As the year 2020 comes to a close and we reflect on the challenges of the past year, many are feeling the mental and physical uplifting benefits of the Peninsula’s natural lands during this time of social distancing. The Conservancy has continued to carefully steward these lands without interruption, restoring the health of the land for wildlife and public enjoyment. In spite of everything we have collectively endured, it is reassuring that open space is there for us to escape to and enjoy during trying times.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere... but where?

So, take the driver’s seat of your special adventure and you will easily reach your destination!

My client said, “I want to lose weight,”

“Can you be a little more vague?” I ask. She laughs.

Octopuses are mysterious. Octopuses are fascinating. Octopuses are fun, especially if they are named Rex and can sing! Yes, Rex is a musical cephalopod created by Barbara Hart of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Here we are at the end of 2020; a year to go down in infamy. There is much for us to process as our humanity has been plummeted. Once again as in lifetimes gone by, we are being asked to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. Even our survival has been compromised. There is much to be concerned about. No need to reiterate. We hear all of it every day as soon as we turn on our phone or our television or our radio. Each time we enter a public venue and see the warning signs. Waves of concern everywhere we look. We ask ourselves what do we have to look forward to? When will the Universal support system shine a light?

Once in a while I fret about the cost of living in California. Then I go outside, smell the flowers, feel the cool ocean breezes and calm down. We all know folks who have emigrated to Colorado, Florida, Texas, even Wyoming, for heaven’s sakes. But there is nowhere else you can find the combination of natural beauty and weather that we enjoy in Palos Verdes, IMHO.

The Christmas Holiday season is associated so much with the color red and green and costume designer Nolan Miller of DYNASTY fame created these two amazing gowns in red and green for Barbara Stanwyck and Ann Miller for the Academy Awards.

With the headlines and newscasts streaming the perils of the global pandemic and the associated chaos, it is hard to avoid the anxiety and stress of the crisis. This is not the first nor will it be the last pandemic we face. Consider maybe “What we need right now is a little Christmas!”

So here is a Christmas Story from Fifty years ago that is worth thinking about today.

Is that Charlie Chaplin in Los Angeles Harbor? Yes! And he’s wearing a dress! He was there filming the first of three movies where he impersonated a woman. “A Busy Day” was shot amid the backdrop of the April 11, 1914 Harbor Day Celebration at the Port of Los Angeles.