Living on the Peninsula

SUMMER 2008

FESTIVALS & FAIRS: Pg.13 3

Pg.38 38

A day at the County Fair Faces in the sand Arts In Action Festival

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Arts & artisans in celebration Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts

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Pg.60 60

Weekends of festival fun on the West End Marking a musical anniversary Olympic Music Festival

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A lust for lavender

Sequim Lavender Festival LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

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13 23

DEPARTMENTS 36 47

Recreation 9 Summer Any day on a kayak is a good day Food & Spirits 20 Fo Cheese from our backyard Che

34 Fam Family Relations

Heart & Soul He

36 Thrillers, fillers and spillers

Good Gardening Go

New Life 57 Your The well-being of our

SPOTLIGHT 13 A day at the County Fair

that make 43 Things you go vroom Chimacum High School’s Lyza Wills restores a lawnmower for Hadlock Days

van Dijk’s 16 Gerda passion is turning of her own 23 AKaciboat Cronkhite pours her heart and soul into a 28-foot Danish Spidsgatter

28 Jack of all arts

communities

Russia with Love 47 From Profile of artist Marina Shipova of festival 52 Weekends fun on the West End

38 Faces in the sand

a musical anniversary 60 Marking Olympic Music Festival

& artisans 40 Arts in celebration

64 A lust for lavender

Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts

69 Reluctant Renaissance woman

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Pathways 62 Peninsula Finding peace on Miller Peninsula

72 Events Calendar Living End 74 The Peninsula festivals & Then 76 Now Photographic journal

40 64 On the cover: Between June 30-July 2 seafaring aficionados can see the Lady Washington during the Tall Ships Challenge on its way from Port Angeles to Tacoma. The state’s official tall ship, the 112-foot Lady Washington is a full-scale reproduction of the original built in the 1750s as a freight carrier.

The sloop was converted into a brig in the 1780s.

The Lady Washington is a favorite at Port Townsend’s annual Wooden Boat Festival during the first Cover photo by Jay Cline weekend in September.

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Contributors!COLUMNISTS

Beverly Hoffman Beverly Hoffman writes a gardening column for the Sequim Gazette that appears the first Wednesday of each month. She is an enthusiastic longtime gardener and she can be reached via e-mail at columnists@ sequimgazette.com.

Patricia Morrison Coate Patricia Morrison Coate is the award-winning editor of Living on the Peninsula magazine. She has been a journalist since 1989 and earned degrees in Spanish from Eastern Michigan University and Indiana University. Coate joined the Sequim Gazette in 2004 as its special sections editor and can be reached at patc@sequimgazette.com.

Chris Cook Chris Cook is the editor and publisher of the Forks Forum and a resident of Forks. He is the former editor of The Garden Island newspaper in Kauai, Hawaii, and the author of “The Kauai Movie Book” and other regional bestsellers in Hawaii. Cook is a graduate of the University of Hawaii and a veteran surfer who is attempting to adapt to the cold water waves of the Olympic Peninsula.

Louis Howard Louis Howard is a graduate in economics from the University of California-Berkeley. From there, he spent 35 years in business as a corporate executive and investment banker. After retirement in 1994, he began freelancing for newspapers and writing short stories. He is a published short story author and, including his current column for the Sequim Gazette, a veteran of more than 200 columns and feature articles.

Jerry Kraft Jerry Kraft is a playwright, poet and theater critic. His poetry collection, “Rapids,” was published in 2004. He reviews Seattle theater productions for SeattleActor.com and the national theater Web site AisleSay.com. In addition to his writing and photography, he teaches memoir writing at the YMCA in Port Angeles where he lives with his wife, Bridgett Bell Kraft, and their daughters, McKenna and Luxie.

Michael Dashiell Michael Dashiell is sports editor for the Sequim Gazette. A graduate of Western Washington University’s journalism program, Dashiell has won numerous regional awards for photography and sportswriting, including Washington Newspaper Publisher Association’s 2006 Sports Portfolio award. Dashiell can be reached at miked@ sequimgazette.com.

Karen Frank Karen Frank received her master’s degree in transforming spirituality from Seattle University. She is a writer and spiritual director in Port Townsend. Reach her at kdf1404@olypen.com or www. yourlifeassacredstory.org.

David Godfrey David Godfrey, of Port Angeles, has been an amateur photographer for nine years and says his favorite moments are spent in nature.

He particularly likes to photograph flowers and waterscapes. “My goal with all my photographs is to elicit an emotional response,” Godfrey said.

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Blythe Lawrence Blythe Lawrence is a reporter and photographer with The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader. She holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and history from the University of Washington in Seattle and can be reached at blawrence@ptleader.com.

Ruth Marcus Ruth Marcus, M.A., Ph.D., has a private counseling practice in Sequim.

Visit www.wideawakepublishing.com to view her book, “Inspiration.”

Her Sequim Gazette column appears the third Wednesday of each month. She can be reached at 360-681-2205 or via e-mail at rmarcus@ olypen.com.

Kelly McKillip Kelly McKillip always has loved writing and the arts and recently has forayed into combining the two in freelance articles. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Marylhurst College in Marylhurst, Ore., and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Hayward State University in California. She works as a nurse at Olympic Medical Center. She also volunteers at The Dungeness Valley Health and Wellness Clinic and for The North Olympic Library System Outreach Program.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Fred Obee Fred Obee is a longtime Pacific Northwest journalist. He graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham with a degree in journalism and has edited weekly, twice-weekly and daily newspapers from Puget Sound to Northern California. Currently he is the general manager of the Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader and can be reached at fobee@ptleader.com.

Rebecca Redshaw After receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Duquesne University, Rebecca Redshaw worked in the film industry in Los Angeles for 20 years before moving to the peninsula and pursuing writing fulltime. Her nonfiction has been published in national publications.

An adaptation of her novella, “Dear Jennifer,” was produced as well as her play, “Hennessey Street.” Redshaw is the Arts & Entertainment critic for www.NotesFromHollywood.com.

Design Melanie Reed Melanie Reed is the award-winning head designer for Living on the Peninsula. She has been a graphic designer for the Sequim Gazette since May 2004. She has a bachelor’s degree in drawing from Western Washington University. Reed can be reached at production@sequimgazette.com.

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226 Adams St. Port Townsend, WA 98368 360-385-2900 Fred Obee fobee@ptleader.com

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Summer RECREATION

ANY DAY on a kayak is a

GOOD DAY S t o ry

by

M I C H A E L

D A S H I E L L

F Above: Keeping up with the guide is easy when you’ve got the tide and wind at your back … and the guide isn’t paddling.

Top right: No matter how tranquil Washington’s waterways look, kayakers always should be prepared with plenty of water, communication equipment and safety devices. Photos by Michael Dashiell

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

For me, the hardest part about kayaking isn’t technique — since I don’t have any — nor is it expense — since I don’t own a kayak, I paddle so rarely and I either rent a boat or claim a need to do an “investigative story,” then slap the bill on my expense account.

No, the hardest part for me is finding time to get out there in my modestly busy world.

Ah, but once I’ve splashed in, it’s heaven.

Late this spring, I thought I’d get out of the calm lakes and gurgling streams of the peninsula and hit the saltwater, where waves and currents pose a little more of a challenge, where whitecaps threaten to capsize me and hurl my watercraft against the rocks …

Actually, I was hoping for a calm cruise around placid Freshwater Bay’s coves, to gaze through limpid pools of seawater to view the shore’s menagerie.

I got more of the former.

My travels began with my guide Mark Palmer, of Adventures Through Kayaking (Port Angeles), and a fellow paddler named Maureen, also from Sequim.

Maureen was taking a demo kayak out and Mark was earning a wage, and I, well, I wanted out of the office. This is as good an avenue as any.

As good traveling companions, we chatted it up pre-excursion about previous kayaking experiences. What I didn’t tell them was that I had broken

9

Summer RECREATION

my hand in January and figured this would be a good test for my recently healed appendage.

After a quick lesson of kayak how-tos and never-dos, we dipped in at Freshwater Bay’s main launch. The sky was a rather mixed bag of clouds

thing? Where’s the fresh water? Mark guessed Above: Wildlife abounds in that it was because the emptying of the nearby Freshwater Bay’s tide pools, including this kelp crab.

Elwha River fed some fresh water to the bay.

I later found that Spanish explorer Gonzalo Photo by Patsene Dashiell López de Haro named the bay “Ensenada de Left: Water splashes Dávila” in 1790 and later Peruvian-born Span- Bachelor’s Rock near ish explorer Manuel Quimper Benítez del Pino Freshwater Bay. stopped near there for a supply of fresh water. By Photo by Michael Dashiell 1846, British Admiralty charts listed the area as “Freshwater Bay.” (Thanks to historian June Robinson and Kathy Monds at the Clallam County Historical Society.)

And while we saw a few cormorants basking in a sliver of sunlight, the chop on Freshwater Bay was keeping the wildlife from surfacing. In crisper, calmer waters, Mark said, the bay is home to a number of critters, from river otters and orcas to harbor seals, dolphins, whales and a multitude of birds.

Back on land, Freshwater Bay County Park spans 17-and-a-half acres

In calmer waters, Mark said, the bay is home to a number of critters, from river otters and orcas to harbor seals, dolphins and whales. and something that appeared to be sunlight. I’m not sure; I hadn’t seen sunlight in months.

Anyhow, by the time we reached the bay’s opening to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we figured this might not be the best day to tour the coves, with small-but-serious, rolling waves undulating toward us.

Mark suggested we slip between some rock outcroppings through a small eddy between the bay and Bachelor’s Rock. We all made it through the chop without rolling and it was particularly easy for me, with my Cadillacsize Riot kayak gliding through.

We traversed the strait parallel to the bay’s coves, watching waves form 1- and 2-foot swells that abruptly dashed against the sea walls.

As we paddled, I got to thinking: What’s up with this Freshwater Bay

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that includes a five-acre picnic area on a bluff rising above the bay itself.

While some of the park is closed for the winter and early spring months, the park opens an upper picnic area and restrooms May through September. So if the kayaking gets too rough for your tastes, the bay offers a break.

Still, for me, any day on a kayak for any amount of time is a good day.

The hardest part about kayaking, Mark warned — and I’m going to trust a guide, not my own intuition — is knowing when to turn back. Our trip was, after all, just eight months removed from a Seattle kayaker’s death near Port Townsend.

Better to kayak another day, Mark surmised, and Maureen and I agreed.

The shellfish and invertebrates in the coves could have their privacy … for now.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Summer RECREATION Left: Mark Palmer, our Adventures Through Kayaking guide, tries to find a way to navigate through some rocks near Freshwater Bay. Photo by Michael Dashiell

Pages for paddlers Always seeking to educate the outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen of the Northwest,The Mountaineers Books group has a new publication with kayakers and canoe users in mind.

“Paddling Washington: Flatwater and Whitewater Routes in Washington State and the Inland Northwest” is available now through The Mountaineers Books Web site at: www. mountaineersbooks.org.

With details of 112 routes in rivers, streams, lakes and bays in Washington and beyond, this 380-page-plus manual is a good starter guide for paddlers seeking some adventure without going too far from home.

The book is a compilation of the best of three previous publications: “Paddle Routes of the Inland Northwest,” “Paddle Routes of Western Washington” and “Washington Whitewater.” It includes maps, safety tips, equipment requirements and route comparison charts.

Designed to be a comprehensive guide for paddlers of all skill levels, “Paddling Washington” not only details routes but also tries to help readers choose suitable water trails for their needs and skill levels.

Olympic Peninsula paddlers get some local know-how with four pages of Strait of Juan de Fuca information, including more than a dozen of the strait’s dipping-in points from Neah Bay to southeast of Port Townsend.

The book also has detailed passages with the Elwha and Sol Duc rivers.

But the book’s strength lies in the inland routes, giving paddlers overviews of such destinations as the Yakima River Canyon, Horseshoe Lake, the Washington-Oregon Grande Ronde River and the Nooksack River.

Four paddling guides — Verne Huser, Doug North, Dan Hansen and Rich Landers — put the book together.

The paperback includes 105 maps and illustrations and 120 photographs.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Above: Pricklebacks (middle picture) and starfish are among the dozens of species of wildlife at Freshwater Bay’s 1,400 feet of public tidelands.

Photos by Patsene Dashiell

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

STORY & PHOTOS

BY JERRY KRAFT

E

A

AT T Y A D H

FAIR day at the Clallam County Fair is almost the definition of a perfect family event, a celebration of traditions and local history with attractions for all ages. During its four-day run every year (this year it’s Aug. 14-17) the fair draws upward of 30,000 people to the beautiful barns and arenas and grounds just outside Port Angeles, near the airport.

This year’s theme is “Encore PerFARMance.” One of the oldest and most historical county fairs in Washington, it has been celebrated continuously since 1895. That continuity between the local occupations of years gone by and the lifestyles of contemporary people is one of the signature appeals of the Clallam County Fair.

“A county fair helps keep us tied to our roots,” said Kathy Roemer, manager of the Clallam County Fair. “In this county our history is farming, ranching and logging. As the world heads toward more high-tech, I think it’s important to stay connected with these earlier professions. We have a rodeo and a logging show and our animal barns, filled with animals raised by a new generation of kids, are always among the most popular attractions. The displays of locally grown produce and handmade arts and crafts are at the heart of our fair.”

That certainty about why the fair exists is one reason why it has been so successful and so highly regarded. “We are consistently rated as one of the top 10 fairs in the state,” Roemer said. “That’s deterTop: All year the eager members of mined by the Washington State Fairs 4-H clubs around the county work Association and it’s based on the number toward showing their animals at and quality of our exhibits — things like the fair. how many fruits and vegetables, how Middle: Loggers compete in dis- many bales of hay, how many cows in the plays of the skill and hard work that cow barn, how many different classes are make up work in the forest. the kids showing their animals in.”

Roemer credits the success of that Bottom: The many kinds of food available at the fair may not be element of the fair on the superior work the most health conscious diet choices, but they are delicious done year-round by the local 4-H and and sinfully satisfying, perfect for FFA groups. “At a time when Future a festival lunch.

Farmers of America groups are

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

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struggling all around the state, our programs in Clallam County are thriving. Derrell Sharp, who teaches ag and horticulture at Sequim High School, as well as leading the FFA program, has done a terrific job. And Gena Royal with Clallam County 4-H just won a national award for her work.”

Having youths raisingg animals throughout the year makes the exhibits at thee fair that much more important and special.

Many will say their whole year is focused on gettingg their animals ready for thee fair. Walking through thee display barns and watch-ing youths lavishing lovee and attention on a lambb ly or sheep or rabbit is deeply ay, rewarding. In the same way, tiseeing the rows of beautind fully canned fruits and wer vegetables, artistic flower ade arrangements or handmade ple quilts all connect people nal to a time when personal creativity and skill took the ing. place of retail manufacturing. lam Literally hundreds of Clallam residents participate in the organizations and groups that create all of this.

“The county fair is truly vent,” a community-based event,” ot of Roemer said, “I get a lot feedback throughout thee year on what people like, whatt they want and how we can better munity. connect with the community.

We’re always open to new ideas about how to improve our us We want to put on fair, so we listen to what people tell us. the fair that they want to come to.”

So what would a typical day at the fair be like for a typical family? “The gates open at 10 in the morning,” Roemer said, “And we encourage people to come (early) and take in the whole day. We have entertainment scheduled from 10:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. There’s always some sort of performance going on. So first the family might want to go to one of the animal displays, floral displays or home arts displays.

That’s probably the first thing that everyone wants to see at the fair. Then they might want to go to the food area and have a nice lunch. We have over 25 food vendors offering everything from corn on the cob, baked potatoes with toppings, elephant ears and the ever-popular homemade scones to various foods from around the state. Whether their taste runs to barbecue or Indian tacos, there will be many tasty choices.”

After lunch the family (especially the children) may want to spend time on the carnival rides. They are operated by Haworth Family Shows Carnival Company and they offer about 25 different rides for all ages, as well as

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game booths. After that, the family may want to see one of the stadium shows, like the Logging Show at noon on Saturday, Aug. 16, or the Draft Horse/Mule Team Demonstration at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14. On Friday night there is Motorcycle/BMX stunt show and on Saturday at 5 p.m. is the rodeo, and then more rod rodeo at Sun noon on Sunday, Aug. 17.

One very popular event at the fair is the Demolition Derby which is operated by Derby, a separate organization and charges a separate admission but draws many fans from fair attendees. “People just love to watch those cars race and crash into each other,” Roemer said, “and a

booking and each year goes to the Washington Fairs Convention to see the performers and bring the best of them to the Clallam County Fair. Likewise, the rodeo animals are contracted through a stock contractor and the Northwest Professional Rodeo Association signs up the cowboys. Rodeo events include bull riding, steer wrestling, calf roping, bareback and saddle-bronc riding. It’s an exciting show and all part of the single price fair admission.

“We’ve tried very hard to keep our admission price low so that families can afford to come,” Roemer said, “and I think this is a tremendous entertainment Far left: Th The animal displays ar are always the value.” It is certainly that, but it’s also uniquely most popular popu attraction genuine and true to its own history and the hisat the fair and perhaps tory of the area. This is a county fair with a comthe most direct d mitment to stay grounded, literally. link to the county’s agricultural agricultur past.

“We work very hard to keep this from becoming a big cement fair, as many in urban areas have Left: Equestrians Eque of become. When you walk onto our grounds you all ages show s off see real grass beneath your feet, well-maintained their skill skil during the fair, which whic includes buildings, smiling, happy children and the aniboth horse hor showing mals they’ve raised and are showing with pride, and rodeo rode events. just as they have year after year since 1895. This fa really belongs to fair C Clallam County and C Clallam County is what m makes it continue. We ar a big part of this are co community and this co community is the backbo of our fair.” bone That community al is represented by also th hundreds of volunthe te teers and participants w make the fair hapwho pe each year. In addipen ti to them, 15 indition vi viduals also comprise th fair board, which the m meets every month th throughout the year to su sustain and improve the ev and the grounds. event A of course, the most And, im important supporters ar the thousands who are co each year to enjoy come

number of local groups and organizations sponsor cars.”

