Category: Businesses

The latest obsession

I made a fateful decision one day when I went to Pan d’Amore to pick up a loaf of their seedy bread. I was hungry. They had an innocent, diminutive breadstick that looked like just the ticket. Slightly chewy with a surface covered with crunchy, blistered cheese. It should come with a warning. It’s so totally addictive one makes up excuses to drop by, like an unintended loaf of bread.

Sometime this month they’re moving down Washington Street to the corner at Sequim Avenue. That’s further to go for an impulse. I hope that helps. Otherwise I’m in real trouble.

Bill’s Snow Cones

Last week we camped at a beautiful, historic state park – Fort Flagler, on Marrowstone Island. Surrounded by other campers and a hearty dose of nature, we didn’t expect to encounter this roving van of serendipity as we walked to the beach: Bill’s Snow Cones.

He couldn’t be accused of cutting a low profile amongst the RVs, trailers, and tents.

Bill is a self-appointed snow cone goodwill ambassador. He goes where his mood and his tricked out Volkswagen van take him and he cheers the people he meets, one snow cone at a time. Gratis. Two free cherry snow cones and a raft of snow cone stories later, we walked away happy. Thank you, Bill.

Still wondering

Martha Lane Lavender is a certified organic lavender farm. They offer lavender ice cream, cookies, and lemonade for sale during the Lavender Festival. But, well, this bench caught my eye. And so did the still in the background. I’m sure it’s innocent, just for distilling lavender. But the people in this shot were engaged in such an animated conversation I couldn’t interrupt with questions. And it’s tacky to ask about free samples, isn’t it?

In pursuit of purple

Sequim, the “Lavender Capital of North America,” is celebrating our purpleness this weekend with the annual Lavender Faire and Festival. Our weather has been perfect and the timing is right: the fields are in peak form and they look great.

We had time yesterday to take in just a couple of the many farms that have opened their doors to visitors. My camera favored Oliver’s Lavender Farm, shown here.

Lavender grows well in many areas of Sequim. It likes loose, sandy soil and not too much moisture. Though soils vary throughout this region (my garden is favored with a choice blend of clay and concrete), many places have the “just right” conditions for lavender. Plant it there and watch it take off.

Most of our lavender growers enhance the view with garden features and plantings that would make a brown thumb ache with envy. But it’s also an inspiration to take ideas home.

There are lavender plants virtually everywhere, ready for the home gardener. Or baskets and clippers to pick some fresh to take along. Or bundles of dried lavender. Or any imaginable lavender-based lotion or potion.

A new castle in town

It started out as 12 yards of glacier sand trucked in from Silverdale on June 7th, poured into an empty lot next to Adagio Bean and Leaf Coffeehouse. This is what it looked like as of July 4th, after about 100 person hours of work. The artist is Kali Bradford of Sequim, who has been constructing it in anticipation of the Lavender Faire and Festival. As you can see, it’s quite detailed.

Bradford has sculpted in sand competitions around the world and intends to finish on July 17th, by which time another estimated 100 person hours will have gone into in the work. To prevent erosion, the piece is sprayed with nine parts of water to one part of white glue. Though one would think rain would melt it, water runs through, packing more tightly the flat surfaces of the sand granules. Bradford suggests that the piece could last until the weather freezes.