The Homestead will host the seventh annual Charity Golf Outing on Thursday, August 18. All proceeds will benefit ShareCare of Leelanau, Inc. Mountain Flowers, The Homestead’s private Par 3, nine-hole golf course will be open to the public for this special event.

Some people might say that artist Lynn Uhlmann can’t see the forest for the trees — and the painter, whose affiliation with Leelanau County’s beautiful wooded places spans nearly three decades, would happily agree with that notion. Each of her landscapes, inspired by a deep familiarity with places such as Good Harbor, Shalda Creek, the Crystal River, and Port Oneida, depicts “the trees, light, and colors of small, intimate settings,” within a forest wilderness now enveloping the former farm fields, coastline settlements, and lumber operations of an earlier era.

Vignettes of the Leelanau landscape are Holly Sturges’s theme in an exhibition of painting at Center Gallery/Lake Street Studios, 6023 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor. This show opens Aug. 19 with a 6 p.m. public reception.

On Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 8 p.m. the country-folk musician Rita Hosking will perform outdoors on The Leelanau School Graduation Green, north of Glen Arbor. Rain location is the Leelanau School Student Center. Hosking’s concert concludes the 2011 Manitou Music Festival, which for 21 years has treated Leelanau County residents to jazz, classical, blues, folk, country, celtic, bluegrass and world music.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (National Lakeshore) Superintendent Dusty Shultz is pleased to announce that the 10th annual Port Oneida Rural Arts and Culture Fair will be held Aug. 12 and 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to the many popular demonstrations, animals and exhibits, the fair will be a zero-waste event, will feature a chicken dinner on Friday, and will end with an astronomy party on Saturday night to celebrate the milestone 10th year.

After half a decade of planning, some debate, and the solidification of enthusiastic support across a broad spectrum of the public, the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail will officially launch with a groundbreaking ceremony at the Dune Climb on Friday, August 12 at 11 a.m. When completed, the 27-mile trail will run from the southern edge of Leelanau County, through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to Good Harbor Bay.

Great Lakes Friends of Safe Passage will sponsor the second annual Esperanza 5K run on Aug. 13 at 10 a.m. (registration at 9) at the Grand Traverse Commons in Traverse City. “Esperanza” is the Spanish word for “hope”. Safe Passage is an internationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to bringing hope and opportunity to children of the Guatemala City garbage dump community.

Writing a review for a dear friend is always a risk because, well, what if you don’t like the book? Fortunately, it is an honor and pleasure to review Jacob Wheeler’s beautiful first book Between light and Shadow: A Guatemalan Girl’s Journey through Adoption (University of Nebraska Press, April 2011).

For those who seek treasures within the pages of a good book (or, perhaps, in this electronic age, a movie, CD, or audiobook), ye need look no further than the Glen Arbor Township Hall, where the Annual Friends of the Glen Lake Community Library Vintage Book Sale will take place on August 10-12.

It’s almost 10 p.m. and the hottest July 20th on record here since 1977. Undaunted, humans are thicker than mosquitoes on the deck above the beach at The Leelanau School’s C.H. Lanphier Observatory.