Throughout the day there are performances on the several stages at the fair. All manner of musical performance, jugglers, magicians, hypnotists and variety acts contribute to the entertainment. Roemer is responsible for the talent

the displays, take part in the festivities, eat the food, listen to the music and watch the loggers, cowboys and farmers exhibit the skills that have made their livelihood and built the history of Clallam County. It’s their fair that we attend and our fair that they create.

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15

Gerda van Dijk’s

PASSION is

eople in the Northwest walk in the woods all the time. Gerda van Dijk is a lathe turner and when she walks in the woods, she sees beyond broken branches and fallen limbs. As a lathe turner, she sees into the wood and envisions a work of art.

Living in Sequim the past seven years, van Dijk has had plenty of opportunity to find “supplies” for her shop. She recommends following the utilities trucks as they trim trees for power lines or climbing over a few fences.

“When I see a piece of wood, I envision it.

I let the wood talk to me and tell me what’s inside. Once I find a piece, I’ll look at the wood for the longest time before I start turning. It could sit anywhere from weeks to months.

One piece has been sitting on my front porch for a month and I probably won’t get to it for another few months.”

Top left: A Tagua nut from Brazil and two If a path in miniature vases. the woods ofTop right: Gerda van Dijk’s fers artistic posstudio benefits from lots sibilities for her of natural sunlight. lathe, the path

P

Above: Hurricane lamp and vases. “When I make a vase I only drill the hole large enough for the flower stem because I like the weight of the wood. They’re called ‘weed’ pots because you fill them with whatever you can find outside, but you don’t add water.”

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of van Dijk’s life to becoming an awardwinning turner proves equally fascinating.

Born in the Netherlands, her family immigrated to the United States in 1960. Her father was Dutch and her mother Indonesian and during World War II both were prisoners of war interned in Indonesia in Japanese camps. Along with her six brothers and sisters, they eventually moved from Holland and settled in Salt Lake City.

When van Dijk was in the Air Force, she was stationed in Germany for three and a half years and frequently visited her paternal grandfather in Holland. From spending her frequent leaves with him, van Dijk became fluent in Dutch and German and, of course, English.

Returning stateside after her tour of duty, she settled in Texas and, without any previous experience, took a class in woodworking.

“When we got to the lathe I really fell in love with it, so I bought a 6-foot lathe. I played with it a little, but didn’t really have any direction or know what I was doing. One day I read an article in Texas Highways Magazine about the Jim Lee family, woodworkers

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

STORY AND PHOTOS BY REBECCA REDSHAW

TURNING TTURNING G G living in the hill country of Texas. They lived in a town called Reagan Wells — population 15 — no general store, no gas station and no newspaper delivery.”

The Lees had never had an apprentice before and had no facilities to accommodate anyone. After spending two days in the peace and quiet of the hills, van Dijk decided to quit her job, loaded her Volkswagen bus and headed for Reagan Hills.

“That was in 1987. I lived on the land in my bus. I apprenticed for a year and became a “cannoisseur” — trying every canned food known to the world. I bathed in the Frio River at times. The family did boxes, walking sticks, turnings of all kinds. I love what they did because they used raw wood — they went harvesting rather than purchasing the wood — they found mesquite, cedar, wild persimmon (also known as Texas ebony because it’s black on the inside). I didn’t make any money.

Anything I made, they kept, but they taught me everything. When my year was over, I headed to San Antonio.”

Van Dijk started by adding a gallery/workshop to her house and in that first year did 52

shows. During the week she turned 16 to 18 hours a day. She’d leave every Friday night to arrive at the show’s venue by Saturday and set up her work.

“I’ve done shows located in the basement of a Holiday Inn where there were no sales and I’ve done shows at the Westheimer Hotel in Houston. Before I was set up at the Westheimer, a member of the chamber of commerce came by and said, ‘You’ll be sold out by noon.’ And I was.”

The isolated hours of turning are quite a contrast from the bustle of weekend shows.

But it suits van Dijk’s personality and the passion she feels for her work.

“I like both. The interaction you get with the wood is of heart, hand and mind — the making of it. At the shows, the person drawn to a particular piece gets that feeling from you. Each person is different even though you tell the same story about this little piece of wood.”

Van Dijk turned large pieces (platters, bowls, hurricane lamps, boxes), but always had been fascinated with miniatures. A newspaper article about dollhouses caught

LIVINGLIVING ON THEONPENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE| JUNE 2008 2008 THE PENINSULA | SUMMER

the eye of Lauren Corder, van Dijk’s partner, that changed the focus of her work. They went to a miniatures meeting in San Antonio and brought along a cigar box filled with work.

Van Dijk said, “There were about 30 people at the meeting and they said, ‘Let’s dispense with the minutes and look at what van Dijk’s brought.’ The woman on one side said, ‘How much for this vase?’ I’d never priced anything before so I said, ‘I don’t know. Five dollars?’

She smacked me on the arm. And she looked at Lauren and said, ‘How much for this vase?

And Lauren said, ‘I don’t know, $10?’ The woman smacked me again and said, ‘I’ll give you $20 for it.’ I also had a bowl with a lid and chopsticks — all 1-inch scale — and she said, ‘I’ll give you $50 for the set.’ The woman behind me said, ‘I’ll give you $150 for it,’ as she was writing her check.”

That was beginning of Van Dijk Miniatures, van Dijk and Lauren’s business, and over the next 10 years they traveled to miniatures shows throughout the United States. Eventually van Dijk was selected as a Fellow in

Above: Before and the possibility of after — a weed pot Top left: Two boxes with lids and paperweight.

“When I turned the paperweight, it was a rotten piece of wood.

I knew if I turned it any more, it would just destroy it.”

17

Above: Wooly the International Guild of Miniature Artisans, mammoth ivory is Ltd., for her excellence. not endangered and Van Dijk applied her philosophy of turning is the only ivory larger pieces to the miniature world: Anything van Dijk will turn.

you can make large, you can make tiny. Miniature

Above right: Chop comes basically in three scales: 1 inch equals 1 foot, sticks – one-half inch to 1 foot scale one-half inch equals 1 foot and one-quarter inch

equals 1 foot.

Even though she still turns miniatures, sometimes taking special orders from customers who say, “I’m building a Frank Lloyd Wright doll house

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and need furnishings,” she only attends one miniatures show a year, near Salt Lake City to visit her mother. She sells her work locally at the arts and crafts fairs during the holiday season where she is fondly known as the “Acorn Lady” after her unique wooden acorns.

“I’ve decided to go back to bigger pieces which is really what I apprenticed for. I’ll continue to make miniatures — I have two lathes, one specifically set up for miniatures. I’m getting ready to purchase another full lathe. I do have turnings on hand that people can purchase. Sometimes people bring me a piece of wood that is special to them and will want me to turn it. I take commissions, but not special orders.

A special order would be something that “looks like this and this is how I want it.” A commission lets me be creative with wood.”

Van Dijk’s interests now include allowing time in her schedule to teach private students, preferably “one on one” at the student’s home, where he

or she is comfortable. Students need their own lathes and van Dijk is happy to offer advice on equipment.

Debby Borza, a former Sequim resident, studied with van Dijk and had no previous experience working with wood. “The first time I came to Gerda’s studio to watch her turn, I was hooked.

As a teacher, she was so generous and open and enthusiastic! When I started and put a tool to wood, her hand guided my hand ever so slightly.

Now I’m turning my own bowls.”

Van Dijk loves to teach and share the experience she gets from being a lathe turner. She notes most students start white-knuckled holding their tools.

“I teach the process start to finish and students don’t need to have any experience in regards to turning or woodworking. The important thing is to stay relaxed and breathe! Men and women have the skills to do this work — it depends on the person. It’s such a fun experience.”

Finding a piece of wood while strolling in the woods, envisioning what lies within, turning, sanding and sealing are all part of the process.

How does she know when it’s complete?

Van Dijk smiles. “The piece tells you. Whatever you’re turning, the turning tells you.”

To contact Gerda van Dijk, call 360-681-2256.

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Che Above: Will O’Donnell sells his wares at the Farmer’s Market in Port Townsend. The fledgling cheese company is seeing real success and trying to keep up with demand while maintaining a high quality.

Port Townsend Leader photo Top right: Served on a plate with fruit and crackers, Mount Townsend gourmet cheeses make an impressive and easy hors d’oeuvre.

Photo by Fred Obee Below right: The three varieties of Mount Townsend Cheese are Cirrius, Seastack and Trailhead. Made in Port Townsend, the cheeses are winning the hearts and stomachs of gourmets a c ro s s t h e Northwest.

Photo by Fred Obee

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To wn sen d

rd ya

If

t un Mo

By Fred Obee

o u m r o b r ack f e es

you’re looking for a special addition to that cheese plate you put out for relatives or if you simply want to really impress your guests at your next wine tasting, you should reach for a piece of Mount Townsend — cheese that is.

Made in Port Townsend from organic milk from real Olympic Peninsula family-farm cows, Mount Townsend Creamery is winning acclaim across the Northwest.

Mount Townsend produces traditional European-style handmade cheeses in a 50-year-old warehouse that once served as the Department of Licensing. That decidedly unromantic fact, however, hasn’t stopped the creamery’s three founders from creating delicious and stylishly packaged products that will make any cheese lover drool.

The partners, Matt Day, Ryan Trail and Will O’Donnell, launched their enterprise in 2005. All three men are in their early 30s with young families and bring a mix of business, engineering and financial management skills to the enterprise.

O’Donnell worked as an organic farmer, carpenter and cartoonist. Trail was an engineer at New Belgium Brewing Company in Colorado and Day grew up on an old dairy in upstate New York. Their separate skills meshed well, the trio says, and provided a solid footing to launch a new company.

“Our cheeses are inspired by this place,” they say. “Our milk is the direct product of this land we inhabit.”

The creamery uses the best local milk from the North Olympic Peninsula — from small grass-based dairies that use no hormones, antibiotics or chemical fertilizers.

cr itic s

&

FOOD Spirits

Mount Townse end creates three dish t tinct kinds of cheeses: ng i s s Creamery is impre • Cirrus is a smaller and creamier version of the classic Norman camembert. It is ripened four weeks to a soft texture with rich, buttery flavor. Cirrus is best enjoyed within 60 days.

• Trailhead is a medium-hard whole milk cheese that is mellow and rich. Made by hand in 6-pound wheels, it is pressed and brined before being washed in a mixture of saltwater and yeasts for its first two months. After four months it develops a distinctive natural mold rind and its full nutty flavor. At six months Trailhead becomes dryer, with a bit of sharpness.

• Seastack is a mold-ripened, semi-lactic cow’s milk cheese that is the essence of slow food. It requires the best quality milk, the perfect environment and plenty of time. It is coated in vegetable ash and salt before ripening, which gives it a mottled, wild look. It is then ripened for two to three weeks to achieve a silky texture with intricate layers of flavor. Seastack is best enjoyed within 45 days.

Serve with fruit, crackers or wine. It’s an easy and tasty hors d’oeuvre.

Want some wine with that?

Mount Townsend recently participated in an independent wine and cheese tasting where 16 experts gave their opinions on which wines go best with Seastack and Cirrus cheese.

For the Cirrus cheese, the experts recommend sparkling wine, a Pinot Gris or a Cabernet Sauvignon.

For the Seastack, some sparkling wine with fruit aromas and flavors is good, as is a Viognier, Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon.

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Pax boat

Wooden Boat Festival director Kaci Cronkhite has been working aboard Pax, a 1936 Danish Spidsgatter sailboat, at Point Hudson Marina.

Photo by Blythe Lawrence

32nd Annual WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL DIRECTOR KACI CRONKHITE IS POURING HER HEART AND SOUL INTO PAX, A 28-FOOT DANISH SPIDSGATTER

BY BLYTHE LAWRENCE

The

1936 Danish Spidsgatter sailboat was tied up at the northeastern edge of Point Hudson Marina, bobbing slowly up and down. A flaxen-haired woman was moving from one side of the deck to the other, rope and tools in her hands.

It was February and the mastless boat, 28 feet long and curvaceous, had very recently been put back into the water after nearly six months of repairs and restorations. Owner Kaci Cronkhite couldn’t have been happier.

“Best buns in the boatyard,” she joked, indicating the stern, which curves gracefully upward in a wide arc from waterline to deck.

In Latin, “pax” means peace. For Cronkhite, managing director of the expanding Northwest Maritime Center, the boat Pax has redefined peace.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

“Before the boat, peace was a blissful space,” Cronkhite said.

“Now it’s deeper, a more complex sense of satisfaction, trust and gratitude that comes when you let go.”

She bought the boat in late August 2007 from a young artist in Victoria. The day after its arrival in Port Townsend, the boat was put up on dry land for repairs. It was put back into the water in February 2008.

It’s presumable that Cronkhite, director of the Wooden Boat Festival, which attracts hundreds of boats and thousands of potential buyers and onlookers each September, would have owned a bevy of boats in her time.

Not so, said Cronkhite.

“I’ve always been a caretaker, contractor, crew, never the complete owner of a boat, especially a wooden boat,” she said.

That hasn’t stopped her from having an ocean-full of

Sept. 5-7 The premiere wooden boat gathering in North America, Port Townsend’s Wooden Boat Festival also is the most educational and beautifully located wooden boat event in the world. Featuring 200 wooden vessels, a who’s who of wooden boat experts and thousands of wooden boat enthusiasts, there’s something to do, someone to meet or a boat to board at every turn. Expanded a little each year, the festival at Point Hudson Marina, Port Townsend’s waterfront and Port Townsend Bay honors its traditions while inviting energetic debate about the latest innovation. The festival also features workshops, demonstrations, music, crafts, boat rides, children’s activities and food. For more information, see www.woodenboat. org/festival, e-mail info@woodenboat.org or call 360-385-3628.

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experience with them, including sailing from Australia to Hawaii and completing a six-year circumnavigation of the globe that touched more than 20 countries and five continents on a 38-foot cutter rigged sloop called Tethys.

Pax, a demo boat at last year’s festival Boat Yard Stage, is Cronkhite’s latest project, one that’s also employed several local shipwrights and more than a dozen marine trades businesses.

Carol Hasse & Company is making the sails. Alison Wood did Pax’s standing rigging. Taku Marine’s Diana Talley and apprentice Amy Schaub, a graduate of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, replaced planks, sistered ribs and repaired a sawn frame or two. Pete Langley at Port

Unlikely beginning Cronkhite’s childhood was spent on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma and didn’t involve anything nautical until she visited friends in Port Townsend in the spring of 1992. At the time, she was living in Anchorage, Alaska, working as the director of qualitative research for a marketing research company.

It was March, a dismal time of year in Anchorage, and Cronkhite had never been sailing before. Her friends got her out on Port Townsend Bay. “The idea of sailing sounds like freedom,” she said. “It sounded like something that would be physically exhilarating. I had no idea it would take me on the decade of adventure.”

– Kaci Cron nkhite e, dire ectorr, Wo oode en Boatt Fe esttiv vall/o ownerr, Pa ax Townsend Foundry cast a new bronze bow roller. Walt Tisdale modified the fuel tank. Miguel Montoya and Freyja Boatworks built a new cabin sole. Cronkhite herself has been in charge of the mast, engine and electrical work.

“The boat’s quite sweet,” Talley said. “We had some fun, did some steam-bent frames, structural hull work. (Amy) learned a few things and so did I.” In the water, Talley designed and built a new teak and wana cockpit and now is building a new double bulkhead inside.

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The feel of the wind on her face took her back to her childhood on the ranch. Maintaining one’s balance on a boat involves a lot of flexing the knees, which reminded her of horseback riding. In recent research, she’s found that women who enjoy sailing often also like horseback riding or rode horses when they were younger.

That doesn’t mean women are necessarily comfortable on boats. Over the years, Cronkhite has realized that boats are more often the interest of husbands or boyfriends. It’s been changing as more women enter the trades or become co-owners of the boats. Many women who aren’t mechanically

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

oriented are more hesitant to get involved with boating, she said.

“My mechanical skills helped me feel safe, so I didn’t feel some of the fear,” she added.

The day she first went sailing with her friends in Port Townsend, something broke on the boat. Cronkhite was able fix it and it didn’t deter her at all.

“Growing up on a farm, if something broke, you or your neighbors fixed it,” she said. “In that way farm people and boat people are really similar. It’s one of my favorite things about this town — we have both of those things.”

Encouraging women Cronkhite has made getting Pax into shape a community effort, but she also hopes to involve women of all ages — sailors or not — in the project as well. By doing weekend seminars and presentations where she demonstrates the experience and shows her progress in photos, she hopes to get women interested not only in sailing but also in the finer aspects One of the of boatbuilding. experienced crew “What I have always tried to do with at Port Townsend Sails shows boats is make them as accessible as I can to Cronkhite what women,” said Cronkhite, founder of the Inshe’s doing as ternational Women’s Sailing Network. “The she prepares to cut the batten more women who love boating, the better it’ll pockets before be for all of us — especially in this maritime the next phase of community.” stitching.

Submitted photo

By May, the new mainsail handwork

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

25

Follow Pax’ss joourney online

Taku Marine’s Diana Talley custom-designed and built Pax’s new cockpit. Talley has been a Boat Haven shipwright for more than 25 years.

Submitted photo

Live and Play with us... the Port of P.A.

