I’m taking a break but will re-post some favorite shots while I’m gone. We’re approaching lavender season in Sequim and our annual festival is next month. This is one of my favorite lavender farms, Jardin du Soleil.
Category: Local Events
Farmer’s Market season
I’m taking a break but will re-post some favorite shots while I’m gone. It’s Farmer’s Market season. The plaza of our new Civic Center is going to host the Farmer’s Market but I don’t think it’s ready yet.
Sand art, 1 of 2
Local sand sculptor Kali Bradford completed two pieces for our 120th Irrigation Festival recently. The one above is near Adagio Bean and Leaf on East Washington.
This irrigation-themed sculpture is near Lucky Star Consignment on West Washington. Kali colors parts of her sculptures now and adds living flowers. She has found that it enables people to more readily see and recognize her work.
I especially liked the “heart water” detail.
Tomorrow I’ll show you another of Kali’s work as it’s being sculpted.
Local royalty
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.
Inside the new civic center
Though it won’t be open for business until May 18 the community was invited into the new Sequim Civic Center last week for a public open house. After months of watching the building progress it was great to have a walk through to see what’s in store. The photo, above, is of the first floor building lobby not long after the doors were thrown open. Within a couple of hours this area was packed with visitors.
The building feels bright and open…partly because furnishings are still being moved in and assembled. This is the new city council chambers. The dais is populated with computer screens and will have connections for all manner of devices. The rest of the room, so far, is empty.
This is a view from inside the accounting and finance office toward its reception and bill paying area where visitors are standing. Beyond the gathering of people is the reception area for police services. Many areas in the new building have work cubicles assembled and in place. But it looks oh so brand new without chairs and the personality that people bring to a workplace.
The woman in green standing at the door to the right, above, is at an entrance to the new police services area of the building. Visitors were taken on tours of this area. Tomorrow I’ll show you some of what lies behind the scenes in our new police station.
Sequim’s boy in the boat
There’s a best selling book called “The Boys in The Boat” by Daniel James Brown. Here’s a link to a short YouTube video about it. It’s a wonderful book about an improbable group of young men, a crew team from University of Washington, and their quest for gold at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. One of the team, Joe Rantz, came from Sequim (shown in the video and described as a “small dusty town”). Our local Museum and Arts Center (MAC) currently has an exhibit on “The Boys in the Boat,” including a smaller version of their rowing shell and memorabilia contributed by Joe Rantz’s family. The shell, Working Girl, designed and built by George Yeoman Pocock, is shown above.
Pocock revolutionized rowing shells by fitting together two long, single planks rather than multiple narrow strakes, or planks, creating lighter, more streamlined vessels. Working Girl has four positions; the University of Washington Pocock shell had eight.
In addition to the rowing shell, the exhibit includes copies of some of Rantz’s travel documents and high school keepsakes. My favorite personal item was a postcard Rantz sent his father: “Dear Pa, Here is a view of the finish of the race course where the world championship race takes place next week. By the time you get this I’ll either be chump or champ.”
The MAC is a small museum but it’s got a little bit of everything, including art, an exhibit on the local S’Klallam tribe, information about Sequim’s famous mastodon, and more. Tomorrow I’ll tell you about MAC’s Friday duck celebrity.
The Elegant Flea Market
“The Elegant Flea” was held at the Sequim Prairie Grange last Friday and Saturday. The advertising said merchandise was anything over 50 years old, though the woman selling the dolls above noted that she’d made their clothes. I think she was over 50 years old. I guess that counts.