Notes From All Over -- March 23, 2021

New home sales, February, 2021: sounds very similar to "existing home sales," February, 2021 --- sales fall but still remain higher than a year ago. Link here. Some numbers rounded.

• fell 18% month-over-month;
• seasonally adjusted 775,000 sales;
• 8% higher than one year ago, February, 2020;
• January, 2021, figures revised upward to 948,000 from earlier estimate of 923,000
• average sales price: $416,000, up from $408,400 a month earlier
• inventories remain tight: a 4.8 month supply

Existing home sales, re-posting:

• existing home sales dropped 7% month-over-month (Feb/Jan, 2021)
• sales were still 9% higher than a year ago
• prices for existing homes, 16% higher

Yemen's liquid gold: our oldest granddaughter very much enjoyed the history of honey; that's what mae this article so interesting. Link here.

According to the Qur’an a lone sidr tree, or jujube, marks the highest boundary of heaven. On earth, amid the harshness of the Yemeni desert, the sweetness of sidr honey is cherished as a symbol of perseverance. 

Yemen has long been renowned for producing some of the best honey in the world, often compared to Mānuka honey from New Zealand. Some of the highest quality, and purest, comes from bees fed exclusively on the flowers of the sidr, producing a pale coloured honey with a fiery, almost bitter aftertaste. 

While the war has made travel difficult, closing off many roads, for traditional beekeepers life is much the same: they are some of the only people in Yemen who can traverse frontlines with ease, moving around every few months in search of flowers for their bees.

Number one producer of honey in the US? North Dakota. No fiery, bitter aftertaste.