A Vital, Community-minded Organization

was expected to be comPhoto galleries and monthly pleted and the sail installed. postings about Pax’s progress Reefing lines, a sail cover, can be found online at www. new running rigging will concentricom.com. There also be added. Engine, rewiring are details about the boat and and anchor work will be about Kaci Cronkhite’s presendone. A new transmission tations and seminars. Those interested can view the work by lever will be installed and visiting the Port Townsend Sail Pax will get out on Port Loft at Point Hudson Marina.

Townsend Bay for test sails and maneuvering.

The roller-furling jib, varnishing, painted deck and a basic cabin settee will be done before Wooden Boat Festival where the boat will be open to visitors.

Cronkhite is working on a book about it all, to be called “Finding Pax.” A good amount of it will surely take place in Port Townsend.

“It’s where I first went sailing,” Cronkhite said. “It’s where I finished the first open ocean passage. It’s where I finished the circumnavigation in 2001.

“To have a boat here is clearly another chapter.”

You can see Kaci Cronkhite and Pax at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, Sept. 5-7.

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

27

Story and photos

by Louis Howard

People retire to the Olympic Peninsula for many reasons: for the forests, the mountains and the water; to escape the pressure of big cities and enjoy a quiet retirement. ‘I retired here to be a gentleman writer in the hills,’ says multi-talented Jack O’Conner.

That

is barely close. To his own surprise, O’Conner found the Port Townsend art community to be more significant and more to his liking than he had expected. His 11 years here are packed with artistic accomplishments that range from painting to playwriting.

Jack O’Connor was born in Totenville, a town on Staten Island in the Empire State. “My father was brilliant, but uneducated. He made his living as a merchant seaman,” he explains. “My mother was a lifelong primary school teacher. She told me she had played violin when she was young, but I never heard her play.”

The piano was a big part of O’Conner’s maternal grandfather’s life. He was the only family member before O’Conner’s generation known to have artistic abilities. It would have been hard to predict Jack O’Connor’s outburst of talent.

However, inspired by reading authors such as Ray Bradbury, his gift first emerged at 13 when he wrote science fiction. From then on his mantra was, “You can’t keep a writer from writing,” says O’Connor.

Before he finished high school, O’Conner added painting and songwriting to his growing inventory of artistic

28

interests. “I had pictures in my head that I wanted to paint.

But, I wasn’t good.” He wrote country and western songs in order to play with the “stupid” words and ended up liking them. Later, he would write serious music.

Until graduation from high school, O’Conner lived throughout New York City. After that, he would return to the area only briefly. He spent a year at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, then returned home to work for a cosmetics manufacturer. In 1960, he joined the Navy “to acquire a skill.” That skill, electronics, would occupy almost all of his life until retirement.

The Navy first sent him to electronics school for the basics and later for advanced training. While in the service, he showed his first interest in poetry. Beginning with a long poem in Rubaiyat rhyme at a beach party, then followed by writings for his wife, O’Conner eventually would see his poetry published. “I prefer prose, but every once in a while ….”

In 1967, he was discharged and remained in San Diego.

He went to work for the Navy Calibration Laboratory on North Island, beginning a 30-year civilian career in electronics that was interrupted for only four years when

he owned and ran a bar and restaurant. In the Southern California city, he would raise his children, much of the time as a single father, earn a law degree and take up the piano and guitar. O’Conner’s formal training in musical instruments? Four piano lessons. “I can’t read music so I play by ear,” he remarks.

To this day, O’Conner enjoys singing. Both the piano and the guitar melded with his enjoyment of singing. With the guitar, at one time he could sing and play more than 30 folk songs. Although he plays the piano well, he says, “I would like to be able to play all the requested songs for singing.”

Eventually O’Conner tired of San Diego and began looking for a change. He wanted a return to four seasons.

He searched for a place to which his then-employer, Fleet Technical Service Center Pacific, might transfer him. At various times, he had worked on ships in the Puget Sound area. “I thought about our new Everett field office.” A look at a satellite photo told him where he wanted to go. “Everything on the east side of the sound, including Everett, was covered with gray. Everything to the west was green,” he remarks.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

As Friar Laurence, O’Connor marries Romeo and Juliet in a 2007 Key City Public Theatre production.

Inset below: Pictures in Jack O’Connor’s head were painted before he finished high school: “But I wasn’t good.”

This more recent watercolor, “Fall Leaves” shows that’s no longer true.

In 1995, he requested and was granted a transfer to an Everett field office annex in Bremerton. He had planned to retire in five years from FTSCP, but because of retirement incentives, did so in two.

During his two years in Bremerton, he drove to Indian Island to work on ships. Each time he drove through Beaver Valley, he thought, “Gee, it would be nice to live in a place like this.” So when he retired in 1997, he became a resident of Chimacum where he bought a home in the hills above the valley.

In addition to writing, he had wanted to do some gardening. “I went to Master Gardeners and discovered that I can’t stand gardening.” That turned out to be fortunate for O’Conner and for the area arts.

When he was settled, he joined the Unity Church in order to meet people. Many Unity members belonged to a local singing group and that and O’Conner’s love of singing led to participation in a sing-along and potluck that still meets each month at the home of Carlyn Stark. Between 25-30 singers attend today’s group.

Around that time he was told of open auditions for a Port Townsend Victorian Festival play. He had never acted

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

before but he auditioned and was picked for a part. “I was on stage for the whole play.

I saw that there were actors getting laughs and I wasn’t. I learned from them, adjusted and began to get laughs, too.

From that day, I was hooked.”

Since that first-ever appearance, beginning with “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” O’Conner has appeared in six Key City Public Theatre performances. He has starred in many of them, including his portrayal of Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” He has been seen in “Lie of the Mind,” “View from the Bridge,” “Cocktail Hour” and last year’s performance of “Romeo and Juliet.” Those who know theater in the Port Townsend area know Jack O’Connor.

Less known, but closer to what O’Conner intended to do when he retired, is that he has won the area’s One-Act Playwright Contest four times, with an honorable mention for a fifth submission.

The breadth of this man’s talent is displayed in his winning plays that were staged and the one that was given a stage reading. His first, “Father’s Day,” concerns the consideration of euthanasia of their failing father by three

siblings on the day of the June celebration. Surprisingly, it is sprinkled with humor. The next winner, “The View from Eagle’s Point,” is a comedy about the confrontation of a man threatening suicide by a hippie girl. She points out all the things he likes that will be lost and convinces him he is better off alive.

O’Conner won for the third time with “His Name Ain’t Harvey,” a comedy about a man who talks to “Partner,” not because he is crazy but because he just likes to. His fiancée and parents try to get him to stop. He successfully defends his behavior by pointing out that each of them talks to nonhumans as well: A dog, a bird and

29

Café.” In it, two very different couples at separate tables discuss their circumstances verbally and through thoughts shared with the audience. The older couple is dealing with a death prognosis for the husband. The two young people work together and are on their first date.

There is clever background and distraction provided by a separatelyseated newspaperman periodically reading meaningful one-liners from his paper. A perky, chatty waitress completes the cast.

‘Jack has something that always helps him become an important part of any group: He has a generosity of spirit.’

At 13, O’Connor began writing prose with science fiction works.

He has never stopped.

Published already, he is now working on “The Phoebe Gambit,” a mystery novel.

even an old Mercury. “Director’s Cut,” which received an honorable mention, portrays theater people involved in a love triangle. In the final scene of the play-within-a-play, one suitor strangles the other to death on stage.

O’Conner was a winner again last year with “A Moment at Sonatina

Well-known New York stage veteran, local thespian and director Lawreson “Lawrie” Driscoll has this to say about O’Conner: “I have known Jack for years. I played his son in ‘Lie of the Mind,’ I was a judge in last year’s playwright’s contest when ‘Sonatina Café’ was a winner and I directed him in his portrayal of Friar Laurence in last year’s ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ ” “Jack has continued to grow over the years. As an example of his acting prowess, he was the only actor to show up at last year’s Shakespeare rehearsal who already knew all his lines. He is a better and better playwright. When I read ‘Sonatina Café’ during last year’s contest, I immediately put it on the top of the stack. It is the best

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thing he has done. Jack has something that always helps him become an important part of any group: He has a generosity of spirit.”

There is no better paradigm of that generosity than a statement

by O’Conner’s co-star after a performance of “Cocktail Hour:” “Jack O’Connor is important to us not only as a good actor. He unselfishly shares all of his knowledge. The man is clearly as interested in us and the success of our performances as he is in his own interests.”

In the presentation of “Romeo and Juliet” last year, there was a scene in which O’Conner’s Friar Laurence has a difficult conversation with one of Shakespeare’s characters. Played as directed, for the first few performances, O’Conner merely stared at the character’s back as the man left.

Then, adlibbing at a later performance, he flicked a typical New York hand gesture at the man’s back. The adlib got a good laugh.

Did he continue using that gesture in the remaining performances?

“I only used it once. Today’s New York does not belong in Shakespeare.”

When asked to be the subject of this article O’Conner said, “There are others in the area who are more deserving of this kind of recognition than I am.” In fact, no one working within the Port Townsend art scene is better equipped to show what can be done in retirement.

Here is a man who before he retired here did some immature painting, played with songwriting, learned to play the guitar and piano for pleasure and wrote poetry as well as prose. A good start, but since he joined the peninsula scene, his paintings have become hanging quality, his songwriting is more sophisticated, some of the poetry and short stories he has written have been published and he has become an accomplished actor and playwright. He even has directed a play.

How has he accomplished all that? Here is what he thinks: “I have been greatly influenced by this area: The festival, the artistic community ….”

On the Olympic Peninsula, Jack O’Connor has become a flower that blooms in the afternoon and a model for all who retire, regardless of what endeavors might be preferred.

“I could write a book about retirement,” he says. Yes, Jack, you could.

The only other musician in the O’Connor family was a piano-playing grandfather.

Decades ago, Jack O’Connor followed him when he took up the piano.

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HEART Soul

By Karen Frank

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done?

Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!” Genesis 4:9-10, NRSV

W

hen I was young, I was literally my brother’s keeper and although I didn’t kill him, there were days when I felt like it. I lacked parenting skills and my brother knew it; he paid no attention to my orders and did whatever he felt like doing. He always was getting me in trouble for disobeying the rules. Or he’d interfere in my fun with friends, like the time he fell in the creek in the middle of the winter in his padded snowsuit. We had to haul him home soaking wet, looking like a frosty little muffin boy.

I started to appreciate and love my brother more by the time I reached my teens. I listened to him sing show tunes from “South Pacific” and “Mame.” Later, we attended dinner theater together when I came home on college breaks.

I nurtured his talents.

If we’re lucky, we develop empathy and compassion as we grow up by watching the adults in our lives. We learn to extend care first to members of our family, then to friends and the human community, finally to the rest of the natural world — the birds, the trees, the deer. We respond to suffering with concern and the impulse to help.

We develop a basic goodwill toward all and want people to fulfill their potential and realize their dreams. But do we become our brothers’ or sisters’ keeper? And who are our brothers and sisters?

In the early 1980s, my partner, Dana, drove a city bus in Portland. One day she saw a man on the sidewalk putting a headlock on a woman in pajamas who was holding

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a baby. She stopped the bus and intervened, trying first to reason with the man. When he wouldn’t let go of the woman, Dana pulled his arm away, freeing the woman, but getting punched and winding up with a broken nose.

However, at least for that day, she got the woman on the bus and to safety, driving off her route to take the woman to the local women’s shelter.

The bus company manager told her never to do that again. And I do not encourage you to intervene directly in violent situations. Call 9-1-1 instead. But I admire Dana for responding. That’s hard to do.

Several years ago, a toddler was beaten to death in his home in Port Townsend. Although neighbors had suspected something was wrong, no one called the authorities. The upshot was that haunting death.

A friend reminded me about the 1964 Kitty Genovese case which gave rise to the psychological term the “bystander effect.” Kitty Genovese’s murder in Queens was witnessed, in part, by more than a dozen people in her apartment complex, but no one called the police in time, one person watching the final assault from an open door, but doing nothing. As Stanley Milgram put it “The case touched on a fundamental issue of the human condition, our primordial nightmare. If we need help, will those around us stand around and let us be destroyed or will they come to our aid?”

During the decades since, the hands-off trend has been

accentuated — sometimes by psychologists who warn us against “rescuing” others. We are encouraged to let people flounder, sinking or swimming, until they hit bottom and ask for help. Unfortunately, sometimes by the time people hit bottom, they’re already dead.

Even the government has gotten into the act. In case of natural disaster, we are warned, we’ll have to take care of ourselves, shelter in place, rather than expect effective relief efforts. Hurricane Katrina was the object lesson there.

But luckily religions are countercultural; they forbid us to ignore suffering and compel us to intervene. The Judaeo-Christian tradition is a social justice tradition, with Micah summarizing the requirements as “doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly.” Buddhism emphasizes right relation, compassion and the interdependence of all creation, like the inseparability of the thumb from the fingers of the hand. Earth-based religions recognize the four-footed, the winged and the finned creatures as brothers and sisters, too.

Whatever your religious tradition, I challenge you to listen for the call of the Spirit of Life and Love, to respond and to continually expand your concept of the family and community to which you owe concern and care.

That does not mean that individually we are able to save the woman stuck in a violent relationship or a child being battered in private. It does not mean we can stop the

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

genocide in Darfur or the decimation of the African subcontinent by AIDS. We are unqualified to build ice floes under the polar bears rapidly heading toward extinction.

And the blood of Americans and Iraqis continues to spill forth and cry out to us from the ground.

My limited power leaves me in despair. Catholic tradition talks about times of desolation when we cannot find solace or comfort anywhere and I’ve known those times.

I remain faithful to my path anyway. I drum up courage and hope for the unexpected, like that amazing day when the Berlin Wall tumbled down, removed brick after brick by human hands.

There’s a helpful folk song that refers to the power of raindrops: Individually they have no effect on a hard rock, but en masse and gradually through the years, the raindrops

and anonymous in the project to build the “beloved community,” as Martin Luther King Jr. labeled it.

My brother still performs in community theater. He’s also a nurse who sings show tunes to his dying patient and will try anything to get her to smile. He treats her as if she were a well-loved grandmother. Even though she is unable to either walk or speak, she remains connected. She’s not alone.

Who are your brothers and sisters, your relations? If each of us answers to the voice crying our name, gradually we will wear down the flintiness of human indifference, greed and fear. The world holds out its hands to receive our gifts. Let us give our offerings.

We will be Love.

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HEART Soul

Continually expand your concept of the family and community to which you owe concern and care. wear the rock away. The song asks us: Can we be like drops of water, persisting even when there is no visible result from our efforts?

The spiritual call to action — to live our values seven days a week — is really a gift that allows us to express our love. We become family to the battered woman and the drowning polar bear. We choose to break free of our lonely shell of self. We join the procession of the famous

Karen Frank is a Port Townsend writer and a spiritual director available for both individual and group spiritual direction. If you have questions or comments, please e-mail her at kdf1404@olypen.com or go to her Web site (which has additional material) at www.yourlifeassacredstory.org.

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GOOD Gardening

Story by Beverly Hoffman Photos by David Godfrey

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Salvia, ‘Alabama Sunrise’ coleus, ‘Emerald Gaity’ Eunonymous

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grew up in Texas, several miles outside the city limits, and each spring my mother renewed her resolve to have a lovely flower garden. She’d buy a carload of plants, design a new garden area filled with fresh soil and then arrange and plant her bounty. Her anticipation turned quickly to despair as either our sheep munched on the plants or the Texas heat withered them to an early death. Only a few plants survived: zinnias, marigolds and coleus, those hardy plants that refused to listen to a funeral dirge bleated by wooly creatures and the heavy drumbeat of the sun.

Coleus (Solenostemon scutellariodes) have now appeared in nurseries since our nights are warming up. The foliage of the coleus is a psychedelic art piece, similar to some of the leaves on Pelargoniums, which we often call geraniums. The colors vary from stunning deep pinks, to velvety browns, to electric chartreuse and to muted pastels. The more red pigment in the foliage, the more sun tolerant they are.

As you stroll through nurseries and admire coleus, annuals that run about $3-$4 for a 4-inch pot, you might consider two ideas to incorporate them as accents in your garden.

The first is to use them in beautiful pots. An easy formula and winning combination for creating beautiful pots is to think of three functions plants will play: thrillers, fillers and spillers. A single thriller takes center stage and is usually the tallest plant and also has a rugged architectures to it, such as New Zealand flax (Phormium cookianum), Jerusalem sage (Pholmis), cannas, agaves and ornamental grasses, such as purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’). Coleus, textured and colorful, act as fillers and supports and intermingles, creating a mass of color. Fillers are usually one-third or two-thirds the size of the thriller. Several spillers, planted around the rim of a pot, flow over the edges and hang loosely to create an ephemeral mood. Bacopa (Sutera), golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’), lobelia and sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas cvs.) fall into the spiller category.

A second way to maximize the beauty of the coleus is to accent

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

GOOD Gardening

‘Ann Folkard’ geranium with the ‘Songbird’ coleus

perennials in borders. Study the perennials in your garden, observing size, color and texture. Then choose coleus varieties that repeat the color of the flowers or leaves or that contrast other perennials in color or texture. Set up a vignette, a grouping that pleases the eye. The perennials will be the anchor and the coleus will be an element that ties plantings together, in the same way that a beautiful ribbon accents a wrapped present.

I found ‘Fishnet Stockings’ coleus, an exotic plant that reminded me of a Brazilian woman dressed to perfection and whose face is framed with filigree jewelry. It has deep purple veins against a background of lime and a touch of neon pink that work excep-

‘Ann Folkard’ geranium with ‘Fishnet Stockings’ coleus

keep in a south/southwest window in 70-80 degree temperatures. When the seeds have germinated, remove the plastic and place in good light and circulation. Thin seedlings before the true leaves emerge to give them room to grow. Harden off outside in a shady spot a few hours a day before you plant them.

