The biological control of the widespread zebra and quagga mussel infestation in inland lakes will be the focus of a four-part seminar, “Water Issues For All of Us” to be held on Thursday, June 19, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Leelanau County Government Center, 8527 E. Government Center Drive, in Suttons Bay.

The Glen Arbor Art Association announced the cast for its June 17-19 Readers’ Theater production of the movie/radio play Casablanca. All the performers and staging assistants are locals from Leelanau County.

Local restaurateurs and Northern Michigan breweries will show off their best as Glen Arbor kicks off the summer season with the annual BBQ & Brew summer celebration on Saturday, June 21, from 2 until 8 p.m. BBQ & Brew is a fundraiser for the Glen Lake Chamber of Commerce. This year’s celebration will be held under the tent at the northwest corner of Western Avenue and Lake Street, and feature an adjacent dining tent to sit, relax and enjoy great music.

Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler took a spin Thursday evening on the newly completed Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail section between the Dune Climb and Empire. It’s a beautiful, hilly ride! Along the way, he interviewed Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Deputy Superintendent Tom Ulrich and Duneswood Resort owner Debbie Rettke, about how this leg of the trail differs from the Dune Climb-to-Glen Arbor leg, what the expanded trail means for the National Park, and for local biking in general, and how folks have reacted to it so far. Check out this video.

Miller Hill resident Michael Collier writes that on Wednesday, June 11, he spotted and photographed a black bear at his bird feeder. “This shy fellow happened to find our bird feeder, eventually destroying it obtaining the seeds,” writes Collier. “He/she snapped the pole off near the ground while leaning against it, then ran off like a bullet down the hill when I opened the outside door and stomped on the deck.”

You are invited to join in a simple ceremony of thanksgiving and acknowledgement for the lake, to be held on Saturday, June 21, at 11 a.m. People who wish to say words for the lake will meet at beach in front of the cul de sac—where the black locust grows next to the boulder. We will form a circle that will revolve in and out of the shallows as we join in a litany of gratitude for the water and lake that nurtures us aesthetically, culturally, personally. All are welcome.

Folks around Leelanau County frequently ask what Mimi Wheeler has been up to since she sold Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate last spring to food conscious entrepreneurs Jody Dotson and Dc Hayden. The answer—she launched MimisChocolateBlog.com, where she writes about chocolate recipes, traveling the world (Mimi spent much of the recent grueling winter in Guatemala and Ecuador) and introducing her fine food to new friends, and grandkids.

After a particularly long and dreary, not to mention snowy, winter, Leelanau’s warmer weather—as well as the spring and summer bounty that comes with rising temperatures—is especially welcome. And there’s no better place to find seasonal food grown, canned, baked, dried and produced locally than a farmers market. Leelanau Farmers Market Association (LFMA), a nonprofit organization developed in 2000 by the Leelanau Agricultural Alliance in collaboration with Leelanau’s Michigan State University Extension, offers farmers markets five days a week in six locations within the county beginning in June: Empire, Glen Arbor, Lake Leelanau, Leland, Northport and Suttons Bay.

The Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail’s 5.5-mile expansion from the Dune Climb to Empire is complete. This urban hipster from Chicago enjoyed the trail on June 8.

On June 7, actor Ramón Rodríguez was Leelanau School’s youngest ever commencement speaker—by far—and perhaps the one most likely to connect with the senior class, many of whom already knew him on television and on social media. In May, the New York Times wrote of Rodríguez’s “rakish good looks”; a couple days before returning to Glen Arbor he appeared on Conan, and agreed to send more ladies Conan’s way if the late-night talk show host would help the actor get more followers on Twitter.