I’m not around children’s things much. I was taken with all the smiling faces in this display.
I think I’ll visit toy stores and play areas until the U.S. election is over. It’s a much happier world.
Category: Shopping
Lavender time
Today begins Sequim’s annual three day Lavender Festival celebrating all things lavender. Most of our region offers good growing conditions for lavender and local crops range in size from a small backyard bush or two to large farms with hundreds of plants in dozens of varieties.
Most lavender growing operations are open to visitors during the festival and some offer entertainment, food, lavender education, and craft vendors. A downtown street fair fills in any gaps if you want to shop, eat, be entertained, and sniff lavender and lavender products all in one location.
Side note: If anyone’s counting, this marks my 1,750th post on Sequim Daily Photo. Time flies!
Rusting Rooster
The Rusting Rooster opened late last year in downtown Sequim. It certainly looks like a fun shop. It features “upcycled, repurposed, vintage, local art, and cool finds.” Can’t argue with that. At least for now it’s only open on Fridays and Saturdays.
There has been an assortment of businesses at this location. Since I’ve been here there has been an auto repair shop and auto detailing. And through it all the Texaco and the Chevron express lube signs have remained. At least one of the businesses tried to get the Chevron sign removed. After all, Chevron wasn’t there anymore. But Sequim has a sign code that doesn’t permit a sign to be removed if it’s been in place for some measure of time. At least I think that’s what it is. Truthfully, I don’t understand the code. Bottom line: the sign stays, even if Chevron doesn’t.
Paperclip Nirvana
Maybe it’s because of where I’ve lived but there seems to be a shortage of good old fashioned stationery stores these days. Not big box megastores. You know, the kind where you can buy a single roll of scotch tape or mailing envelope and a good quality mechanical pencil. Olympic Stationers in Port Angeles is such a place.
It’s a tossup for me which I love more: a good stationery store or a good hardware store. I can usually look at things in a stationery store and figure out how to use them. That’s not always the case in hardware stores. I’ve always found what I’ve needed at Olympic Stationers. And because they stock so much, including home decor and such, I usually find plenty of other temptations, too.
Sluy’s Bakery
Back in Poulsbo again, here’s Sluy’s Bakery, a Poulsbo institution. Established in 1966 it offers classic sweet pastries, cookies, and breads that keep people coming back for more. Last week its windows were decorated with gingerbread houses made by owners and employees.
Lots of little houses were on display. Look carefully and you can see some of the sweet rolls displayed in the front window.
On my earlier post about Poulsbo on Wednesday a couple of comments expressed curiosity about the attraction of the Pacific Northwest to Scandinavian settlers. Authors Ruth Kirk and Carmela Alexander address this in “Exploring Washington’s Past”: Conditions on the Kitsap Peninsula paralleled Norwegians’ home-country landscape: a long coastline with many harbors where they could pursue fishing; dense timber for logging; and, once the trees were cut, stumpland to transform into farms.
Velkommen to Poulsbo
Poulsbo is a town on the Kitsap Peninsula. It’s about an hour’s drive from Sequim and is notable for it’s quaint downtown. Like much of the Pacific Northwest it was an early destination for Scandinavians and some shops and local events celebrate Poulsbo’s Norwegian heritage.
In the 1880s Poulsbo was 90 percent Norwegian and this was the common language spoken well into the 1920s. A welcome sign coming into town says “Velkommen” and is posted next to a large carved Viking figure. Rosemaling, a painted folk art design, decorates buildings here and there in Poulsbo.
Farmers Market 2
Sequim’s Saturday Farmer’s Market has a selection of many of the sorts of things you’d expect. Local purveyor Nash’s Farm has a front and center presence with fresh produce. And there’s honey, interesting condiments, and, of course, lavender.
Crafts people are well represented. This person makes interesting variations on bird houses: gnome dwellings. Apparently the designer has enough experience with these creatures that s/he issues warnings.
And there are things at the market I can’t say I’ve seen before, such as chainmaille. Is this yet another fashion trend I’ve missed?
These are dog leashes. They are knit and then felted. In addition to being soft they are very strong. They’re on the wish lists of all the stylin’ dogs.