A coleus plant’s worst enemy is cold so wait to plant them outside when night temperatures are near 50.

Coleus are also easy to propagate by cuttings, either in water or a soil-less mix.

In September, bring in coleus and place in filtered light to use as houseplants, pinching leaves back to keep them compact and branching. They shouldn’t be kept too wet during the winter.

Laceleaf Japanese maple with ‘Fishnet Stockings’ coleus

The coleus will be an element that ties plantings together, in the same way that a beautiful ribbon accents a wrapped present. tionally well with many perennials and is especially gorgeous near Japanese maples, snakeroot (Cimicifuga and now often referred to as Actea simplex), ferns and carpet bugle (Ajuga). ‘Songbird’ is a clear, bright pink coleus with burgundy lacy edges, a Julie Andrews sort of delicate beauty that sets off blue oat grass (Helictotrichon semperviernes), ‘Ann Folkard’ geranium, lambs’ ear (Stachys) and artemisia. Three salmon-pink pastel-hued coleus with brush strokes of green are ‘Glennis,’ ‘Alabama Sunset’ and ‘Aurora,’ all of which calm the eye. All three complement plants such as lantana, black mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus), New Zealand flax and cannas and look lovely in a terra cotta pot.

Even though a plant is relatively inexpensive to buy in 4-inch pots, it is even more reasonable to start coleus plants from seed packets available in nurseries and some grocery stores. Coleus take 6-8 weeks to germinate. Use a soil-less mixture and tamp seeds down to make contact with the soil. Cover the container with plastic to provide humid conditions and

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

I think of coleus as an old-fashioned flower, somewhat like cosmos, migonettes (Reseda odorata), four o’ clocks (Mirabilis jalapa), petunias and zinnias. Yet today’s plethora of hybrids of coleus have come into their own. Many, like ‘Fishnet Stockings,’ are mini-art pieces in the garden, much like the striking presence of an underwater sea anemone with its texture and color.

It’s fun to buy a variety of coleus, at least three of each kind, and to wander through the garden and tuck three 4-inch pots of the same variety near a perennial.

Then try three others. Then three more. Choose the one that sets off the perennial in the way you think most fascinating. Once you’ve planted the coleus and try to imagine the vignette without them, you’ll probably think of it as flat and less interesting.

Coleus have many personalities — the Brazilian exotic dancer, the classic beauty of a movie star, the gentle calm of a Mother Teresa. Take $30 to the nursery and you’ll come home with ready personality and mood to add to your garden.

‘Fishnet Stockings’ coleus with Ajuga (purple spikes)

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Left: Award-winning sand sculptor Charlie Beaulieu, left, and Fred Dobbs bring out the details in Beaulieu’s 2003 exhibit piece with the theme “Fun on the Farm.”

t h n e i S S A E N C D A F

by Patricia Morrison Coate

L

arger than life characters, detailed in their design, defy the properties of mere sand and water. But that’s the challenge professional sand sculptors savorr in carving their creations during the Nor’wester Rotary ry Club’s North American Masters Invitational in Port Angeles every July. Part of the club’s Arts in Action program, ram, the competition draws artisans whose sound knowledge wledge of sand allows them to craft breathtaking sculptures tures in 3-D that seem as solid as their marble and alabaster aster counterparts — a dragon’s fanned wings cloaking a treasure asure chest, a towering lighthouse, a mermaid arching her back. ack. The devil is in the details and eight to 12 invitees, plus a display carver not in competition, demonstrate year after year the pure artistry in their transient works — from tiny “coins” in a treasure chest to feathering on a dog’s tail and wrinkles on a farmer’s weathered face.

And nd the facial expressions — well, you just have to see them to believe them — and you can starting July 24 when the talented alented carvers begin their tedious, technical work on Hollywood Beach in downtown Port Angeles. The festival is July 25-27 and also features a juried arts and crafts street fair, food vendors, car shows, music and a street dance.

The contest is the only masters invitational in the United States and one of a handful in North America, said Doc Reiss, Arts in Action coordinator, and as a matter of course, organizers invite only the best national and international sand sculptors to compete for awards and monetary prizes. This year Reiss has scored a coup by bringing

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in one of Europe’s foremost sand artists, Helena Bangert of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A world-renowned sand sculptor, Bangert has won awards from competitions in Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, China and Canada. There are perhaps three or four dozen master sand sculptors in the world, Reiss noted, and those who previously have vied in Port Angeles have said the Rotary’s competition is “the one where you find yourself looking over your shoulder to see what the other guys are doing!” Watch the magic of master sand carvers from Washington, Utah, Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky as well as international challengers hailing from England, Holland and Canada.

“Pounding up” (see box) begins on July 23 as a team activity and between July 24-26, solo carvers have just 21 hours to carry out Damon Langlois, the 2007 second-place winner from Victoria, British Columbia, won third place with his “Prize Pumpkin” sculpture in 2006. Langlois will compete again in this year’s event.

their creations. The Port Angeles event also is the only themed contest in the U.S. and every April Arts in Action solicits the public for theme ideas. According to Reiss, “The artists both love and hate the idea as it restricts them and challenges them at the same time.” This year the contestants will interpret “Great Inventions,” as suggested by Karen Rushby of Port Angeles.

Charlie Beaulieu of Kingston, one of the top 10 carvers in the world, will fashion one of his mammoth masterpieces as the annual display sculpture in front of the Conrad Dyar Fountain at First and Laurel streets, investing about 120 manhours in the project over a week’s time.

With childlike teasing, Beaulieu laughed, “I’m leaning toward something with wheels, cogs and gears — a contraption with some animation to it — and maybe a squirrel sitting on a wheel! We all take a lot of artistic license and have fun with it.”

In 2000, when the idea of a sand sculpting competition first arose as an Arts in Action program, Reiss and the Rotarians hired Beaulieu to build an exhibition sculpture. “I got

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

How do the pros build a sand sculpture?

On Hollywood Beach in downtown Port Angeles, the Nor’wester Rotary Club’s North American Masters Invitational sand sculpture competition begins with one semi-truck load of sand per sculptor. The sand is loaded into California-style universal forms and wetted down. Next, the sand is compacted with either a mechanical or a hand tamper. More sand is added and the process is repeated until the form has been filled. Once full, another form is added to the one below it and the process is repeated.

The lower form provides a stable work area, allowing the artist to stand and fashion the upper area once the sculpting and carving start. Some artists use flexible, fiberglass forms, but while the forms differ, the process remains the same.

The artists let the sand stand for a day to help it solidify and start carving from the top down, adding details as they go. together with Doc and we brainstormed. It too took about two years to get it off the ground, but now it’s one of o the top five that sculptors look forward to because there ar are just a select few that we choose. If they place, they have the t opportunity to be invited back. It’s really the best of the th best.” The masters competition debuted in 2003 and now the festival draws about 25,000 to downtown Port Angeles.

Growing up in the Northgate district of Seattle, Beaulieu was familiar with beaches, but holidays to Hawaii in the early 1980s showed him what sand could really do.

Mesmerized by the talent and techniques of master sand sculptor Joe Maize, Beaulieu asked him to be his mentor.

The young upstart learned well. At age 48, Beaulieu has won the world championship 11 times, the Canadian nationals six times and the U.S. Open three times. He

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

also broke the Guiness Book of World Records eight times with his seemingly impossible creations.

There always are a few skeptics who maintain there must be some kind of internal structure or goo holding a sand sculpture together. “No, it’s just pure sand and water,” Beaulieu assured.

“Real fine silky sand like the consistency of talc gives you real nice detail,” he said. Sand sculptors favor glacier or lake sand over ocean sand because the grains of the latter are rounded while those of the former “are more angular and have a bit of a tooth,” which binds them together.

Towering structures, acute angles, open-air arches — it’s all just engineering, Beaulieu said, noting his vocation in wood and mortar construction translates well into his avocation. “If you’re carving an arch, you make it more slender at the top, thinner in the middle and wider at the base. I can always tell when I’m getting close to a collapse in my stomach. It’s always just one grain of sand — such a subtle difference when it will hold and when it won’t.”

As one of the top 10 sand sculptors in the world, Beaulieu has no need for false modesty. “I am probably one of the best architectural sculptors out there — my architectural background really helps me a lot so I have confidence in what I’m doing — but when it comes to anatomy, I’m not the very best.” He stays on top of the competitive pile through “years and years of practice and working with really good sculptors.”

Tools of the trade are pastry knives, concrete trowels, spoons, skewer sticks, straws, pylons for forming cones, melon ballers, shovels, rakes and buckets. Once the sand has been compacted, the sculptors begin the “block out” process. “A lot of the time the tiers are high, so I take the

Above: Dave Billings, a Canadian award-winning sculptor, fine tunes his “Alice in Wonderland” sculpture in the first Arts in Action master’s invitational with the 2003 theme of “Fairytale Characters.”

Photo by Richard Riski Top left: With their teamwork showing, competitors help each other pack sand into forms in preparation for the contest.

Photos courtesy of Arts in Action/Nor’wester Rotary Club

top form off, block it out into the rough shapes, do the detail work and then take the next one off,” Beaulieu explained.

After more than 25 years as a sand sculptor, Beaulieu said the attraction still is the same. “I think the biggest thing is a sense of completion but my biggest enjoyment comes from seeing the expressions on people’s faces, whether they’re 9 or 92. I get the biggest kick out of it. It’s just the pure amazement of people walking up to one of my sculptures.”

As he plans for his ninth appearance in Port Angeles, Beaulieu has high praise for the Olympic Peninsula. “It’s probably one of the most beautiful settings for a sculpture competition. The beach has got just beautiful sand and that’s part of the reason the detail is really fine.”

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Clockwise from lower left: With music filling the air, surrounded by good friends, a picnic on the grass is one of the simple pleasures of JFFA. Distinctive and unusual music characterizes the festival, as shown by this steel ukelele played by Del Rey. These ornately dressed belly dancers warmed up the crowd at the 2007 festival.

Henna tattoo

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Arts and

Artisans in Celebration The Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts

The Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts is truly for all ages, as this little girls displays by dancing to the music of Baby Gramps.

Below: The dance floor was busy with energetic dancers enjoying the music of the Blue4 Trio from Seattle.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JERRY KRAFT

The

Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts is the premiere arts event on the Olympic Peninsula. Each May, the four-day event held every Memorial Day weekend in Port Angeles, offers scores of the best music, dance and theater groups in the area. In addition, there are visual art displays, retail booths offering a variety of local arts and crafts and a wide selection of food and refreshments.

Now in its 15th year, the festival continually is searching for high-quality artists and performers. The variety is achieved in the many skills and types of music and performance and in a cultural awareness that broadens the

Big Band along the way. Whether it’s the Ramsey Twins singing and playing steel-string guitar or the sophisticated club vocals of Jacqui Naylor or Tracy Blume, the music is continuous, eclectic and exciting.

The literary arts also are represented with such renowned poets as Tess Gallagher, Alice Derry and Kate Reavey.

The Port Angeles Community Playhouse, the newest of the six venues for the festival, also presented drama from its Second Stage program. This year they performed an original adaptation of “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” by Bill and Kristen Larsen. They presented an original piece of storytelling and music

The music is continuous, eclectic and exciting. festival. For example, this year as part of its educational outreach, a Friday morning program for school children featured a Japanese storyteller, magician and mime followed by the highly theatrical drumming of the Portland Taiko group.

The musicians cover an astonishing range of styles, from the Hawaiian music of Naki’i to the Stevens Middle School Jazz Band, from the Smilin’ Scandinavians, a Seattle polka band, to the Danish folk music of Haugaard and Hoirup. Part of the excitement of this wide-ranging festival is the contrast in moving from jazz star Greta Metassa’s Grammy-nominated quartet to the nautical-themed songs of Pint and Dale, and then on to Rosie Sharp and the Black Diamond Fiddle Club, with an unplanned stop at the Stardust

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

called “A Fable for Two” performed by Jan Yates and Carlos Xavier. The festival also added an open-mic night on Saturday and Sunday for local musicians and scribes to show off their work.

During the festival there are jugglers, magicians, several dance companies and the many craftsmen selling their work in the open booths. Those crafts offer items from African art, homemade hats and cedar furniture to Indian cooking spices, jellies and jams, and hammocks to soaps and lotions.

Maybe the best part of the festival is just wandering among the performance venues and the arts booths, perhaps stopping for a nice lunch while enjoying one of the free outdoor performances. Everything from Kettle Korn to Greek cuisine is available. A single admission allows access to any of the

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performances, so luck and discovery can lead from Casey O’Neill’s Irish folk music to Shula Azhar’s Middle Eastern dancers, from classical guitar to comedy juggling. In 2008, the festival featured more than 125 different performers on six stages, as well as outdoor performances.

The festival is designed to be family friendly, with activities and entertainers specifically geared to young people. The Family Medicine Family Fun Zone is one venue where there are constantly things for children to see and do.

Hands-on arts and crafts meet improvisational theater, open mics, singing for fun with Tom Shindler and Fiddling for Kids. This is the venue where spontaneous creativity and enthusiastic guidance join to provide an atmosphere that is both fun and expressive.

“We try to have as much variety as possible in our performers and the quality has gone up every year,” said Anna Manildi, festival director. That variety is shown both in the form of cultural origin and musical styles. The one thing they all have in common is the sheer joy of performing and the highly developed skill of their art. Beyond that, the diversity is amazing, one thing that led Bruce Skinner, past president

of the International Festivals and Events Association, to call it “one of the best small-town festivals in the country.”

For example, this year attendees heard Del Rey play blues and classic jazz on finger-style guitar and ukulele, followed by the well-known acoustic musicians Tingstad and Rumbel and then danced to classic rock by “The Lonely H,” a group of local youths who’ve gone on to wide success. The festival menu included the American roots music of Laura Love and Harper’s Ferry, the Andalibre Flamenco company, a yoga workshop with Julie Silveria and stand-up comedy from Rhys Thomas (who also juggles).

The variety is truly amazing.

Equally amazing is the pleasant atmosphere of this festival, where casual appreciation of the arts is met by accomplished artistry and great music is followed by delicious food eaten under a tree while even more ambient music wafts through the air. A community celebration that attracts visitors from throughout the Northwest, one of the great pleasures of the festival is the sense of it being a local event that attracts talent from a far larger region. The Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts is a special gathering of art-

ists and people who appreciate art, audiences and performers, creators and those who buy and appreciate their creations. Always about quality above all else, it’s also a great good time.

Always popular face painting adds to the festive spirit of the fair for children.

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Things that make you go

By Blythe Lawrence

OOOM M

Chimacum High School’s Lyza Wills restores a lawnmower for Hadlock Days HADLOCK DAYS EVENTS Friday, July 11: 5-8 p.m.: Salmon bake at the Inn at Port Hadlock, 310 Hadlock Bay Road Hamburgers and hot dogs also will be available.

Free live music.

Saturday, July 12: 9 a.m.: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.: 11 a.m.- noon: 11 a.m.: 1-5 p.m.:

Static antique tractor show Vendors Parade Lawnmower racing Live music by Spin Cycle

Sunday, July 13: 9 a.m.: 10 a.m.: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.: Noon-3 p.m.: 1-3 p.m.:

Static antique tractor show Lawnmower racing Vendors Classic Car Show Live music by Spin Cycle

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

It

was, by all accounts, a wreck of a machine.

“Not running,” Otis Wills said. “Flat tires. It was your typical 1980 mower that had been sitting for like two years.”

Wills, a Hadlock motorcycle and all terrain vehicle enthusiast, busted his grass cutter several years ago racing it at a friend’s house. So he did what many would do — stuck it in a shed and forgot about it.

There the Craftsman mower languished. If a racing lawnmower had a soul, it might have wondered if it would ever see the sunlight again or savor the soft dirt beneath its wheels as it cut off another lawnmower going around a corner at the track.

As it was, the mower was rescued from its fate by Wills’ daughter Lyza, a senior at Chimacum High School, who made restoring it her senior project.

“I saw that someone had rebuilt a car and taken it to a car show,” Lyza Wills said. In a community where people restore boats, cars and even Victorian homes, she wondered, why not a lawnmower?

“I just thought it would be cool to do that because I like hands-on things,” Wills said. After taking Lloyd Crouse’s lawnmower out for a spin after he competed in the lawnmower racing event at Hadlock Days last summer, she

decided this was something Above: The lawnmower races have become one she wanted to do, too. the most anticipated Crouse, a former stock of events at Hadlock Days. car racer, was responsible for making lawnmower racing Photo from The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader the centerpiece of Hadlock Days events.

“I was asked to do something about Hadlock Days four years ago because it was getting a bit boring,” Crouse said.

He mulled it over while he went over to Sequim to attend a lawnmower race.

Wills was intrigued by watching lawnmower racing, which has become the centerpiece of Hadlock Days since Crouse’s suggestion was implemented three years ago.

After last year’s races were over, she approached Crouse about helping her restore her father’s old lawnmower.

Crouse suggested she take his Craftsman racing mower out for a ride around the track, just to see if she liked it.

She did. Crouse, who was 64 when he took up lawnmower racing, which he described as “all laughs and giggles,” wasn’t surprised.

“It’s a kick. Once you get on one, you’re hooked,” he said.

“Driving a lawnmower at 40 miles an hour on the ground is a real rush. The adrenaline is right there. And you

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have to laugh because it’s a lawnmower and on top of that it’s open-field racing, so it’s very challenging.”

Some may scoff. “I guess some people you tell about it and they just laugh,” Otis Wills said. “They just think you’re totally out of your mind. They’re like, ‘What? You’re racing a lawnmower that fast? What are you, crazy?’”

But to others, lawnmower racing has become everything from a hobby to a business opportunity to a sporting competition that brings national recognition. The lawnmower racing circuit, with stops in Sequim, Omak, Chehalis and Rainier, is open to those serious about the competition.

