Just days after the Dec. 14, 2012, mass-shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Leelanau County author Bill Smith wrote to the Cyrenius H. Booth Library in Newtown, Conn., and offered to send copies of his children’s book, Chickadees at Night. Like the hundreds of thousands around the world who sent prayers and gifts to the devastated community, he wanted to help the town heal.
What better way to celebrate the birth of our nation than to witness its symbol flying free? It’s everything you feel when you think about our country. The United States chose the Bald Eagle as its representative: strong, majestic, a fierce competitor.
Leelanau writer Kathleen Stocking reflects on her father, Pierce Stocking, who passed away the day after selling his vast tracts of land near Glen Arbor to the federal government. That land is now part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
When Sue Burns’ husband Kevin accidentally shrank her wool sweaters in the wash 20 years ago, she had no idea that their laundry mishap would be the catalyst for growing a creatively satisfying, financially robust business in Leelanau County. Unable to throw away her favorite garments, she cut and resewed the fabrics into colorful hats, jackets and sweaters for her two young daughters. When friends, acquaintances and even strangers asked where she’d gotten them, she realized she had the beginnings of a promising niche in the fiber arts market. Thus Baabaazuzu — the name combines the sound of a sheep with Sue’s nickname “Zuzu” — was born.
The Homestead Resort invites you to settle in for four evenings of spectacular entertainment and unparalleled views during its summer 2013 Mountain Top Concert series. Guitarist and composer Ron Getz kicks off the series on Thursday, June 27. He has performed with a variety of jazz greats, including Arthur Blythe, Billy Hart, John Scofield, Steve Grossman, Bill Evans, Branford Marsalis and Marvin “Smitty” Smith (from the Jay Leno Tonight Show Band).
Endurance Evolution, the local marathon facilitator spearheaded by high school buddies Joel Gaff and Eric Houghton, will hold two races in Leelanau County this month to benefit good causes. On Saturday, June 15, athletes can run the Glen Arbor Solstice Half Marathon and 5K before the town’s BBQ and Brew festival, to benefit the Glen Arbor Park Commission.
Nancy Allen has written the textbook she says she needed when she was teaching cooking. Her 933-page book, Discovering Global Cuisines, complete with recipes and photos, overviews of culture, history and geography from all over the world, is the result of five years of unflagging endeavor. The work required not just sitting at a computer terminal for endless hours, but actually preparing the food and trying out the recipes with her friends and neighbors and also testing them in places like Meadowlark, a long-standing organic subscription agriculture farm on the Leelanau Peninsula.
What services are imperative for a small town like Glen Arbor? How about a grocery store, a hardware store, a gas station and an active Chamber of Commerce. Check three of four for Jeff and Georgia Gietzen, the Grand Rapids transplants who acquired Northwoods Hardware three years ago (and became sole owners in 2011), who have also become Chamber leaders, and this spring bought the gas station just north of town. Northwoods Filling Station now boasts vintage 1950s signage, sells gasoline and quick bites, and most importantly stays open 7 days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. That’s a big improvement over having to drive to Empire or Maple City for petrol.
National Park week, which begins April 20, is typically an opportunity for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to strut its stuff and demonstrate its value to the local community a month before the summer tourism season opens with Memorial Day weekend. During this year’s National Park week, the Lakeshore will hold a water testing demonstration on Esch Road Beach, a swearing-in ceremony for junior rangers, a showing of the film Chasing Ice at the Empire Visitor Center and a star gazing party on Platte Point Beach.
The cold winter weather of 2013 that lingered well into May has delayed the emergence of our beloved trillium, prolonging their bloom time into June. The large flowered trillium (trillium grandiflorum) has a single, stout stem arising from a deeply buried bulb, three leaves and three big white petals. A Michigan Protected Flower, trillium are fragile and should not be picked, as this kills the entire plant. Besides, they lack fragrance and wilt quickly. In an emergency situation people can eat the leaves and bulb. White-tailed deer also eat trillium, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources predicts that between habitat destruction by humans and grazing by deer, trillium could disappear in the next 30 years. So enjoy the trillium today, and do what you can to ensure their survival for your great grandchildren.