The Leelanau Enterprise reports that the village of Lake Leelanau is experiencing a new business boom:
The Lake Leelanau Renaissance, which began a couple years ago, is thriving today with two ventures open for business in the former Thunderbird store and another one planned to open in June.
And two more businesses — a wine tasting room and an Italian restaurant — are also preparing to open this spring.
...Trish’s Dish opened on the east side of the New Thunderbird building last October. And Northern Latitudes Distillery, in the middle of the building, is expected to open this summer.
Another example of the renaissance is the purchase of the former LeNaro Pub building by Jane Fortune and her partner Bob Hesse. Powell “Smitty” Smith of Venture Properties of Leland is guiding the remodeling of the former Powerhouse Tavern next to NJs Grocer.
Smith said the couple, based out of Indiana, have a residence near Leland. They have always wanted to own an Italian restaurant.
They plan on a soft opening of their new restaurant, Bella Fortuna North, in early June, with a grand opening at the end of the month.
In addition, David and Jane Albert of Leland will open the wine tasting room for their Boathouse Vineyards winery sometime this spring. The couple planted vineyards and have been producing wine from their Amore Road property for the last three years.
Read on at the Enterprise for details on these businesses and also how The Fish Hooked is capitalizing on the great fishing that Lake Leelanau offers!
Photo: The Narrows. by John Levanen
It's 29 degrees under partly sunny skies at 8:50 AM at Leelanau Coffee Roasting in Glen Arbor. The record high for a January 25th was 55 degrees in 1950 with the low of -15 set in 1904. The forecast for today calls for partly sunny skies with highs in the low 30s and gusty south winds at 10-15+. Be sure to look up tonight as the Northern Lights might be out! It will be windy with a chance of snow and temps in the upper 30s on Thursday and sunny and in the mid to upper 30s on Friday.
This week's photo was taken by Mark Miller at Empire Beach. Last week we featured another of his photos from this spot - what a difference a few days and a Lake Effect storm can make! Check it out big as the beach and compare it with last week's photo in his slideshow.
Coming Events
Art from Michigan's Wine Country (Feb 3), Taste the Passion wine tour (Feb 4 & 5), Sleeping Bear Snowshoe Hikes (Every Saturday). Check the Leelanau Calendar. Check the Leelanau Calendar! You can click that link to add your Leelanau & Traverse City events to the calendar for FREE! Not only will they be distributed with our weekly newsletter, but they may be a featured story on Leelanau.com!
Week's Weather & Weather Resources
Click for the Leelanau News Archive from January 2011 and also the School Closings & Delays from 9&10 News.
Please also check the less pessimistic Weather.com forecast)
Weather Underground is just about as old as the internet (the first net weather service) and is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sometimes the above banner will show personal weather system data from Leelanau Coffee in Glen Arbor, sometimes from Leland and sometimes it comes from a vineyard on Old Mission (it tells you which in the top left of the page it links to).
Buoy 45002 in Lake Michigan is located halfway between North Manitou Island and Washington Island in Lake Michigan. It provides wind and wave data. Also check out Michigan Sea Grant Coastwatch for water temps (the "early evening" images in their archive will give you a better idea of actual temps during peaks swimming hours ... in seasons where you might actually want to swim!).
This photo of the Northern Lights over Fishtown was taken by Ken Scott in October of 2011. Today on Absolute Michigan we posted a feature about a solar flare that may bring northern lights to Leelanau's skies tonight (and potentially over the next few days):
NASA's Space Weather site is the place to go for Aurora Borealis forecasting as they help make sense of the data the space agency receives about solar flares and their impact on earth's atmosphere. Yesterday they gave Northern Lights watchers a lot of hope with this news:
This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash (shown right or in short movie right here)
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft detected a CME rapidly emerging from the blast site: movie. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the leading edge of the CME will reach Earth on Jan. 24 at 14:18UT (+/- 7 hours).
That means it's hitting the Earth 11 AM - 6 PM EST, but this level of intensity makes the Northern Lights a real possibility for the next couple of days so definitely LOOK UP tonight and tomorrow if there's any break in the clouds! If the northern lights hit, our Northern Lights Log will light up with reports. You can also learn a lot more about the Northern Lights at Michigan in Pictures and also at aurora borealis on Leelanau.com!
You're invited to share the love of Leelanau and Leelanau wine at the Taste the Passion wine tour, held February 4 & 5, 2012. This special weekend celebrates wine, chocolate and love at the wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail.
Your ticket allows you to chart your own course, enjoying food and wine pairings at 17 wineries along with a optional winter and Valentine-themed activities at many of the wineries.
"Taste the Passion is definitely our most intimate event," says winemaker Larry Mawby. "Our tasting rooms are cozy places in wintertime, and with less people on the trail, it's a great opportunity to talk directly with winemakers and vineyard owners. To top it all off, Leelanau County is a winter paradise, offering everything from cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, to enjoying great meals at our restaurants, and evenings by the fireplace. This is a perfect chance to score a Valentine's Day touchdown!"
Tickets are just $30, and quantities are limited. Secure yours as soon as possible, as most of LPVA trail events do sell out. There are also lodging packages that include tickets! Get all the details right here.
If you want to add a little more fun to your weekend, on Friday night (Feb 3) at Mountain Flowers Lodge from 6-8pm, the The Homestead and Glen Arbor Artists will be hosting “Art from Michigan’s Wine Country.” Art will be on display and for sale from local artists. To purchase tickets in advance call The Homestead 231-334-5100.
