Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
We came across this whimsical cargo near the Dungeness bluffs one afternoon, a puffin, a chair, and a fountain. The creator, a former Sequim resident, was having a picnic nearby. He was in town to repair one of his local sculptures, the hamburger at Fat Smitty’s Diner in Discovery Bay.
Sure enough, there he was at Smitty’s when we drove by a couple of days later. He also mentioned that he did sculptures at Troll Haven.
The John Wayne Marina is an especially nice place to visit on a sunny day and if you like boats it’s always fun to come and ogle whatever may be berthed there. Occasionally historic ships like the Lady Washington or the Hawaiian Chieftan visit here for a couple of days and welcome visitors aboard.
The marina was constructed on 22 acres of land donated by the John Wayne family. John Wayne frequented the area on his family yacht, the “Wild Goose.” The land was donated in exchange for development rights to an adjacent area.
Upland areas of the marina have benches and picnic tables and a point of land overlooking the bay is occasionally the site of weddings or wedding portraits. The Dockside Grill nearby is a nice destination for a special meal.
The sign to the right is above a supply of donated life vests available for loan to children who don’t have or may have outgrown their life vests.
Views of Mount Baker come and go. It is in the Cascade Mountains to the east of the Olympic Peninsula and is a beautiful sight on a clear day. Sometimes it shimmers off in the distance almost like a mirage and sometimes it looks like passing clouds. Cloud cover here or further east can hide it for days on end.
Labor Day reminds me of all the work that has come to our house from this place, Anjo Soils in Carlsborg. The results have been fine — raised garden and planting beds, mulch, gravel walkways, topsoil — but it’s meant literally tons of effort, most of it by my DIY expert husband.
Anjo is a field of possibilities.
One of the “slow down and listen” sounds of summer is that of the honey bees collecting pollen in gardens and fields. These tiny powerhouse workers pollinate nearly 50 varieties of orchard and field crops, including apples, pears, cherries, peaches, melons, and squash. Each hive collects about 66 lbs. of pollen yearly.
Worker bees, all female, literally work themselves to death during summer, usually in about 6 weeks. Their lifespan is 4 to 6 months in the slower winter season. Though there were native bees in North America when European settlers arrived, they were not nest-builders and makers of honey. So colonists began to import honey bees in the late 1600s.
Honey bees are doing pretty well on the Olympic Peninsula but populations have been decimated in other areas, including just north of us on Vancouver Island, B.C. Mites and disease have taken an alarming toll, threatening crop and honey production.
Beekeeping goes back to the stone age. Cave paintings show honey collection and beekeeping activities.
Summer means lots of good, free outdoor music concerts. The best acoustics yet seem to be at the Sequim Band Shell, aka, James Center for the Performing Arts. Shown here is Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys, a local group we have seen at many venues, indoors and out. Their music is described as a “young band mixing Appalachian folk with a little bit of Beatles and Led Zeppelin” and they are very good musicians. This was a performance at the Sequim Lavender Farm Faire. In addition to music offered at the Lavender Farm Faire and Lavender Festival, the Friends of Sequim Library offer free concerts and other concerts are also held at the Band Shell through the summer months.
Click here for a fuller view of the Band Shell. And click here if you’d like to see Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys on YouTube.
This new drive-through lane was constructed next to the Carlsborg Post Office earlier this year. “Oh, boy! A drive-through drop-off box! Just what we need on a rainy day!”
The contractors came and went. A newspaper stand was installed. The flag waved over the newly-paved drive. But no handy drop box arrived.
When curiosity got the best of us, we finally asked where the drop box was. It seems there was funding for the new driveway but no money for a drop box. Gives new meaning to the term “postage due.”