Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
Workers were busy harvesting lavender at Graysmarsh Farm this week. Soon bundles will scent cars and luggage as our visitors head home after this weekend’s Lavender Festival. Some farms pre-pick bundles for lavender lovers and some are harvesting the herb to dry or distill it for lotions, soaps and essential oil.
Professionals harvest and shape the bushes at the same time.
These bundles were waiting at Jardin du Soleil last week. Lavender bouquets typically run $5 to $6.
It’s Independence Day in the U.S. It’s traditionally a time for flag-flying, barbecues, and fireworks.
In thinking about this holiday I particularly like this quote from American humorist Erma Brombeck:
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”
Amen! Happy 4th to my fellow patriots.
Today is a federal holiday in Canada, Victoria Day. Since Victoria, B.C. is Sequim’s nearest large city neighbor I thought I’d share a statue of a young Queen Victoria herself, found – where else? – in Victoria, B.C. Happy Victoria Day, Canadians!
Click here for more information about Victoria Day.
This weekend is our 120th annual Irrigation Festival which celebrates the irrigation that made agriculture viable on the Sequim prairie. And, like any other respectable community festival, we have royalty and a parade. The parade is today. The royal court, selected a few months back, frequents many community events during their reign. And, as befits a queen and her princesses, ours make their public appearances in gowns and tiaras.
They readily pose for photographs, in this case about 10 feet down the sidewalk from the previous portrait…giving me an opportunity to shoot them both coming and going.
I know I’m very lucky. I have a lot to be thankful for and I do my best to remember that daily. I hope you too are blessed.
It’s Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. today and I wish a happy one to you who are celebrating this holiday. And a good day, too, to you who aren’t.
I find this time of year hard. In the U.S. it’s the Food Season. Our Thanksgiving is Thursday so, of course, everyone’s favorite foods are front and center most anywhere food’s on display. And stay out of any kind of waiting room. Magazines pick up the slack and up the ante with slick shots of foods no self-respecting cook can resist. But Thanksgiving’s just the kick-off for further temptations, binges, snacks, little “extras,” and the only-at-this-time-of-year noshes. If it’s not one thing it’s another. And if you deny yourself one treat there’s a siren call just ahead…compensation for cold-shouldering the eggnog, pumpkin pie, Aunt Mabel’s ambrosia.
An entire wall of chocolate bars? Why not?! Heck, remember? You didn’t buy that 3 lb. box of peppermint chocolate bark yesterday. You’ve got it coming!
Carved a pumpkin yet?