In 2005, there were 12 lawnmowers in the inaugural Hadlock Days races. Last year there were 23 and this year 50 have signed up, 23 from Port Hadlock alone. More than 4,000 people are expected to attend Hadlock Days this year, up from 2,500 last year.

Wills has a choice — ride with everyone in the general division or ride with the 12 to 14 women on lawnmowers in the Powder Puff division.

Crouse has no doubt which is more challenging. “The powder puffs are more fun than the men,” he laughed.

“When one woman passes another one, the other one says, ‘That woman just passed me!’ Believe me, they are nasty.”

Wills’ work converting the lawnmower from a beatup old grass cutter to the sleek orange and black confection that rests 4 inches off the ground included removing the cutting deck, lowering the machine, lengthening the axles, adding tie rod, steering linkage and a new transmission.

She also installed a new V-twin Vanguard 14-horse engine, donated by Crouse, and as a final step, gave it a makeover, transforming the purple stripes into a sleek orange and black Harley Davidson-inspired theme.

Her father, who has experience working on cars,

motorcycles and ATVs, guided her through the project’s more difficult mechanics.

“Even me by myself couldn’t have done it all,” he said.

Wills said she will keep the mower as a souvenir of her senior year and maybe take it to the sand dunes in Idaho or Oregon, where her family vacations and rides ATVs, “just to ride it around, show it off,” she said.

In theory, she could even drive it on pavement, though that would be “probably a little squirrelly,” her father said.

They’re meant to be driven on dirt.

After almost nine months of work, the little lawnmower, unrecognizable from the machine Wills found in her father’s shed, will make its Hadlock Days debut July 11, which just happens to be Wills’ 18th birthday.

The teen has enjoyed the whole experience. “Nothing was really too frustrating,” she said. “Probably painting, because I just didn’t have enough patience.”

That’s bound to serve her well on the racetrack.

The lawnmower’s new V-twin Vanguard 14-horse engine was donated by Crouse.

Photo by Blythe Lawrence

SUPER STOCK RACING CLASS RULES AND REGULATIONS • No internal engine modifications allowed.

• Carburetors have to remain stock.

• No porting or polishing allowed.

• Air filter may be changed to any style.

• Exhaust must exit in a rearward and downward direction, away from driver and competitors.

• Exhaust may be changed to a header and tail pipes are optional.

• Lowering and riding height is optional, although mowers may be no lower than 4 inches from frame to ground, front to rear.

• Front axle may be changed or altered.

• Original front mower L or J spindles must be used.

• Wheel bases may be changed but must be a maximum of 54 inches from axle hub to center.

• Track width may be changed to a maximum of 40 inches wide from outside of tire to outside of tire.

• Engine pulley and transmission may be changed to any size.

• Hand or foot throttle is optional.

• Tires and wheels can be any style or size.

• Mower must have shaft locks on ends of axles — no single wheel drive allowed.

• Drive line may be modified from the engine pulley to the rear wheels but must utilize a shiftable lawnmower transition or transaxle.

• Chain drive must have a chain guard if it’s not covered by rear fender or body tin.

Chimacum High School senior Lyza Wills (front) spent a good deal of her senior year restoring an old lawnmower. She was helped by her father Otis (right) and lawnmower racer Lloyd Crouse (left). She plans to race at Hadlock Days, July 11-13.

DRIVER ELIGIBILITY • Drivers under 18 must have parental release.

• All drivers must sign a release form discharging the club or track owner from any liability or responsibility for any injury that might occur. (Drivers must sign in before each race and before time trials.)

• All drivers are required to wear a full automobile racing safety helmet.

• Long-sleeved shirts and long pants or coveralls and gloves are required. Riders also must wear a racing-approved neck collar.

A back brace, chest plate and boots with leather over the ankle are recommended.

RACING MOWER REQUIREMENTS • All mowers must be originally designed and sold commercially to mow lawns.

• Mower cutting deck must be removed.

• Any body tin from any mower can be used; stock or stock-like rear fenders and running boards must be in place.

• A safety kill switch must be installed and fully functional and must pass a technical inspection.

• Mowers with electric starters must have the battery mounted on the mower unless the mower has a pull-start engine.

• Clutch mechanism must be functional.

• Mower brakes must be in good condition, easily operated and operating on at least two wheels. Brakes may be improved in any way.

• Front axle must be pinned in the center and must have a minimum of half an inch up and down from center pin.

• Fuel tank must be mounted under the hood or body tin.

• Front bumpers are not allowed. Rear bumpers are optional and may not extend more than 3 inches behind rear tires.

• Numbers must be on the side of the mower, on the hood or on the front of the hood. Numbers must be a minimum of 6 inches tall and letters must be a minimum of 2 inches tall.

• All racing mowers and driver’s safety equipment must pass a technical inspection before time trials and the day’s events.

Photo by Blythe Lawrence

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ARTS Entertainment

PROFILE OF ARTIST MARINA SHIPOVA

By Kelly McKillip

Artwork courtesy of Marina Shipova

Visiting Marina Shipova’s world is a bit like being transported into a Russian fairy tale. Great art, grand passions and lively music are the themes played out in the woodland studio that Marina and her husband, composer and musician Noel Price, built last October. On the day I visited, snow fell lightly on the short walkway to the front door.

A wary bark from the resident sheltie and a smile from Marina usher guests into the rectangular edifice. But what dazzles the eye are the many dozens of works of art that line the walls, the shelves and rest on easels.

Framed pictures hang from pegboard, which allows quick acRight: Marina draws commodation and easy rearrangement of Marina’s prodigious with favored tools — output. Indeed, her husband says, she never sits still but always colored pencils. is drawing. Marina tells me her obsession occasionally leads to Above: “A Golden temporary paralysis of her right arm.

Cupolaed Russia.”

Perched on the window sill overlooking the table where Colored pencil. she works and teaches are handmade dolls as lithe and elegant Marina Shipova says as their creator. Marina explains that one of the girls, a witch, if you look down on gave up a leg while a young student was playing with her. But Russia from a plane, you see a landscape then, that’s the sort of thing you can expect from a witch. Pieces covered in golden of furniture are pillowed and draped with flowing cloth cupolas.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

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ARTS Entertainment

in old-World style. Marina too, wears clothes of dark hue and subtle beauty. Noel’s guitar and mandolin rest patiently in their stands waiting for the next performance. The only visible modern concessions in the room are a computer with a very large screen and a CD player.

If Marina is the visual element in this mythic tale, then Noel is definitely the audio portion. When he’s present, the chords from his guitar or a cut from one of his CDs, accompanied by music partner Sydney Barthell, fill the studio. He liberally offers his views on religion, politics, the state of the nation or his undying devotion to Marina as he gently admonishes her not to slouch. Together they paint a fascinating picture of their unlikely romance.

Marina was born in 1972 in Dzerjinsk, Russia. During the reign of Peter I, the area became a bustling boat-building port of great beauty with two flowing rivers and pine tree forests.

Soviet despot Josef Stalin changed the industry, the people and the aesthetics of the region dramatically during the Communist Revolution with the installation of chemical weapons factories.

Convicted criminals were imported to man the facilities, but it soon became clear that uneducated thugs were not the type of workers to entrust with the manufacturing of hazardous material.

To improve the situation, political prisoners were redistributed to the area. This captive audience was more capable of achieving Soviet goals. The new inmates had a better life, too, as they were allowed to move around the town at will but not leave the area.

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Although the weapons industry had a short run because of the extreme toxicity of the components, chemical production still is the central industry in the area. The citizens remain prisoners of all sorts to ill health from the previous and ongoing pollution.

Marina’s parents found a more advantageous avenue of work with the dawning of the race for space and Sputnik. Her father is a mechanical engineer who is “good at being in charge,” she quipped. Her mother is a mechanical and drafting engineer who can draw a design for a machine which, when built to specs, runs perfectly. It was at her mother’s drafting table where Marina, at age 2, first picked up a pencil and never put it down. She drew on drafting paper, then the walls and soon any surface that could render an image was at her mercy.

She began junior art school at age 9, attending three-hour classes three days each week. She went on to study sculpture for seven years through high school. College education was free in the Soviet Union to qualified candidates. At age 17, Marina began her studies at the Vladimir State Pedagogical University. Original masterpieces at The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg were her nonspeaking instructors. She attributes the leap in her abilities to the copying of great works during this period. A devotee of the Renaissance masters, she particularly admires Leonardo da Vinci’s science of drawing. Marina spent five years

Top left: “Waiting for the Past.” Colored pencil.

Top right: Marina with her most ardent admirer, husband Noel Price.

Her husband says, she never sits still but always is drawing.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

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ARTS Entertainment

studying art, drafting and teaching, ultimately earning a master’s degree.

After university, she began teaching at an experimental school. The pay was poor and longing for financial independence, she applied to a prestigious company that produced a variety of graphic arts advertising and television commercials. She was told if she could learn a computer program in a week, she could have the job. With her usual intensity, she nailed the program and began a career making designs for everything from butter to vodka. Her work was so good, she soon found herself at the top of the company and living in Moscow.

Because her life had been consumed by school and building a career, she never found time for boyfriends.

Then a momentous thing happened. To help her learn English, a friend posted Marina’s biography to Pen Pal Gardens Web site. Five thousand miles away, Noel Price, dejected from an unhappy second marriage, had sworn off women for eternity. He was living on his boat at John Wayne Marina, outside of Sequim, when he unsuspectingly typed the word “marina” on his laptop computer. Call it coincidence or the synchronistic meeting of soul mates, but Marina Shipova’s story popped up on his screen. Instantly intrigued and feeling safe that there was no danger of meeting someone halfway around the world, he dashed off an e-mail to her. Marina, who did not speak English, did understand one word — Noel. She smiles when she says, “Who wouldn’t want to correspond with Santa Claus?” Using a translating program, she read his letter and fired one back. Thus began a year of a distant but deepening relationship with the inevitable culmination of Marina suggesting a meeting. This struck fear into his heart but he could not deny that her letters had become his lifeline.

In the dead of winter, with the dawning of the new millennium, they agreed to meet in Prague. Noel could not find Marina in the sprawling train station when she was

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Top left: Visitor in the Snow.” Charcoal and white tempera.

Top right: “Hope for the Future.” Colored pencil and white tempera.

Left: “Warm November.”

Watercolor. The setting is Jolnino, a village near Marina’s home town of Dzerjinsk.

supposed to arrive. They had booked different hotels with uncertain names, miles apart. Neither spoke Czechoslovakian. These obstacles might have been defeating for less determined souls, but with the help of a sympathetic clerk at the Crystal Hotel, Noel found himself on the phone with Marina. A taxi trip across town brought them face to face. Marina still did not speak English and Noel knew only one phrase in Russian — I love you. But that was enough.

A couple of months after returning home, Noel flew to Moscow and then traveled by rail to Dzerjinsk. Despite suffering jet lag, he describes as pure romance the nocturnal six-hour train trip passing by distant twinkling towns across the snow-laden Russian landscape. Perhaps the real charm was in the destination and not the trip for it took an hour for Noel to propose marriage to his beloved and a day for Marina to accept. But then, never did the course of true love run smooth. Russians divorce

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ARTS Entertainment Right: “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

Colored pencil.

Inset below: Botanical drawing: iris. Colored pencil.

much less often than Westerners, and although Noel had documentation of his single status, the powers that be were not convinced. Marina’s brother came to the rescue by using his connections to the mayor. With the help of a gentle bribe in the guise of a proffered computer, the necessary paperwork found a willing clerk and the wedding took place. A joyous reception followed at her parents’ small apartment where a table had to intersect through two rooms to accommodate the guests.

The land of the free has no shortage of red tape and it took another three months of bureaucratic sorting out with the INS for Marina to acquire a green card for legal entry to the United States. With Marina in her new homeland and Noel having enough savings for a yearlong honeymoon, the couple took the North American version of the grand tour through the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

When practical considerations came to bear, the two

People are Marina’s favorite subject but one look at her oeuvre will demonstrate her themes are inexhaustible. settled happily in an Airstream trailer on the Olympic Peninsula. Noel continued work as an electrician. Marina, with her teaching skills, secured a position at Peninsula College.

Of course, she continued her art. In Russia, Marina worked primarily in watercolor. She still prefers mixed media but has found colored pencils to be favored tools. When asked what motivates or inspires her to create art, Marina has a difficult time answering. “It’s like breathing. I would go nuts without it.” From the time she was a small child, she wanted to be extraordinary and this desire kindled an unrelenting drive toward excellence. Teaching allows her to share all that she has learned.

My first acquaintance with Marina was in the fall of 2006 when a botanical art class was offered by Peninsula College.

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She is an excellent and patient instructor. In her class, when I am frustrated by my inadequacy to produce a likeness, Marina delivers first aid and with a few deft strokes turns a sickly plant into a beautiful flower. My fellow students and I are awed by the lightning speed with which she can produce a masterful image. Sequim residents experience Marina’s freelance design work every day in local restaurants, shops and during festivals. She is creating a digital library with stories to accompany her art.

People are Marina’s favorite subject but one look at her oeuvre will demonstrate her themes are inexhaustible. Her homeland, wild and domestic animals, birds, insects, botanicals, ancient buildings, tired barns, old trucks, fantasy drawings and any combination thereof take form beneath her skillful hand. I questioned her about a beautiful religious icon she painted, assuming that since it was rendered with such sensitivity it must have a profound spiritual meaning. No, she explains, it is art. In her cultural context, freedom from religion has been as important a concept as freedom of religion is in America. Noel tells me that missionaries arriving after the fall of the Soviet Union found a difficult task in impressing Western Christianity on the Eastern psyche. Certain denominations dressed too much like KGB for any Russian to feel happy seeing them on his doorstep. Nonetheless, as the hammer and sickle turned to rust, the great Russian churches were being resurrected to their former purpose and glory. Marina and Noel believe that standing in a Russian Orthodox Church is much the same for a modern visitor as when the Byzantium missionary, St. Cyril, arrived in the ninth century with that mightiest of weapons, a new alphabet. Life and art come full circle.

Marina teaches classes through Peninsula College and at her studio.

The Prices may be visited at their Web site at runningdogstudios.com.

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Top left: A drag racer does a wheelie in his 1960s era supercharged coupe during a West End Thunder race held at the Forks Municipal Airport in the summer of 2007.

Top right: Rainforest Run motorcycle rally organizers Bob Wishon (seated) and Dan Roth hope to draw a large crowd to the family focused event.

Right: Forks royalty wave from the Forks Old Fashioned Fourth of July float in 2007. Veterans are taking the place of the king and queen this summer at appearances in town parades in Sequim and around the Olympic Peninsula.

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Weekends of

, curator Sherrill FoutsTimber s rk at the Fo ises funds for Museum, ra by raffling the museumle, handmade off a valuab basket during woven tribal Fashioned the Forks Oldly celebration.

Fourth of Ju

In

the summertime, the su umm m errttiim mee, We W West s End res st residents sid identt enjoy the present and recall the past with celebrations that roll out weekend after weekend into autumn.

In Forks the big event of the summer, and some say the year, is the Old Fashioned Forks Fourth of July celebration.

The Fourth is on a Friday this year and the celebration will continue through Sunday, July 6. U.S. Highway 101 (better known as Forks Avenue in downtown Forks) is blocked off for the midday Forks Fourth of July parade. Local residents line the street to see friends and families parade and to enjoy the annual get-together that brings out most residents of the close-knit community.

Visitors see the Forks Fourth as a window into the culture of the “Logging Capital of the World” and as an enjoyable, family event available at a reasonable cost.

Travelers planning a Forks Fourth visit are forewarned to

Festival on Fun the West End STORY AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS COOK

logging operator Ted Spoelstra playing his antique calliope on a float and a contingent of floats with localized themes representing Forks and other towns from around the Olympic Peninsula.

Fun events include the Forks Lions salmon bake at Tillicum Park, a demolition derby at the Tillicum Park Arena, the “Midnight Madness” sale where the heart of downtown Forks is blocked off into the night and local residents take to the street for special sales, a Kiddies Play Day with three-legged races and a frog jumping contest where kids 2 to 18 coax amazingly long jumps from their backyard frogs.

The classic American cars and logging trucks driven in the Forks Fourth parade provide a sneak peak at the West End Thunder drag races set for Saturday, July 5, and Sunday, July 6. Just listen for the roar on the southern edge

and the accompanying “show and shine” car and motorcycle show provides an up-close look at vintage cars and logging trucks. The summer weekend race schedule runs Aug. 16-17 and finishes up with replicas of 1960s and 1970s rail dragsters brought to town by the Northwest Nostalgia Top Eliminator Association the weekend of Sept. 13-14 (www.nwntea.org).

Admission is $10 per person, with children 12 and under free. Gates open for spectators at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday. Plenty of parking is available in a grassy field just south of the airport.

Tribal festivities The coastal tribes that have lived for thousands of years on the West End showcase their traditions plus offer a fun time for all at their annual celebrations. The events provide

Local residents line the street to see friends and families parade and to enjoy the annual get-together. reserve accommodations well in advance as the town is packed over the weekend.

Unique Forks-style parade floats include notable “pioneers” cruising in a convertible, a miniature train that weaves around Forks Avenue, recalling the days of West End logging railroads, the Hoh Tribe’s canoe on wheels, a rolling jail cell from a local prison work camp, retired

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

of town during the Forks Fourth weekend to guide you to the dragsters speeding down the one-eighth-mile drag strip set up at the Forks Municipal Airport.

Drag racers from the West End, from Bellingham and Seattle, towns across Washington and Oregon gather for the races, which feature a wide range of dragster cars and motorcycles. Local youth sports boosters run food booths

a great venue for visitors interested in the cultures of the Quileute and Makah peoples and the tribes offer a big welcome to outsiders.

