As nearly 50 sailboats competed in a National race last week, spectators and participants enjoyed the beautiful sights and fast pace of races in the center of Glen Lake. The Butterfly Nationals were hosted by the Glen Lake Yacht Club, and featured the Butterfly, a 12-foot, two-crew, one-design scow that many Great Lakes sailors first skipper as they learn the skills of sailing. Held annually, this is the third time that the GLYC has hosted the event.
Art’s Tavern Tim Barr reports that “Art’s will be closed from Monday night, Dec. 23, at 10 p.m. until breakfast at 7 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 26, for re-varnishing the bar and other maintenance tasks. “Merry Christmas to all!” he says.
Kiddos in Halloween costumes got an early start on their trick-or-treating on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 27. Glen Arbor was full of families with children dressed as bumblebees, witches, bunny rabbits, cheerleaders, cowboys, crayons, ghostbusters, sharks, trojans and even The Claw. Check out our gallery of photos. Who do you recognize here?
The federal government shutdown early this morning — forced by the Republican-led House of Representatives who oppose the Affordable Care Act — prompted the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and National Parks across the nation, to lock their gates. The timing here in Glen Arbor is highly unfortunate, as it threatens to stunt our growing shoulder tourism season.
It’s just after 7 a.m. and a milk-hauling truck is slowly climbing the gravel drive toward the milking parlor at Garvin Farms, north of Cedar. Two or three times a week, John and Anne Hoyt of Leelanau Cheese make the trek in their truck, aptly named “The Milky Way,” to the Garvins’ immaculately-kept dairy farm along Lakeshore Drive. Here, the Hoyts draw two test samples of the farm’s fresh milk from a stainless tank before loading the truck with what will soon be made into Swiss Raclette and, in summer, Fromage Blanc cheeses.
This is the story of six female photographers who fell in love with the Leelanau Peninsula and found a way to share that love through their photos. In our July 11 issue we profiled Jane Fortune of Leland for her work discovering female artists of the Italian Renaissance, many of whom are described in her book, Invisible Women. Fortune’s work, for which she just received an Emmy, inspired our effort to showcase the work of female photographers on the Leelanau Peninsula.
The lovely pitcher plant (Sarracemia purpurea) lives in the extreme acid conditions found in our local peat bogs and fens. A nearly spherical flower with showy pinkish-purple sepals is borne at the end of a scape (leafless stem) that can reach two feet. Unusual leaves, springing from the base of the plant, form tubular “pitchers” that fill with rainwater. The pitcher leaves have a flared lip that serves as a landing strip for insects. Inside the rim, downward pointing fine hairs and a numbing secretion cause the bugs to fall into the water, where they are digested by a whole ecosystem of organisms living in the “pool”. When an older leaf is sliced open, a collection of insect parts can be seen at the narrow base of the leaf. The pitcher plant is a carnivore like the Venus flytrap, supplementing its diet with insects to compensate for the nutrient poor environment of a bog.
Did you take part in this past weekend’s annual Winterfests in Glen Arbor and Empire? If not, you can experience the glory by watching these videos of the winners of this year’s Perch Fishing Contest being crowned on the deck at Boonedocks. And you can dive beneath the ice into South Bar Lake in solidarity with locals Kathy Young and Jack Gyr.
Photographer Ken Snyder will host a free Worldwide Photo Walk at the Sleeping Bear Dunes on Saturday, Oct. 13 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The walk leaves from the Glen Haven Cannery Boathouse and is open to anyone with a camera who loves to take pictures and enjoys meeting fellow photo enthusiasts.
Glen Arbor’s tennis courts are getting a facelift. Molly Connolly took this photo on Monday, Oct. 8, and reports that, despite the rain, the crew was out working again the following day.