Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
We saw Bruce Coughlan, above, twice at the Juan de Fuca Festival. First he played and sang as the duo of Whiskey Minstrels, then with Tiller’s Folly. Coughlan is a longtime songwriter and musician from Canada.
Nolan Murray performed twice with Coughlan. An award winning fiddler, he easily moved from fiddle to mandolin to mandocaster. I love mandolin and Murray was effortlessly brilliant.
Canadian Laurence Knight joined Coughlan and Murray as bassist and vocalist of Tiller’s Folly.
When I said yesterday that the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts draws performers from far and wide I wasn’t exaggerating. One of the groups we saw perform twice on Saturday, All Our Exes Live in Texas, hails from Australia.
The singer-songwriter group has won the ARIA, Australia’s Grammy, for best roots/blues album of the year. They came to the festival in Port Angeles as part of a world tour.
Halie Loren, above, is based in Oregon and has also toured internationally. Her rich, bluesy voice was perfect for her set which included an unexpected version of the 1967 hit, “Ode to Billie Joe,” best I’ve ever heard. And she set a fresh new standard with many of her other songs. Top notch.
Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. It’s a time to remember and appreciate our veterans who gave their all. These service men and women have always made America great.
We’re spending the weekend immersed in live music and performance at the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts in Port Angeles. It’s a four day lineup of talent from near and far, and an opportunity to be saturated with awesomeness.
Chris Swenson was a highlight of our first day. He calls his work “human jazz,” a description that barely scratches the surface of voice/song, movement/dance, and performance that defies easy characterization. Check out his website to get a better idea and see him in action.
The program reads, in part, “His work is unique in its cross-cultural synthesis of theater, dance and music and its willingness to unbridle the imagination.”
The festival is a family event with a street fair and free outside entertainment. As the day progressed, kids joined the fun and danced joyfully around the periphery of the main stage.
You can get ice cream in Sequim, sort of. But there wasn’t a dedicated venue, at least not one I’d ever found. Until Sweet Spot opened last week, though it isn’t ice cream. It’s frozen yogurt. Even better. More calcium. Less butter fat. Or so I’m told.
Enter this colorful space. Take a cup. Choose your yogurt and fill the cup. Add toppings. Weigh and pay. In the middle of the afternoon yesterday there were about a dozen of us there. I guess the word’s out.
There’s a place like this in Silverdale, an hour away, so I though I was safe from temptation. This one is in the Sequim J.C. Penney shopping center. Sunny Farms Supplements on one side, Strong Points Fitness on the other. No doubt about it. I’m doomed.
I know. I know. We’re not getting snow. The temperature is well above freezing. Compared to s-o-o-o many other places we have nothing to complain about. So I won’t. I’ll just wish we had some occasional blue skies.
The bluff at Port Williams is always an interesting spot to visit. A geologist could tell you much of our ancient history from the bands of soils that pile up here. As I’ve mentioned before, bones of woolly mammoths have been found in these eroded bluff materials.
In the course of last week’s public meeting on the Dungeness Recreation Area Master Plan update, a member of the community spoke. Rather than siting the proposed 45 recreational vehicle campsites in the park’s forested area, he suggested an area not far from the park entrance, to the east of where a new entrance kiosk is planned.
The area is on a rise above the road and has a large, open field. The views are wonderful. Park planners may or may not consider this option. They are quite far along in their process. But many people attending the meeting favored this idea.
Many locals have not been aware of the Master Plan Update. I have focused my blog on it this week in hopes of informing more local park users of this process. The comment period on the Master Plan Update has been extended to March 23. Click here for more information on the Plan and how to comment.
This is my last post on the Master Plan update. I hope you will further inform yourself on the Plan and comment. But don’t procrastinate. The comment period closes next Friday.
To my blog followers from out of the area, I’ll be back to my briefer posts tomorrow.