Quileute Days runs from Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20, at LaPush on the Pacific Coast, about a 20-minute drive from Forks. The theme of the event is “Celebrating Traditions by the Sea.” The event is held

53

A replica of a traditional Hoh Tribe cedar canoe placed on a trailer made for a unique float during the 2007 Forks Old Fashioned Fourth of July parade.

within the tribal village of LaPush, the homeland of the Quileute Tribe.

Quileute Days features native arts and crafts displays and sales and a lot more. On Saturday, the Quileute salmon bake is held and the Quileute royalty crowning is on Friday night. A fireworks display over the coast is held on Saturday night. Canoe races run Right: The Forks at high tide on Saturday and Sunday, displaying the Lions Club holds its traditional ancient oceangoing skills of the Quileute. The Quileute salmon bake Oceanside Resort offers a range of oceanfront accomeach Fourth of modations and an RV park is located within walking July at Tillicum Park in Forks. distance of the beach adjacent to the Lonesome Creek Store.

The 84th annual Makah Days Celebration is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 22, through Sunday, Aug. 24, at Neah Bay on the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula, about an hour from Port Angeles along state Route 112.

The Makah celebration is held along the coast near the newly-dedicated Fort Núùez Gaona-Diah Veterans Park monument. A street fair with dozens of vendors in booths lines Bayview Avenue. Look for authentic tribal arts and crafts from Makah artisans, as well as their sister tribes that travel from Vancouver Island. Tasty salmon fillets baked on cedar sticks make for a great meal. On Friday night, a fireworks display lights up the coast. During the day, canoe paddling races with youth and adult teams launch from the shore.

Traditional slahal games showcase the ancient Makah way of life.

There is no admission for Makah Days events, however there is a $10 recreational use permit parking pass fee if you are planning other recreational activities, such as hiking, camping, fishing or visiting Cape Flattery, Shi Shi Beach or other trails and beaches.

Surf and turf At LaPush the traditions of the coastal tribes are merged with the world of surfing over the Fourth of July at the annual Surfing & Traditions event held in the Lonesome Creek area on the south end of First Beach. On Saturday, July 5, a Surfrider Foundation beach cleanup is scheduled along with surfing lessons for youths. The young, novice surfers receive an armful of

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

surfing-related giveaways and a raffle is held for valuable items donated by surf wear companies and other sources; proceeds go to youthrelated programs for Quileute youth. On Sunday, July 6, a surfing competition will be held with shortboard and longboard, youths’, men’s and women’s divisions.

The contest draws competitors from the beaches of Washington, Hawaii, California and Vancouver Island and turns the LaPush shoreline into a mini-surf city.

The Rainforest Run motorcycle rally is new this year on the West End summertime calendar. Local motorcyclists Bob Wishon and Dan n Roth are putting the event together with the city of Forks. The town hopes to lure motorcycle enthusiasts of all stripes, with a focus on catering to families and alcohol-free activities. The dates for the motorcycle rally are Friday, Aug. 15, through Sunday, Aug. 17, with plenty of camping sites especially set up for incoming motorcyclists. There’s also a dance with live music at the Forks Elks Lodge.

Wrapping up the summer season on Saturday, Sept. 13, is Forks’ celebration of the Forks-set, best-selling young romance vampire and werewolf “Twilight” book series.

National news broadcasts claim the Twilight books are taking the place of Harry Potter in the world of teenage fiction and a Hollywood Twilight feature film is set for a Christmastime release. Sept. 13 is Stephenie Meyer Day in Forks and the event is held in honor

A Twilight theme birthday cake provided by Forks Outfitters was a highlight of Stephenie Meyer Day. The event honors the author of the popular Forks-set book series each Sept. 13. The date is the birthday of Meyer’s fictional character Bella Swan.

of the Twilight series author. The day is propitious for Twilight fans, for it’s the birthday of Bella Swan, the Forks High School girl who is the female protagonist of the Twilight books. The event is expected to draw hundreds of fans this year according to advance reservations received by the Forks Chamber of Commerce. The daylong celebration features a “Bella birthday bi thd hday hd ayy pparty” arr with a specially decorated cake and a scavenger hunt-like tour of the town with special Twilight giveaways in local stores and Forks locations featured in the books.

West End Web sites Forks Chamber of Commerce: www.forkswa.com City of Forks Event Calendar: www.forkswashington.org Quileute Nation: www.quileutetribe.org Makah Nation: www.makah.com/makahdays.htm West End Thunder: www.westendthunder.com Rainforest Run rally: www.rainforestrun.com

For

DAYS

25 years the residents of Joyce, in north central Clallam County, have celebrated the area’s wild blackberries with a festival. The Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival will be downtown along state Route 112, 16 miles west of Port Angeles, on Saturday, Aug. 2.

The all-day event begins with a pancake breakfast at 7 a.m. and the good eats continue through the afternoon, with a salmon bake and lots of wild blackberry pie. Contestants vie to have their pie judged the best during a tasting competition. To burn off all those calories, there is a hike on the trail at 10 a.m.

If the men seem a little scraggly, it’s because they’re entrants in the popular beard, moustache and goatee contest. The grand parade begins at noon, followed by an antique car display, children’s activities, button drawings and raffles. Luck of the Draw and several other music groups will play throughout the day.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

YOUR NEW Life

The well-being of our communities

by Ruth Marcus

If

we were to take the vital signs of our communities on the Olympic Peninsula, what would we find?

Sociologist Juliet Schor addresses central issues to the well-being of communities throughout America. In her book, “The Overspent American,” she observes that we are working harder, yet not having enough — especially not enough time to relax. She links consumerism with the record number of personal bankruptcies and credit card debt — all based on lifestyle aspirations that include the latest gimmicks and electronic gadgets, as well as the vehicles, clothing, vacations and “toys” that make people feel upwardly mobile.

She says that we are a “time poverty” country and that “downshifting” to a simpler life can help balance the demands of work and family life.

The idea of a simpler lifestyle is rooted in the concept that “everything you own owns you.” Basically, if what you own helps you do the things you want to do, great, but if it is a burden, let it go. And one of the challenges is learning to tell the difference.

My guess is that many of us who relocated to the Olympic Peninsula came because we felt the imbalance and the stress that Schor talks about — too much emphasis on consumerism and too little time to relax. We longed for a

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

more simple life with less work and less “stuff ” and more time for other things.

But, what are those other things? Are they things that add value and meaning to our lives? High on my personal list is a sense of community.

When I find myself pushing the shopping cart back to its designated corral, I marvel at the sense of well-being I find in such a simple action. At urban grocery stores, the norm has become, “Don’t bother to put your cart back.

That’s someone else’s problem,” which of course leads to an entire parking lot littered with abandoned carts. There is something so simple and civil about returning one’s cart, clearing the way for those who come after us while making sure others will have carts available, too.

After nine years here on the peninsula, I still marvel at the friendliness shared between people. I find it incredibly satisfying to meet other walkers and exchange a friendly greeting. Even drivers in passing cars or bicyclists nod or wave. The small town value of a simple “hello” means a lot to me — and obviously a lot to the others who take the time to smile, wave, nod and exchange greetings.

It even makes me grin when I get impatient with a slow driver and then remember the choking congestion and flaring tempers in six lanes of surly, snarled traffic

We are wealthy people here on the peninsula, rich with natural beauty.

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YOUR NEW Life

in my previous urban life. My frustration evaporates and I actually feel grateful for this person in front of me who reminds me of the value of slowing down.

Downshifting from consumerism and hectic lifestyles is a means of integrating into our rural setting. We choose to be here because somewhere within us we know that we don’t need all that “stuff.” We are willing to trade all those gourmet goodies for a life that doesn’t revolve around shopping malls. Somewhere within we appreciate the

appreciate and care for the land, air and water of the peninsula. As Woodrow Wilson observed, “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enrich the world — and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

Getting to know each other, talking to our neighbors and helping each other are healthy means for building strong communities. Appreciating our diversities adds to the richness of life on the peninsula.

We can connect with each other in so many ways.

are people who gather to share and explore nearly every interest you can think of.

Consider all of the many service organizations that provide mentoring, food distribution or services to the elderly, raise scholarship funds, create community forums or work with reading and literacy programs. Soroptimist International, the food banks, OlyCAP, Rotary and Lions clubs, the League of Women Voters, the Community Multicultural Alliance, United Good Neighbors and United

Together, the flock has a far greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. simplicity of knowing that fewer choices can be a blessing, not a deprivation. No one actually needs a zillion brands of laundry soap or 400 kinds of pickles.

Living on the peninsula offers us a rural, more relaxed lifestyle. We are wealthy people here on the peninsula, rich with natural beauty, abundant fresh produce, quality air and water and citizens who value all of these irreplaceable resources.

Learning to communicate, collaborate and cooperate fosters the strong, vibrant communities that make our lifestyle possible. Every day we learn more about ways to

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Every time we attend a city council or planning commission meeting, we become involved in the decision-making process. Speaking up, sharing our concerns and ideas is a way of participating in local government, a way of shaping our communities.

Sometimes we fear stepping outside our comfort zone into the fray of local politics. “I’m not a joiner,” you might say. Yet, there are countless ways to add to the community.

Are you interested in singing, dancing, gardening, kayaking, hiking or playing bridge and Scrabble? There

Way are just a few organizations that offer different ways to get involved in your community.

Community building also happens through art classes and photography, Audubon outings, yoga classes, hiking, boating and hot rod clubs. When we share our interests with others, we build relationships that, in turn, strengthen and enrich our communities.

It’s like tying knots to create a net. One connection links to another, creating a network that links us to each other, with lots of spaces to stretch and grow in between.

Some people are apathetic. Others declare, “I did all that

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

YOUR NEW Life

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enrich the world — and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

– Woodrow Wilson

joining stuff in my past life. I don’t need community here.”

It may seem that way, yet all it takes is illness, economic difficulties or death to realize the importance of having community support. Those are the times when it feels mighty good to have neighbors and friends help out.

Do you get the feeling that I’m on a mission? Yes, it’s true.

I want every couch potato and every workshop worm up and moving. I want you to realize how you cheat yourself and impoverish your community by choosing to be a stay-athome recluse. I am encouraging you to become involved in the ongoing process of creating communities that sustain the lifestyle that we came here to enjoy.

Join a walking group or a barter club. Or how about a book club, the Red Hat societies and quilting clubs? If you are grieving, there are hospice support groups, and if you want to lose weight, there are many groups and exercise

venues for you to participate in.

I am reminded of what happens when geese head south for the winter. They fly in a “V” formation and take turns leading that V, a formation that creates uplift that lessens the effort of each following bird. Together, the flock has a far greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

When one bird gets sick or injured, two geese fall out of the formation to help protect the fallen one and stay until he is once again able to fly or until he dies. Then they launch out again, joining another formation to catch up with their group.

There is a lot we can learn from the geese: We need each other. Supporting and inspiring each other energizes us all.

When the wind picks up across this great peninsula and the geese honk overhead, may we find ourselves participating in what it takes to sustain our communities through everyday choices.

Ruth Marcus, M.A., Ph.D. has a private counseling practice in Sequim. Visit www.wideawakepublishing.com to view her book, “Inspiration.”

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g a n i k r a M

a c l i s u M a s r r e y v i n n A

By Fred Obee

rural farmland outside Quilcene is the last place in the world you would expect to find world-class, classical chamber music, but there it is, nonetheless, in a 100-year-old dairy barn.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Music Festival, which offers concerts for 11 weeks this summer in a remodeled barn that serves as a concert hall, complete with hay bale seating. Or, if you prefer, less expensive tickets allow you to spread out on the lawn and listen.

According to general manager Linda Maguire, there are a few new treats in store for concert-goers in this anniversary year.

First, two open rehearsals are scheduled in the Left: Olympic Music Festival: concert barn. Both begin at 2 p.m. on July 2 and It’s like Seattle’s Benaroya Aug. 27.

The public is welcome to attend free of Hall, except that it’s in a barn and there are animals charge and see how the musicians prepare for their around. weekend concerts.

“It was what we originally did at the very beginTop left: Audiences listen as Iglitzen plays with some of ning,” Maguire said, referring to the early roots of the best classical chamber the concert series when founder Alan Iglitzen was music players from around the violist with the world renowned Philadelphia the country in a converted String Quartet. barn outside Quilcene.

Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader photos

The

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

For 20 years, the quartet’s members were musicians in residence at the University of Washington and students were invited to the quartet’s practices. The quartet also ran a program for four years at Centrum in Port Townsend before Iglitzen bought the Quilcene farm and moved practices there.

While the quartet disbanded many years ago, Iglitzen stayed on at the farm and, as the result, nurtured his musical muse and created the Olympic Music Festival.

Another change this year is that operations for the festival are located on the festival grounds. Until this past winter, the business of the Olympic Music Festival was conducted from offices in Seattle.

“I think Alan wanted to try wintering out here,” Maguire said. “I think he liked it pretty well. It’s incredible.”

No one is missing the Seattle traffic, that’s for sure, Maguire confirmed. The new commute for festival staff is down Center Road, across a rolling valley of open fields and dense woodlands. Upon arrival at work, the hustle and bustle and sounds of the city are replaced with a braying donkey herd (memorialized on some recordings) and the wind in the trees.

Right now, three people staff the office full time, handling promotions, publicity and ticket sales.

Left: Alan Iglitzen, the Olympic Music Festival’s founder, introduces some children to members of the donkey herd.

In establishing the music festival, he sought a more intimate connection to his audiences.

Photo by Fred Obee

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

“It’s a very busy operation,” Maguire said.

Iglitzen, whose playing career now stretches well beyond 50 years, stays in fine playing shape by welcoming some of the best and brightest classical musicians in the country. This season continues that tradition.

On the performance schedule is the N-E-W Trio, recently announced as the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association grand-prize winner. The Fischoff competition is the largest of its kind in the nation and every year attracts the best young talent in chamber music.

“It’s a very prestigious award so we’re looking forward to their premiere performance with us,” Maguire said.

formed the Philadelphia String Quartet, which became the quartet in residence at the University of Pennsylvania for four years. From 1966-1986, it was the quartet in residence at the University of Washington. The quartet performed worldwide in more than 50 countries over 30 years.

Now Iglitzen invites the younger echelon of classical music to the festival in two- and three-week stints. They take up residence in the rustic cabins on the property and sometimes even bring their families.

“We have a great cook because that’s important,” Iglitzen said with a smile. And while the setting is informal, the task of getting ready for each weekend’s concert is all-

Iglitzen stays in fine playing shape by welcoming some of the best and brightest classical musicians in the country.

The final concert of the season will combine a Sunday concert, an auction, food and champagne, Maguire said.

“We’re trying to do a few different things,” Maguire said.

“We want to just keep producing wonderful music.”

Iglitzen attracts young talent because of his many connections and his long tenure in the world of classical music.

He started in 1953 at the Minneapolis Symphony. In 1960, he joined the Philadelphia Orchestra and was assistant solo violist for five years. With friends he met there, he

professional. He can be flexible on just about everything, but he won’t tolerate letting the quality of the music slide.

“When we sit on that stage, we mean business,” Iglitzen said.

To learn more about the Olympic Music Festival, go to olympicmusicfestival.org or call 360-732-4800. Tickets are available online, over the phone or at the festival gate.

Performances are every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., June 28 through Sept. 7.

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PENINSULA Pathways

By MICHAEL DASHIELL

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A close-knit community fighting development has kept this land mostly untamed and with Washington state’s short purse strings, it looks like Miller Peninsula will stay this way for years to come.

Despite efforts to bring in everything from a destination resort to a 3,000-acre state park to a nuclear power plant, the peninsula remains unblemished from urban or even suburban sprawl.

Still, for those who look hard enough, there are perfect patches of land and beach open to the public for a weekend stroll, a horseback ride or a mountain bike ride.

Nestled neatly between Discovery Bay to the east, Sequim Bay to the west, the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north and the busy U.S. Highway 101 to the south, Miller Peninsula has all the amenities many Pacific Northwesterners love: thick, wooded forests, great views, solitude and more. That’s exactly why neighbors want to keep major development out. In 1969, plans for a nuclear power plant were scrapped thanks to seismic risks of the 500-acre site. In the late 1980s, the Mitsubishi Corporation had plans set for a $100 million destination resort and two golf courses — which fell through. And as recently as 2008, the Washington State Parks system had major plans for making the 3,000 acres of state land into a hallmark for its centennial celebration in 2013.

But those plans have stalled, leaving the peninsula with only a large plot of undeveloped state land and a diminutive beach park — Panorama Vista County Park — for the public to enjoy.

I had heard much more about the semi-rugged trails on the Olympic Peninsula’s interior than the beach park property, so I though I’d scope out what bike riders and equestrians rave about first. Since I have less coordination on a bike than I do on a horse — and being a rather scrawny reporter with a knack for injuries — I decided to hoof it on my own two feet.

Left: Barnacle-encrusted The trailhead is easy to miss, a simple rocks line the beach near open patch of dirt about 3.8 miles along Panorama Vista County Park on Miller Peninsula’s East Sequim Bay Road from Highway northern shore.

101. There’s little to no parking to speak of. Once on the trail, however, it’s easy to Above: Waves from the see why bikers and horse riders can find a Strait of Juan de Fuca lap the shores at Miller little slice of Pac-Northwest heaven here.

Peninsula.

Birds chirp above the drone of the highPhotos by Michael Dashiell

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

PENINSULA Pathways way and the din of lawnmowers and traffic found in suburbia hell falls silent. Even just a mile or two from the highway, this wooded path quickly gains the feel of a high-level mountain trail.

Mountain bike users and equestrians alike can loop the peninsula on a good day on state park land that stretches far across the peninsula and north toward — but hopefully not over — the peninsula’s bluffs.

