Fat Cat on Cays Road is showing some of the nicer fall foliage that I’ve seen lately. This is a sweet little store that sells gifts, a little home grown produce, and u-pick flowers. It’s open mostly during the late spring and summer growing months.
Category: Businesses
A very nice facelift
A little over a year and a half ago I posted that the Red Ranch Inn had reopened after closing sometime in 2011. Since then there’s been steady work to breathe new life into these lodgings. It’s looking good. Take a look here at what it looked like last year and see if you don’t agree. It’s now called the Olympic View Inn.
Window gazing
Seems like I often spend time wandering around or waiting for my husband at the Northwest Maritime Center. On this particular day I enjoyed reflections in the window of the chandlery, a source of high quality marine supplies.
The pulp mill
It’s nestled off the main road into town, but you can see the Port Townsend Paper Corporation facility from Old Fort Townsend State Park. After Port Townsend’s economic boom and bust cycles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the mill’s arrival saved the local economy and provided needed jobs. This facility produces kraft and containerboard papers. I know there are scrubbers and various controls to protect the environment, but sometimes you can really smell this place as you drive by, as we did just yesterday. If you’ve never smelled a pulp mill, count yourself lucky.
Sequim Senior Center
The Sequim Senior Center is a buzz of activity. I found my way there a month or two ago when I had call to meet with a volunteer to untangle some healthcare insurance mysteries. While there I explored a little and discovered that in addition to exercise classes, art and games such as bridge, bingo, and pinochle they also offer tours. The Center offers daylong bus tours to scenic areas like Snoqualmie Falls, to sporting events, and even some of the larger shopping centers around Puget Sound.
A local benefactor has generously donated money and property to build a new senior center, first to purchase and initial 4.5 acres of land. Then he donated a coin collection and more recently gifted to the Center a mobile home community that he owned. Income from R. Leo Shipley’s donated business will benefit the Senior Center’s capital campaign.
The Farmer’s Market
Summer months bring out the Sequim Farmer’s Market, an event held on Saturday’s downtown.
I was truly spoiled by farmer’s markets in California. Bigger metropolitan areas create a worthwhile demand for producers to truck their goods to these markets and California’s long growing season favors production. It’s not so bountiful and diverse in Sequim’s little corner of the world. Our local organic producer, Nash Huber, is the market’s “anchor” producer. There doesn’t seem to be too much other fresh produce at the market. Which isn’t to say it’s not available around here. It simply doesn’t make it to the Farmer’s Market.
I’ve read that the market is working to broaden their offerings and I know it’s not an easy proposition for a producer to spend a day sitting as a vendor at the market. In the meantime, there are plenty of tempting crafts and goodies to keep people coming back.
They’ve got to be kidding!
I found this display at Costco last week. If you don’t have a calendar in front of you, that was the first week of September. Ridiculous? Annoying? A little of each, I think.