French Valley Vineyard hosted a free Family Fun Day at the North Barn on Aug. 18 featuring mindful music with Miriam Pico. Photo by Sarah Peschel
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer held up her book True Gretch and a jar of Cherry Republic’s “True Gretch Cherry Salsa” at the Traverse City Opera House on July 31 after Cherry Republic founder Bob Sutherland interviewed her for the National Writers Series.
Maddy Ruegg dances with fresh dahlias at her fresh-cut flower stand on MacFarlane Rd. at the bottom of Inspiration Point hill. Learn more on Instagram at @SleepingBearBlooms.
St. Louis, Missouri, resident Jacob Kurtz shared his photographs taken in Glen Haven, where the 2024 Fourth of July parade lined up before departing for Glen Arbor.
Sleeping Bear Surf family and friends celebrated the inaugural Beryl Days on June 28 with a paddleout from the Empire lighthouse. Some carried flowers in their teeth and in their hair. The event honored Beryl Skrocki, who passed in October 2022. Photo by Beth Price
Lily Konold foils on Little Glen Lake while the sun sets into the Sleeping Bear Dunes on May 31. Photo by Kate St. Julian
Blind Dog Hank and the Burdickville Boys played an Empire Area Emergency Fund concert in the Friendly Tavern’s outdoor beer garden on May 26. The venue is for sale, and local musicians hope the beer garden remains a dynamic locale for them to jam. Photo by David Geisler
March is maple sap month. Britton Wheeler, a 15-year-old ninth grader at Glen Lake School, makes and sells maple-coated cashews under his brand Northway Maple Company from syrup he harvests and boils on his parents’ property near Cedar. This is Britton’s third year making maple syrup and coating cashews he buys wholesale. The name for his project was partly inspired by his great grandfather’s soda shop, Northway Bottling Co. Britton, who can sell at local farmers’ markets, hopes in the future to use a commercial kitchen and sell his maple-coated cashews at local stores.
“Hoar frost,” a feathery frost that forms as a result of specific climate conditions, covered trees and branches throughout Leelanau County on Sunday, Feb. 4, inspiring countless photos and conversations. The prematurely melting snow and the impacts of global warming on northern Michigan’s winter created a layer of fog that blanketed the region in an eery but beautiful landscape. According to the Woodland Trust, the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, “the word ‘hoar’ comes from old English and refers to the old age appearance of the frost: the way the ice crystals form makes it look like white hair or a beard.
Heron (left, age 3) and August (right, age 2) Sedlar helped their parents last month during the apple harvest at Green Bird Organic Cellars near Northport. Photo by Tim Hearin.