Finding Panorama Vista County Park is nearly as hard and, like the peninsula’s interior trails, takes a little effort.

To get to the park, follow East Sequim Bay Road to its end and look for the park’s signs warning of toxic shellfish.

A small but lush ravine/trail leads visitors to the beach. From the beach, you can get impressive views of the towering beach bluffs and views of Protection Island, a bird and wildlife sanctuary. The public beach starts at the midpoint of Thompson Spit to the east and extends to the end of Travis Spit at the entrance to Sequim Bay, a three-mile stretch where clam and oyster collecting is open year-round. (Note: tidelands on the southern side of Travis Spit in Sequim Bay are private.)

An aerial photo shows the seclusion of Miller Peninsula’s Travis Spit.

Above: A breeze rustles the foliage near Panorama Vista County Park.

Right: On a modestly warm late spring day, Miller Peninsula’s flora give shade to state land trail users.

Photo by Washington state Department of Ecology

Since 1984, Clallam County park officials have established and maintained this public beach access, keeping a place for rock enthusiasts, birdwatchers and beachcombers.

Being none of those above, I figured I’d trek down the beach for a spell. With only one group of visitors joining me on the beach, a small party fighting the wind to get a nice family portrait (or so it looked), I found the beach perfect for a day getaway. To wit, this is a quintessential Washington beach: a bit windy and chilly to be sure, but one with splendid views, enough tide pool life to keep any budding biologist interested and plenty of driftwood seating to crack the weary spine of a favorite book.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

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Suzanne Morphet, left, and her daughter Alanna Spence, right, enjoy a day of sunshine in lavender fields at Purple Haze Lavender while visiting from Victoria.

Photo by Michael Dashiell

by Patricia Morrison Coate

This

old observation is not lost on some 30 lavender growers in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley and the 30,000 visitors who flock to the Sequim Lavender Festival every July to see, smell, touch, taste and buy the herb in all of its forms. Why the lust for lavender?

Mary Jendrucko, president of the Sequim Lavender Growers Association (SLGA), which is producing the 12th annual festival this year, attributes the heady herb’s popularity to its historical mystique. “Mystics, theologians, herbalists, crafters, artisans, cooks and chefs, gardeners and inventors have had a special relationship with lavender, making it a perennial favorite in our culture, landscapes and artistic and culinary pursuits,” Jendrucko noted.

Lavender lore says the herb has medicinal properties that treat bacterial and fungal infections plus the polar

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opposites of hyperactivity and insomnia. Since ancient times, lavender and love — or at least passion — have walked hand in hand.

Brigid Woodland, marketing director of the Sequim Lavender Festival, “lives lavender” for months in preparation for the three-day event. “I think people from Seattle and the surrounding area appreciate being in the lavender fields and surrounded by the great scenery that we may take for granted because we live here,” Woodland said.

“What sets us apart is that the community really gets involved and is really proud of what we do. We’re the largest lavender event (in the nation) and there’s something different for everybody — everybody can find his or her own niche.”

“I think (the scent of) lavender spreads relaxation

everywhere,” added Scott Nagel, the festival’s executive director and an avowed lavender lover who freely admits to sleeping on a lavender-stuffed pillow and attests to its therapeutic properties.

Lessons on lavender To bring the Sequim prairie back to its agricultural heritage, in the early 1990s a group of community members and farmers dreamed of an environmentally sustainable and marketable crop to plant in fields where dairy cattle once grazed. They seized upon lavender because the Sequim-Dungeness Valley’s dry, temperate climate is similar to that of the Mediterranean Sea coast where lavender has been grown for more than 2,500 years. The Greeks brought lavender plants to the Provence region of France

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

circa 600 B.C. and it remains the world’s premier commercial lavender-producing area.

Local visionaries also realized lavender’s potential as a value-added product — its essential oils have been distilled for soaps, perfumes and deodorants for centuries.

By 1996, a handful of farms had produced enough dried lavender bundles to sell at Sequim’s Open Aire Market. There the late Barbara Brightman, chairwoman of the Fields of Flowers group, displayed a stunning photograph of a

as a community of farmers committed to growing lavender in an environmentally sustainable way, and began a marketing campaign throughout the Northwest.

By its 10th anniversary, more than 30,000 people, from 50 states and more than 55 countries, were streaming to the festival, hopping on buses for the farm tours and taking in the street fair’s wares, food and entertainment.

Now in its 12th year, the festival has an annual estima economic impact of $3.6 million estimated th Sequim-Dungeness Valley. Several years on the ago, realizing the value of proprietary brandi marketing, SLGA registered the name ing in “Sequim Lavender Festival” and trademarked “Seq the ttitle “Lavender Capital of North America.” a In addition to producing the festival, SLGA’s 3030-member roster also supports more than 100 local and nationally recognized organiz nizations with proceeds from the festival’s tic sales. ticket

FFestival fare French lavender field, preaching that Sequim could be a destination for lavender, too. The following August, Brightman, Toni Anderson, Mayree Lowman and grower Cindy Caldicott produced the first official Sequim Lavender Festival at Olympic Cellars Winery (then in Sequim) and a thousand people came. So many of them wanted to see the fields that in 1998 growers opened their farms for tours and U-pick bundles. The next year the Sequim Lavender Growers Association formed,

For all the crowds, “the festival is easy to get around aro and is pretty unstressful once people get here,” Woodland said. “You can enjoy the day and not worry about your next destination in the festival.”

“One of the biggest things visitors say is how well organized the festival is,” Nagel added. “We have really good signage and a transportation bus system (to the eight farms on tour) that had 25,000 riders in 2007, so the local roads aren’t crowded. There’s shuttle parking or you can drive up to any of the farms and park.”

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

For the past several years, the Above: What can’t you made festival has kicked off Friday morn- from lavender? The gift shop ing with the animated observations at Cedarbrook Lavender & Herb Farm has a seemingly of Ciscoe Morris, a Seattle media endless supply of lavenderpersonality/horticulturalist, and he infused products. returns this year to the street fair Photo by Michael Dashiell with his unbridled enthusiasm for lavender during the festival’s open- Top left: Sequim resident Juliana Tamblyn grabs an ing ceremonies. Just a few blocks armful of lavender while from downtown Sequim, the lav- visiting Jardin du Soleil. ender-scented street fair, with more Photo by Ashley Oden than 150 juried booths on Fir Street, is abuzz with activity. For several blocks, amid a sea of purple, visitors can peruse all manner of lavender specialty products made by SLGA members, as well as arts and crafts fashioned by Northwest artisans. Mixing with the wafting lavender are the aromas of more than a dozen eateries featuring locally inspired cuisine — and lavender in some of their dishes. If you’re really lavender loony, you can make a meal of lavender bratworst, lavender vinaigrette salad, lavender lemonade and lavender ice cream.

To leap into the lap of lavender, drive or take an air-conditioned bus to several or all eight lavender

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are eager to discuss the life cycle of lavender through “Meet the Farmer” sessions.

“Visitors really enjoy the different fields at the different farms and they find themselves returning to one over and over because a certain one feels right to them,” Nagel noted. “It’s like coming back to see old friends.”

“You can get into lavender as much or as little as you want,” Woodland added. “We have things to do for every level of lavender lover and lots of things for the guys to do, too.” Concurrent community events include a barn dance, several salmon dinners, a cruise around Protection Island, a quilt show, an area wine tour, an art studio tour, a golf tournament and outdoor jazz.

“Obviously, with the cost of gas, people are making choices of where to go and the Olympic Peninsula is in a good position to grow its tourism,” Nagel said. “The peninsula is a premier destination and the Lavender Festival is just one of a variety of family activities.”

farms where you can meander through fields full of the purple mounds, picking your own lavender-laden stalks.

Although Grosso is the staple, one farm produces more than 45 varieties of lavender. Each farm has its own distinctive flair, welcoming visitors to its favorite food and retail vendors, entertainers, specialty demonstrations and activities. Several farmers offer the opportunity to see lavender buds distilled into essential oil and all

Above: A group of Red Hat Society ladies arrive at one of the eight farms on tour.

Photo by Ashley Oden

What’s new “Sunday, each farm will have a cooking demonstration from which species is best to use (for culinary applications) down to actual cooking demonstrations, from picking to using in dishes. We have some great chefs lined up,” Nagel said. “Cooking with lavender is one of the major uses and we are pleased to celebrate the many uses of lavender.”

Always attuned to visitors, SLGA, which sponsors the festival, and Olympic Peninsula Community Celebrations, which produces it, will introduce a new major event Sunday, July 20 — a Grand Lavender Dinner. “We’ll finish off the event with the lavender dinner because we wanted to celebrate the many uses of lavender,” Nagel said. The ticketed event will feature locally grown, organic food such as Dungeness crab gazpacho with lavender focaccia, wilted spinach salad with lavender vinaigrette, Provençal chicken, hand-crafted artisan breads, creamery cheeses and lavender meringue, as well as local wines.

“The world of lavender use has exploded in the past five years and the way the market is changing, we’re really in a good position,” Nagel said.

For more information, see www.lavenderfestival. com or call 360-681-3024 or 877-681-3035.

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JOB SITE DELIVERY 67

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B Y

PAT R I C I A

M O R R I S O N

C O AT E

An

educator, a scientist, an artist, a musician. Jeanette Stehr-Green is all of these and more, yet she demurs at being called a Renaissance woman.

“Maybe I’m a Renaissance wannabe,” she protests with a shy laugh.

“I think of Leonardo da Vinci who opened up medical science, but so much of what he did (anatomical drawings) seemed like artwork. It would be a dream to call myself a Renaissance person in that way.”

If there is a gene for teaching, Stehr-Green has it — and probably could identify it under an electron microscope. Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, as the daughter of fine arts teachers, she corralled neighborhood friends into playing school. Today, at 52, students are lining up to take Stehr-Green’s classes in person and online in two very different study areas: gardening and epidemiology.

The scientist

Reluctant Renaissance woman LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

“I had the thrill of teaching college biology and every opportunity I had to teach, I did,” Stehr-Green said with electrified enthusiasm. “I was so in love with biology I wanted to be a biologist’s biologist. Teaching and learning have been the guiding principles in my life.”

Stehr-Green speaks about science with the enthusiasm Carrie Bradshaw, of “Sex and the City” fame, reserves for designer shoes.

“The excitement of science — it helps me put all the pieces together, it adds the reason to me why so many things are the way they are. I also like science because it makes our lives better.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree from Rice University in Houston in 1997, she started working at the University of Texas Health Science Center. “Everyone was telling me I should go to medical school, so I did.” Although she found practicing medicine “really neat” after graduating in 1983 from the University of Texas, Stehr-Green admitted its clinical side was overwhelming. She realized it was the patients’ bugs rather than the patients directly that captivated her. A fellowship in epidemiology at Top left: “Tulips in Vase,” the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., a watercolor further confirmed she’d found her calling.

Above: Jeanette Stehr“Public health looks at the whole popula- Green relaxes in her Blue tion and its most pressing needs and that Mountain Road home.

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is a very rewarding thing. It was a very exciting training program, to be able to do epidemiology in the field where it’s needed. It’s been incredible because I drew on my scientific skills, I love working with people, using my creative abilities, and it’s often on the cutting edge of medicine and public health.”

Epidemiology, the study of disease in a population, led Stehr-Green, who had married fellow epidemiologist Paul Green in 1984, into investigating parasitic outbreaks such as Hantavirus and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “I began focusing on training and began developing case studies, teaching epidemiological methods and outbreak investigation. The case studies were my bread and butter,” Stehr-Green said, savoring the memory like honey. “I would develop real life public health problems and opportunities to learn from that and I immensely enjoyed teaching the case studies. But suddenly life seemed too short.”

“Being trained in the sciences has influenced the way I look at art and coming from a family of artists has affected how I look at science.”

Although in taking jobs in 1994 with Washington State Department of Health in Olympia, the couple had intended to slow down, “it was from the frying pan to the fire. We were working more, working around the clock,” Stehr-Green said. “We had built our house (between Port Angeles and Sequim) in 1998 and decided to move here and see what life brings us.” For someone isolated six miles up Blue Mountain Road, the CDC’s offer of telecommuting consulting work and developing epidemiology training materials was Stehr-Green’s image of nirvana. From their shared office amid the evergreens, she develops computer-based case studies in epidemiology for students in public health. “My ‘games’ have been well received and I just finished up the fourth one, bringing in the excitement of the local setting.” She’s also a clinical assistant professor in epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

The artist An interest in and appreciation of art always had lingered in the background as Stehr-Green focused on science. “Being out here has given me a lot of opportunities to let my artistic side come forward in drawing, watercolor and Top left: “I just stopped by painting classes at Peninsula College. Being able this clinic briefly to check and before I knew it, I to be in a class helped me develop skills I didn’t in, was doing an impromptu know were there. I like getting away from science class with Doug Ridgeway and Rebecca Whitfield. I and immersing myself.”

Yet science and art commingle in her psyche really love teaching and feel rewarded when I see and her works. “Being trained in the sciences greatly the lights come on for the has influenced the way I look at and do art and student.” coming from a family of artists and being around other artists has affected how I look at science,” Left: Jeanette and Paul Stehr-Green, Phyllis Sprinkle she reflects. As exacting in her favorite medium and Greg Marsh play lively of charcoal pencil drawing as she was in research, Celtic music for fun.

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

for herself, often spending hours looking up more information to share. It was a short hop from student to teacher in Master Gardeners. She became a training instructor, a plant clinic instructor and, with Judy English and Lori Kennedy, she developed a landscape basics program. She also received the group’s Award of Outstanding Achievement for her public service.

“It’s been great fun and I love working with the other Master Gardeners, training the new Master Gardeners and dealing with the public in a way they can understand to make them more successful gardeners,” Stehr-Green says.

“I think if I’m willing to make a fool of myself, I can be entertaining. I do like making presentations … because I have something I want to give you.”

The musician As their father was a classically trained musician and band director, the three Stehr children were band members from elementary through secondary school. “I played the flute from sixth grade to college and never thought about it after that,” she recalled. A Master Gardener friend and violinist coaxed her into picking up her flute for informal get-togethers, but Paul, a member of a rock and roll band, pushed harder. “Aren’t you going to do something with it?” he nudged. Thus was born the Celtic quartet of Shades of Green, so named “because nobody’s shirts were the same green,” Stehr-Green giggled. A favorite at senior centers, clubs and nursing homes, the rollicking tunes are played by Paul on bass, Jeanette on flute, Phyllis Sprinkle on fiddle and Greg Marsh on guitar. “Now I actually enjoy and don’t mind practicing and I love hearing and playing music,” she says.

In all earnestness, Stehr-Green sighs, “I feel everything I’ve talked about is only grazing the surface. There’s so much to know … We’re really happy in Clallam County. It’s the first place we’ve called home and we really want to contribute to the community. Learning, teaching and how I can be part of that gets me up in the morning and gives me good dreams at night.”

Renaissance wannabe or Renaissance woman?

You be the judge.

Celebrate Lavender ® July 18, 19 & 20, 2008 8 beautiful Farms on Tour in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Demonstrations, food, music, u-pick, meet the farmers and more!

Street Fair More than 150 juried artists and products from the Sequim Lavender Growers Association.TM

Watercolor by Sally Cays

Stehr-Green confesses she labors long and hard over Above: “Afghan each piece. “In my art, I strive for realism. It must be Girl,” 1984 original photograph by Steve anatomically and functionally correct and have the McCurry, published in right perspective, so when I draw a flower, it includes National Geographic a lot of detail because I know what parts a flower must Magazine, June 1985. have to survive … the petals, the septals, stamens with Publication permission courtesy of Steve anthers, stigmas, etc.”

McCurry Studios.

Through acquaintances, she’s had some illustra- In charcoal pencil tions published in two books, but mostly Stehr-Green by Jeanette Stehr-Green. sketches and paints for herself. A powerful piece is her interpretation of the haunting portrait of a young Afghan girl, originally photographed by Steve McCurry for National Geographic in 1984. “One of my major goals in art is trying to represent life and objects accurately — it really drives me! This particular effort, however, was a little different. The look of the Afghan girl, especially her eyes, quietly expressed a certain strength and resilience which touched all who saw the photo. And I wanted to see if I could capture that emotion in my drawing.”

New Culinary Program on Sunday

Farm Tour Tickets $15 Children 12 and under free.

The teacher

Sequim, Washington

Lavender Capital of North America TM

With the vigor of the you-know-who bunny, Stehr-Green also straddles the worlds of art and science through her involvement with the Clallam County Master Gardeners program. “I had never heard about it until we came to Washington. It was a really big time commitment (128 hours) for training and I really wanted to understand. I took the training in 2003 and it was incredible — excellent speakers and well-conceived training.” Always the student, she found gardening and botany an endless source of learning

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

For more information, call toll free

877-681-3035 Presented by Sequim Lavender Growers Association TM www.lavendergrowers.org

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12th Annual

www.lavenderfestival.com 71

EC Events CALENDAR Port P ort Townsend Townsen nd

Port Angeles

Park, Port Townsend. Afternoon family activities, band music and evening fireworks sponsored by the city, Fort Worden State Park and Sunrise Rotary, 360-385-4115.

• Forks Old Fashioned Fourth of July, various locations in Forks. info@forks wa.com.

town Sequim as part of the Sequim Lavender Festival. Join the downtown merchants on Washington Street for Jazz in the Alley featuring some of the Olympic Peninsula’s finest jazz musician.

• Quileute Days, 10 a.m. in LaPush.

Tribal festival with parade, canoe races, bone games, arts and crafts, softball tourney and fireworks. info@forkswa. com.

July 11-13

July 24-26

• Hadlock Days, all day Saturday/Sunday in downtown Port Hadlock, with salmon bake at 5 p.m. Friday at the Inn at Port Hadlock. Parade, lawnmower races, antique tractor show, classic car show, hayrides, food, vendors and 1950s-1960s music. 360-379-5380, www.hadlockdays.com.

