Visitors and Visits

I have no stitching progress for you. I am still struggling to get back into stitching. I did finish one small gift but it is a secret stitch so I cannot show it to you.

I received my Fair and Square exchange from Rowyn yesterday - but - no camera - no photo. Words don't do the package justice so you will have to wait for the photos. I checked today and my camera has not been mailed back yet. Soon, I hope. I am lost without it. I will borrow a camera in the next few days to post.

We have had some visitors the past two weeks from Denver and from Canada. We have done some touristy things so I thought I might share a photo or two from their cameras. Hope you like them.

First stop was Castle Dome Mine Museum - 12 miles down a gravel road, in the midst of the Arizona desert. Here you see the real desert. The mine museum consists of old buildings restored from the early mining days in this area. The saguaro cactus is at least 100 years old.

Next stop, Los Algodones, Mexico. We are 6 miles from the border and we take visitors for shopping, lunch and a margarita. Lots of fun and color.

Here is DH picking broccoli at the University of California Farm Research Centre in El Centro, California - about an hours drive. Here we learned about all the crops grown in the Imperial Valley where we live and how it is all maintained. The state of Arizona grows 80% of the winter lettuce for North America and lots of it is grown right in the area where we live. We grow red and green Romaine, red and green leaf lettuce, iceberg lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, green onions and other crops for your vegetable supplies in the winter months. You would be very surprised how green the desert is here with all the crops.

Our next visit was to the Imperial Date Farm in Bard, California. They grow Medjool dates there and their date milkshakes are over the moon. So, we have to go there. The lift is against the date palm as they are fertilizing the dates and it is all done by hand.

And one last stop. We took our friends out into the desert. During the Second World War, Paton's army trained in the desert. They wrote their names in the desert with stones. Since we do not get weather extremes they still remain. So , we packed up some friends, some (well, tons) of food and wandered into the desert for the day. Everyone cooperated and we got this great picture. This is what retirement is all about.

I hope you enjoyed these.