Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
One last look at 2012 before I launch into the new year: Sequim’s Yarn Bombing in June. These knitted bits on the streets of Sequim tickled my sense of whimsy. They disappeared in days, but were a bright spot while they were here. Really, guerrilla knitters? Love it!
Our annual Lavender Faire and Festival is always a treat. This little munchkin was dressed to charm and had a terrific time cutting lavender with her mother.
The first ever Sequim Balloon Festival in 2012 was a real treat. Our landscape is a beautiful to begin with, but adding in the color and whimsy of hot air balloons is a real bonus.
Happy new year! Here we are in 2013 and 2012 is now a memory. That was quick!
I’m going to take a look back at 2012 for a few days and post some of my favorites in no particular order.
This is a shot from the Clallam County Rodeo last summer. The fellow in the middle was finishing his ride on the bucking bronco and looked like he was sharing a laugh with the two cowboys who were helping him off his mount. I love the lines and power of the horses and the action of the shot.
Last weekend was the 36th annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Dear husband had a spare ticket yesterday and I got to tag along. . .and, frankly, drool.
Ordinarily there are a lot of lovely boats berthed at Port Hudson, the marina adjacent to the Port Townsend Maritime Center. It’s a fine spot to walk, look, and dream. The Wooden Boat Festival raises the stakes in a celebration of all things boat. Boats come from near and far. Yachts and fine sailing and rowing boats. Boats you’ve seen in magazines, whose lines you’ve memorized, whose names you probably know if your dreams run to salt water. They’re here and often granting permission to come aboard.
In addition to the see-and-be-seen festival boats, there are dozens of presentations on boatbuilding, boating adventures, tools, and techniques. I sat in on a great interactive session on small craft seamanship skills moderated by Howard Rice, a sailor who, among other things, soloed Cape Horn in a 15′ sailing canoe. Yes, the Cape Horn.
The harbor was packed with beautiful boats, most of which would be singularly fine in a photo, and the festival was crowded with happy boat lovers.
My husband has lived and worked aboard boats and ships of varying sizes, from an aircraft carrier down to more modest fishing boat sizes. He has longed to build a small boat for himself and at last now has shop space sufficent to do this. Yesterday he bought the plans. I’ll introduce you to the vessel later this week. Stay tuned!
As summer winds down it’s been great fun having our skies brightened by hot air balloons from the Sequim Balloon Festival. Judging from the turnout by the sides of the roads as they launched early in the mornings, there’s been a lot of interest in this new event. I have loved this eye candy and am grateful to have this event in our collective backyard.
Here are random views from our skies this past weekend.
The Peninsula Daily News reported this week that the bee balloons would fly during the Sequim Balloon Festival this weekend. They sounded very cute – and they didn’t disappoint.
Up they came, then they hovered for a while down behind some trees. Then came the fleeting embrace.
Here’s a closer view. The three bees and three or four other balloons landed in a field next to where we’d stopped. Most were balloons we hadn’t see in flight earlier this week and the balloonist we asked mentioned they came down because the spot looked very convenient. The flights seemed short to us; the landing site was only about a mile from their launch site at Sequim Airport. And most of the balloons we saw landed without benefit of a chase crew.
Come back tomorrow if you’re not oversaturated with balloon photos. I’ll post photos of a few of the more conventional – but nonetheless striking – ones.