• Clallam Bay & Sekiu Fun Days, 10 a.m. in Clallam Bay/Sekiu. Parades, races, games, food, fun, craft vendors, music and entertainment. Fireworks on Saturday night. chamber@sekiu.com or www.sekiu.com.

• Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend, Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend.

Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend features straight-ahead jazz and internationally acclaimed musicians on the grounds of Fort Worden State Park and Jazz in the Clubs, Thursday-Saturday evenings and Sunday morning in downtown Port Townsend. 800-733-3608, 360-385-5320 or www.centrum.org.

July 4-6

to Forks

Sequim

June 18-Sept. 3 • Concert on the Pier series, 6 p.m. every Wednesday, City Pier, Port Angeles.

The community is invited free of charge to the events with food and beverage vendors on-site throughout the night.

360-452-2363 ext. 11 or www.port angeles.org.

local nurseries or go through Google to www.petalsandpathways.com.

• Rakers Cruz-In all day at Memorial Field, Port Townsend, sponsored by Rakers Car Club, 360-379-0638, www. rakerscarclub.com.

June 20-July 12 • “Where’s My Money?” by John Patrick Shanley. Produced by Key City Public Theatre at Key City Playhouse, 914 Washington St., Port Townsend.

A hilarious, semi-surrealistic comedy. 360-385-7396, www.keycitypublic theatre.org.

• Olympic Music Festival, 2 p.m. at concert barn, rural Quilcene, watch for signs off U.S. Highway 101. Classical music every Saturday and Sunday, no pets allowed. www.olympicmusicfestival.org, info@ olympicmusicfestival.org or 360-732-4800 for tickets and reserved seating.

June 21

June 29-July 6

• Port Townsend Secret Garden Tour, 10 a.m. in and around Port Townsend.

Tour reveals eight private gardens in a map-provided, self-guided tour organized by the Jefferson County Master Gardeners. Tickets are limited. For tickets, call 360-765-4717 or www.jefferson. wsu.edu/.

• Centrum Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend, various times, weeklong activities. Traditional American music with a week of workshops, dances and three days of main-stage concerts at McCurdy Pavilion. 360-385-3102 or www. centrum.org.

June 22-Sept. 21

July 4

• Sequim City Band outdoor concerts, 3 p.m. every Sunday at James Center for the Performing Arts in Carrie Blake Park, Sequim.

• 4th of July Community Celebration, 3-11 p.m., City Pier, Port Angeles. Food and craft vendors and live music. Grand parade on Lincoln Street to First Street from 5:30-6:30 p.m., fireworks display at dusk. vanessa@portangeles.org.

• Fourth of July Celebration, 11 a.m.2 p.m., Sequim Prairie Grange, Macleay Road, Museum and Arts Center annual event with entertainment, old cars, children’s games. No admission, food for modest fee. 360-681-2257 or www.museumandartscenter.org.

• Sequim City Band Concert, 3 p.m. at James Center in Carrie Blake Park.

City band patriotic concert. 681-5371 or www.sequimcityband.org.

• Fourth at the Fort Celebration and Fireworks Show, Fort Worden State

June 27-28 • Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival, 7:30 p.m. performances at Fort Worden State Park, Joseph Wheeler Theatre, sponsored by Centrum, 360-385-5320, 800-733-3608, www. centrum.org.

June 28 • Master Gardeners Home Garden Tour, Port Angeles, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Seven mystery gardens in surrounding area. Each garden has an attending host and master gardener. Tickets available at

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Jeni Fleming Trio June 28-Sept.

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July 12 • Dobro Showcase, 7:30 p.m. performance at Fort Worden State Park, Joseph Wheeler Theater, sponsored by Centrum, 360-385-5320, 800-733-3608, www.centrum.org.

July 18-19 • Summer Sampler, readings of new works by local playwrights. Presented

by Key City Public Theatre at Key City Playhouse, 914 Washington St., Port Townsend. 360-385-7396, www.keycity publictheatre.org.

July 18-20 • Sequim Lavender Festival, 9 a.m., various locations in and around Sequim.

Eight farms on tour, demonstrations, agricultural history, workshops, horticultural programs, food, music, street fair. 800-681-3035 or www.lavender festival.com.

• Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club 22nd annual Quilt Show, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sequim Middle School gym, Sequim. More than 250 quilts on display and hourly presentations of heirloom quilts. Educational activities, demonstrations, a country store and a merchants’ mall. Admission charged. 360-683-2072 or www.olypen. com/pneedle/sunbonnetsue.

• Jazz in the Alley, 5:30 p.m. in down-

July 25-27 • Arts in Action, all day at City Pier, Port Angeles. Event will host nine sand sculptures, artists, merchants and vendors, live music, car shows Saturday and Sunday. 360-417-0501.

July 26 • Forks Fly-In and Antique Car Show, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at Forks Airport. Vintage, kit and traditional aircraft “fly-in” to the Forks Airport for salmon bake with music, fly-bys and plane rides.

July 28-29 • Hurricane Ridge Kennel Club Dog Shows, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Carrie Blake Park, Sequim. American Kennel Club licensed all breed dog shows and obedience trials.

360-681-3707.

• Family Music Festival at Memorial Field in Port Townsend benefits Habitat for Humanity and Andy Mackie Music Foundation, 360-316-9556.

• Fred Orr Memorial Softball Tournament, various times, Duncan Fields, Forks. Teams come from across Washington, the Northwest and British Columbia.

Aug. 1-17 • “As You Like It,” a Shakespeare in the Park production by Key City Public Theatre at Chetzemoka Park, Port Townsend. Chance encounters and entangled love affairs bring both comedy and satire to the timeless dilemma of city

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

Aug. 1-2 • Centrum’s Port Townsend Blues and Heritage Festival performances, Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend. A free downtown street dance followed

by Blues in the Clubs, eight bands playing simultaneously on Friday-Saturday nights. 800-733-3608, 360-385-5320 or www.centrum.org.

Aug. 2 • Joyce Daze Blackberry Festival, 7 a.m.-3 p.m., Joyce. Highlights include homemade pies with local blackberries, a parade, children’s activities, a juried arts and crafts show, salmon bake, vendor booths, demonstrations and live entertainment. www.joycewa.com or 360-928-2428.

Aug. 3-6 • Centrum’s Roots of Rock performances, Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend. 800-733-3608, 360-385-5320 or www.centrum.org.

Aug. 8 • Forks Family Festival, 10 a.m. in downtown Forks. Family festival with food vendors, arts and crafts, entertainment and much more. www.forkswa. com.

Aug. 8-9 • Port Angeles Heritage Weekend, 10 a.m., downtown Port Angeles.

Guided walking tours of historical downtown Port Angeles, tours of Elwha Dam and more. Register in the atrium of The Landing mall. 360-460-1001 or donperry10@yahoo.com.

Aug. 8-10 • Jefferson County Fair, 10 a.m. at fairgrounds in Port Townsend. 4x4 mud drags, barrel racing, draft horse pulls, magicians, music, 4-H and FFA exhibits.

Animals and much more. 360-385-1013, jeffcofairgrounds@olypen.com or www. jeffco fairgrounds.com.

Aug. 14-17 • Clallam County Fair, fairgrounds in Port Angeles. Draft horse pull, concerts, rodeo, logging show, crafts, art, 4-H and FFA animals and much more.

360-417-2551 or www.clallamcounty fair.com.

Events CALENDAR EC

Radio You Can Rely On Tune to AM 1450

versus country life. 360-385-7396, www.keycitypublictheatre.org.

Aug. 16 • 19th annual Kiwanis Classic Car Show at Memorial Field in downtown Port Townsend. 360-385-0706.

Aug. 22-24 • Makah Days, 10 a.m., Neah Bay. The 84th annual celebration focuses around Makah patriotism for the U.S. with Makah war veterans taking a “high seat.”

Canoe races and bone games, children’s races, royalty, salmon bake, traditional dancing, talent show and fireworks.

• Award-Winning Local News • ABC News • Sports: Mariners Sonics Huskies Seahawks Roughriders • Weather • Paul Harvey • Rush Limbaugh • Stimulating talk for the Peninsula

Sept. 5-7 • 32nd annual Wooden Boat Festival, 9 a.m. at Point Hudson in Port Townsend.

An internationally acclaimed annual celebration featuring 200 wooden vessels of all kinds. Authentic activities and demonstrations for all ages. 360-344-3436, festival@woodenboat.org or www. woodenboat.org.

360-457-1450 • PO Box 1450 313 W. 1st St, Port Angeles Listen online at: www.konp.com

The The Station Station that that Knows Knows the the Peninsula Peninsula

Sept. 6 • Pedaling the Muse, a 100-mile, oneday bicycle ride from Seattle to Port Angeles. Cyclists will begin at 7 a.m. at The Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park and follow a magical “coastal route” skirting Bainbridge Island, through the Suquammish Valley, Port Gamble, Port Ludlow, the rural Chimacum Valley, Discovery Bay, the Strait of Juan de Fuca north of Gardiner, Jamestown, Sequim Bay and concluding on 23 miles of the Olympic Discovery Trail to Port Angeles and the western terminus of the ride at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.

360-775-4423, rob@expocreations.com or www.pafac.org.

Sept. 6-7 • North Olympic Land Trust’s StreamFest, noon at Ennis Arbor Farm off Lindberg Road, Port Angeles. Fun activities for all ages. Free admission.

Salmon cookout fundraiser. Shuttle transportation from 11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. from parking area at north end of Ennis Street to event entry on Lindberg Road, opposite Peninsula Golf Club.

360-457-5415, 360-417-1815 or www. northolympic landtrust.org.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

www.clallamtransit.com

Sequim | Port Angeles | Forks | Clallam County

FREE DAY PASS

Please Clip & Give ENTIRE Coupon to Bus Driver No cash value.

Expires 09/13/08 1 (360) 452-4511 1 (800) 858-3747

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und on the o b a Oly s r i m fa Come one, come all! pi d c n • Centrum Festival of American Fiddle a February Tunes September

• Discovery Bay Salmon Derby, Sequim, Gardiner and Port Townsend • Playwrights’ Festival, Port Townsend

April

• Olympic BirdFest, Sequim • Sekiu Salmon Derby, Sekiu • Jazz in the Olympics Festival, Port Angeles • RainFest, Forks • Jeffco Expo, Port Townsend

May • Rhododendron Festival, Port Townsend • Victorian Festival, Port Townsend • Sequim Irrigation Festival, Sequim • Juan de Fuca Festival, Port Angeles • Shrimpfest, Brinnon • Olympic Art Festival, Quilcene • Halibut Derby, Port Angeles

June • Flipper Over Festival, Port Angeles • Olympic Music Festival, Quilcene

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• Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival, Port Townsend

July • Old Fashioned Fourth of July, Forks • Fourth of July Community Celebration, Port Angeles • Fourth of July Celebration, Sequim • Fourth at the Fort Celebration, Port Townsend • Hoodsport Fourth of July Celebration, Hoodsport • Surfing & Traditions, LaPush • Clallam Bay/Sekiu Fun Days, Clallam Bay/Sekiu • Sequim Lavender Festival, Sequim • Quileute Days, LaPush • Hadlock Days, Port Hadlock • Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend, Port Townsend • Forks Fly-In & Antique Car Show, Forks • Arts in Action, Port Angeles • Family Music Festival, Port Townsend

August • Joyce Daze Blackberry Festival, Joyce • Centrum’s Port Townsend Blues & Heritage Festival, Port Townsend • Forks Family Festival, Forks • Port Angeles Heritage Weekend, Port Angeles • Jefferson County Fair, Port Townsend • Clallam County Fair, Port Angeles • Makah Days, Neah Bay

. ula ns ni Pe

Fes tiv al s

THE Living END

• LaPush Last Chance Salmon Derby, LaPush • Wooden Boat Festival, Port Townsend • Port Townsend Film Festival, Port Townsend • StreamFest, Port Angeles • Port Ludlow Funfest, Port Ludlow • Quilcene Community Fair, Quilcene • Hickory Shirt & Heritage Days, Forks

October • Kinetic Skulpture Race, Port Townsend • Art Port Townsend Arts Festival, Port Townsend • North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival, Sequim • Harvest Celebration & Farm Tours, Clallam and Jefferson counties • Forest Storytelling Festival, Port Angeles • Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival, Port Angeles For information on festival dates and locations, contact local chambers of commerce.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

business

DIRECTORY

Products, services and ideas from across the Peninsula. To advertise in Clallam County, call Debi Lahmeyer at 360-683-3311. In Jefferson County, call Kathy Decker at 360-385-2900.

Home & Garden Health & Wellness

Real Estate

Retail

Services

Certified Hearing Custom kitchen & bath design, quality cabinetry, lighting & lighting design, large selection of cabinet hardware.

11 E. Runnion Rd. Sequim (360) 582-1171

Our nursery nurtures inspiration, education, and vision for all who visit.

Sequim Central

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Sequim East

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For the Best in Peninsula Real Estate

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Come see our wide selection of landscape materials, ceramic & porcelain and tile.

Located at 490 South Blake Ave., Sequim (681-2877) & 4001 Tumwater Truck Rte, Port Angeles (457-3371).

131 Kitchen-Dick Rd., Sequim 360.683.2855 www.visionlandscapenursery.com

New and established L&I welcome.

Insurance and Medicaid.

Free testing at 819 Georgiana St., Ste. B, Port Angeles also Tuesdays in Forks - 51 Spartan, #D

360-452-2228

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A place where a person with memory loss never forgets they are Loved!

651 Garry Oak Drive • Sequim, WA

360-582-9309 www.dungenesscourte.com

279 W. Washington St. Sequim, WA 98382 360.683.3800 • 866.525.7294 www.winsequim.com

711 E. Front St. Port Angeles, WA 98362 360.457.0456

•

800.786.1456

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842 E. Washington St. Sequim, WA 98382 360.683.4844

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800.431.0661

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137 Fairway Drive Sequim, WA 98382 360.683.6880 • 800.359.8823 www.sequimproperty.com/sunland

Sequim | Port Angeles | Forks | Clallam County

Karon’s

FRAME CENTER A great frame touches the entire room, adding elegance & personal style. Mon-Fri 9:30-5:30, Sat. 10-4:00. 625 E. Front St., Port Angeles. (360) 565-0308. 755 W. Washington St. Ste. A, Sequim. (360) 582-9275

Clallam Transit System 830 W. Lauridsen Blvd.

Port Angeles, WA 98363

360-452-4511 1-800-858-3747 www.CLALLAMTRANSIT.com

The UPS Store® LOCALLY OWNED FRANCHISE

800-800-1577 ourfirstfed.com LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

(360) 457-1450 Listen to www.konp.com ...anytime...anywhere!

Port Angeles, WA

Business & Shipping Solutions with World-Class Customer Service.

Digital Printing Newsletters & Bulletins Riverbend Center 1400 W. Washington St. Sequim 582-9534

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&

NOW Then

The Haller Statue & Fountain

T

he Haller Statue and Fountain, located at the base of the Taylor Street stairs in Port Townsend, has been a well-loved landmark and gathering spot since its installation in 1906. At the unveiling, according to the Port Townsend Leader, “with a shout the large number present proclaimed their delight at the beauty revealed.” The fountain’s pool was famously stocked with trout early in the 20th century by local bar owner Charlie Lange, who actually trained the fish to jump through a hoop. The Haller name comes from the donor, but the actual sculpture is known as “Galatea.” Originally cast of a low quality pot metal, it was damaged and repaired numerous times over the decades until 1992, when the Port Townsend Kiwanis Club rounded up donations and a new bronze was recast by Riverdog Fine Arts Foundry. The original statue is in the possession of the Jefferson County Historical Society. Today, the fountain plaza is a newly refurbished, pedestrian-friendly meeting place.

Historic photo from The Leader Collection. Current photo by Fred Obee.

The Capt. John Morris house

C

apt. John Morris (1813-1892), a sea captain, trader and probate judge, built the craftsman house in 1875 on what is now the southeast corner of Clark Road and Marine Drive. The structure, an expensive show house for its time, was built from first-growth lumber and has endured more than 130 years of the elements without a coat of paint or a trace of rot.

The Sequim-Dungeness Museum and Arts Center moved the Capt. John Morris house and Washington Harbor Schoolhouse (1892) on March 9 from the corner of Sequim-Dungeness Way and Medsker Road, where they had been since 1981, south to the planned museum site across from Sequim High School.

The site currently houses the museum’s research and administrative staff and a warehouse of artifacts.

“Eventually, when we get a new museum, I foresee the school becoming a learning center and the Morris house could become a living history exhibit,” MAC executive director Katherine Vollenweider said.

Below: Monroe’s Home Movers employees make every inch count while trying to negotiate the 132-year-old Capt. John Morris house through the Sequim Avenue and Old Olympic Highway roundabout on its way to the Sequim-Dungeness Museum and Arts Center.

Photo by Evan McLean At left: The Capt. John Morris house as it appeared in a photo circa 1970 before it was moved the first time.

Photo courtesy of Sequim-Dungeness Museum and Arts Center

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SUMMER | JUNE 2008

are designed to withstand nearly everything can throw at them.

For new construction, retrofits, or remodels, CrystaLite Railing Systems is your clear choice. CrystaLite railings feature two post, and four top rail designs, as well as a double rail option. All components are completely interchangeable for maximum flexibility. Great for balconies, guard rails, patios, decks, porches, stairs, gates, terraces, windbreaks, or whatever you can dream up.

Sustained high winds, like those along our shorelines, and pelting rain or freezing cold will not cause the enamel-like finish to rust, rot, chip, peel or split. No year-after-year regimen of scraping, sanding, and painting, ever! Just install it, and enjoy it.

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Employee-Owned Stores

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