Hello from sunny, windy and 70 degrees-- Yuma

We have had a pretty laidback week playing lots of pickleball (Terry) and bridge (Lola) and getting to know our neighbors. About 90% of our neighbors here at Westwind are from 3 provinces of Canada: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta --all huge in land mass but sparsely populated. Mostly they have been farmers but we have met a few that had careers in the military and services. All very nice and complimentary of Nashville, they say all Canadians love Nashville and most have traveled there. Almost all the women I play bridge with have been teachers in schools that are K-12 with combined classes (for example: 6th low +4th high?!?). They do not like basketball (go Vols--we may be no. 1 in the nation before the week is out), have a passing interest in football (go Chiefs and Saints), hockey is the one sport we have in common--they love P.K. Suban and know he is a Pred. The sport they LOVE? Curling (Terry and I thought it was purely an Olympic sport). They have the National Curling Finals is in Las Vegas this week and some have gone, all here are watching on TV.


Our cute neighbors across the street are from Saskatchewan,
Clare and Pat have come here for 26 years play cards and board games almost every night

Food--Dates are a big crop here in Yuma. Martha's Date Farm is where you can go have a tour of the date farm and history. We showed up about 15 minutes before the tour started and it was full. It has a palm tree farm that you drive through so I am hoping that the 1 1/2 hour tour will be worthy. We will go back but for now we tried their much lauded date milk shake--very good.

The date shake was really good

Martha's Date Farm

 Lettuce is the main use of the farmland and the different green fields between romaine, iceberg, kale, spinach etc., are very picturesque. The cost of lettuce in the grocery stores is the same as in Nashville though. Duros are hard apricot colored discs that you pop for a minute into the microwave and they puff out to make for something to eat with dips. NOT tasty but interesting. Peanuts are also a big cash crop and they are tasty.

Dates, Peanuts and Duros (and puffed Duros)
I thought the hard duros were pieces of apricots because they sold in bulk in the fresh produce dept. and told Fitz that in the grocery where a nice man stopped and explained --not worth the calories but different