. During their life, they have a chemical dance of pressure that exerts outward pressure in, and inward pressure out so the star doesn’t collapse on itself. This exchange of pressure and energy is the “glow” that we see. Eventually, all stars die (in billions of years), explode and collapse in on themselves and that’s what “Black Holes” are; dead stars. The debris floats around in space and can form planets or other stars. It’s hard to get your head around.
• The sun is the closest and the ONLY star in our galaxy and is considered a “medium sized” star. There are many stars bigger than our sun and many smaller than our sun. The gravity from our star (The Sun) holds all the planets in our galaxy together in our orbit around our sun.
• Every sun is a star, but not every star is a sun. A star has to be big enough to pull other stars and planets into its’ orbit to be considered a sun.
• Our Sun (denoted with a capital “S”) is 4.6 billion years old now and is expected to live several billion more years. It is 93 million miles away from our earth and it’s the closest and only Sun in our galaxy. There are galaxies with more than 1 sun.
• You can only see about 2000 – 2500 of the stars that are actually out there with your eyes.
• The closest star to us other than our sun is called “Proxima Centauri” and is 24 trillion miles away. If we traveled by jet, that would take 5 million years to get to it.
• The light we see from a star, left that star approximately 10,000 years ago. That’s how long it took that light to reach us here on earth.
• The brightest star we can see is called “Deneb” and is 2 Quadrillion miles away.

The next time you’re outside looking up at the stars, I bet you will think just a little deeper about how amazing our universe is, and how little we know about it. It’s MIND-BOGGLING!

Click Here to go to the
PCT Information Page

Sunday March 3rd
Idyllwild Arts
Idy Student Talks
Remington Haring
Krone Library
2:00 pm

Join us as Remington Haring, 2024 InterArts/Creative Writing major, shares his story with us.

Tuesday March 5th
Idyllwild Arts
“Piano Fest“
7:00 pm
Lowman Concert Hall

Join us for Piano Fest! This concert is a tradition held at Idyllwild Arts for over 25 years. Piano Fest features both solo and duo performances by our Idyllwild Arts Academy pianists.

Tuesday – Sunday
March 5th – 10th
Idyllwild Film Festival
Rustic Theatre

Thursday March 7th
CERT Meeting
Idyllwild Fire Dept. Training Room
6:00 pm
All are welcome!

Tax Forms Available FREE
Idyllwild Library

Most of the tax forms are here! Just waiting on the Spanish 1040s. They are located in our front lobby, come help yourself.

Saturday March 9th
Garden Club Class
Idyllwild Community Garden
Alderwood St and N. Circle Drive
“Pruning for Summer Production”
10:00 am – 11:00 am
(Rescheduled from March 2nd due to rain)

Join Bob Greenamyer for a class on the basics of pruning your fruit trees. We’ll talk about “The 5 D’s”, rules to guide your pruning efforts and you’ll get a chance to do some practice pruning in our orchard. If you have pruners, feel free to bring them to the class. 

For more info go to www.idyllwildgardenclub.com

Wednesday March 13th
Science Talk w/ Larry Kawano
Spirit Mountain Retreat
“Great Women Physicists”
3:00 pm

Wednesday March 13th
Mountain Area Safety Meeting
Idy Nature Center
11:00 am – 12:00 pm

26890 Hwy. 243
951-659-1122

Order by Monday March 11, 2024
Next Food Delivery Thursday March 14, 2024

MOUNTAIN AID
Need food or other items?
Want to help those who do?
Twice monthly food boxes for every budget.

Pick-up will be at the Camp Maranatha
www.MountainAid.net

The New Bathrooms are OPEN!
Next door to the Idyllwild Gardens Nursery – Across the street from the Rustic Theatre.
Open Daily 9am – 5pm

Thank you to Shane & Ashley Stewart for donating the land for these bathrooms and to Stephanie Yost with ICC for her persistence with the County of Riverside to FINALLY get us public bathrooms. Thank you to the County of Riverside and Supervisor Manuel Perez for making this happen. It’s been a LONG time coming! Bathrooms will be locked at night. I’m not sure what time yet.

Hotel Information
Upcoming Weekends
www.IdyLodging.com

Idyllwild Churches

Body & Soul

Click Here for a list of Yoga, Pilates, Aerobics, & Meditation in Idyllwild.

All events, venues & programs run by
Idyllwild Community Center

Fit after 50
Free Exercise Class
Town Hall

Mondays
12-pm – 1pm

Tue/Wed/Thur
10am – 11am

Fridays
12-pm – 1pm

Youth Baseball
Registration Open
Season: April 8-May 30

Kids After School Program
Mondays – Fridays
2:00pm – 6:00pm

Wednesdays 12pm – 6pm

Kids Camps at Town Hall:
President’s Holiday Week
Spring Break
Memorial Day Holiday

Spring Sing Break Camp
April 1st – 4th
Town Hall
10:00 am – 4 pm

Al-Anon Meetings
Tuesdays
7:00 PM
Town Hall

Camp Idyllwild Cabaret
July 8 – 9
July 22 – Aug. 2
Town Hall