Photo credit: 2010 Taste the Passion by KatSwinehart
This week's photo was taken by Mark Miller at Empire Beach. Last week we featured another of his photos from this spot - what a difference a few days and a Lake Effect storm can make!
Check it out big as the beach and compare it with last week's photo in Mark's slideshow.
Along with many sites on the Web, Leelanau.com went dark on January 18th to protest a pair of truly awful bills that are on a fast-track for passage, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA).
Neither of these new laws would stop piracy, which we at Leelanau.com are opposed to. Both, however, would put control of online content in the hands of large entertainment corporations and the government, placing a giant burden on web media outlets like Wikipedia, WordPress, YouTube ... and even little old Leelanau.com.
With our Leelanau.com, Absolute Michigan and Michigan in Pictures websites all down yesterday, there was some time to think about the issue, and we'd like to share one thought: We live in a world very different from the early 1700s when Parliament enacted the Statute of Anne to address the concerns of English booksellers and printers (you can look it up ... for now, on Wikipedia).
We are encouraged at every turn and by every consumer device to sing along to commercials, dance to the latest music and in general, swim in a sea of ever-present media. You can debate the pros and cons of doing that but it seems that expecting our candid videos, blogged observations or FacebookedTM thoughts won't incorporate background music or samples, brand names is flat-out silly. We need intelligent and well thought out laws that recognize the modern world, and SOPA and PIPA definitely aren't either of those things.
Click here to watch a short video or read more about this issue and please take a moment to contact your elected officials through the links we provide!
UP North TV has a feature with two Native American poets, Lois Beardslee and Eva Petoskey, reading poetry at Eyaawing Museum that you might enjoy.
The artwork to the right was created by Lois, and appears in a cool feature about her years ago by Jim Rink in our Northern Michigan Journal entitled Lois Beardslee, Daughter of the Earth. It was about her artwork, but I think it gives a great sense of Lois's dedication to the preservation of her culture:
...Beardslee is good at filling the gaps--she feels a strong responsibility in her role as a cultural emissary for Native Americans. Whether she's telling stories on paper or in person, the imagery she creates is the essence of life in the Ojibwe and Lacandon tribes into which she was born. Make no mistake--the myths and the legends she distills are for our benefit. Long part of an oral tradition, the spirit world of the past has been kept alive through a well organized underground. Only recently have these cultural icons resurfaced, as a soothing balm for troubled and restless times.
Beardslee has had her own share of troubles, and the gaps here are a little bit wider. Born into a family of nine siblings, her mother died when she was 10; her father at 15. But she has no complaints.
"I grew up around here, came from a rural background," she says. "We hunted, fished, farmed. I grew up in a privileged era--I remember ducks being piled on the table, each of us having our own duck for dinner. It was a time of plenty--a lifestyle that's disappearing."
Also check out Martin Luther King's last visit to Detroit on Absolute Michigan.
Building Bridges with Music presents a unique opportunity to hear one of Michigan’s great musicians perform in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, free for the community. Jeff Haas and his colleagues will be joined by international students from Northwestern Michigan College who will read brief excerpts from MLK speeches as part of the musical presentation.
The community remembrance starts at 5:30 pm with a proclamation from Traverse City mayor Michael Estes and an invocation from Rabbi Chava Bahle, followed by Haas’ presentation of original music including selections from his 2002 jazz suite, “The MLK Suite: Then & Now,” and excerpts from MLK speeches and writings. Haas will be joined by Laurie Sears on saxes & flute, Chris Lawrence on trumpet, bassist Jack Dryden and drummer Jordan Huggett.
“Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches and writings on civil rights were a regular topic at our dinner table growing up in Detroit in the late 50s and 60s with immigrant parents”, explains Haas. “Dr. King’s belief that all of our thoughts and actions are either based in love or fear really made a lot of sense to me as a youngster. And I have always tried to convey that in my music.” He goes on to say, “There’s still a lot of work to be done and I am grateful for this opportunity to come together with my community and recommit to doing the work to see Martin Luther King, Jr’s dream become a reality.”
The performance is free to all, and the State is also showing two movies for free: To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help. Visit the State Theatre website for complete details.
A pair of fun winter events are on tap for next Sunday...
The annual Cedar Winterfest happens from 1-3 PM at the Snowmobile Club 2 miles north of Cedar on Schomberg Rd.
You're invited to bring your winter sleds, tobaggans, saucers, cross country skis and snowshoes for a Sunday afternoon of fun. They'll have a bonfire to warm you on the outside and hot chocolate and snacks to warm your tummy. Free and open to the public!
The fifth annual Roy Taghon Memorial Snowmobile Ride begins at 1 p.m., Sun., Jan. 22, at the Empire Airport and continues to the Maple City Fitness Center, behind Kerby’s Bar and Grill, 172 W. Burdickville Road, Maple City. Whether riding on a sled or driving, all are welcome to participate in the fun-filled afternoon. Hot dogs and chili will be served at 2:30. Suggested donation is $7 per adult, $4 per child.
All proceeds benefit the Roy Taghon Music Scholarship Fund which provides an annual music scholarship for Glen Lake High School students. Roy lived in Empire and was an avid snowmobiler and church organist for more than 30 years. For information, call (231) 326-5519.
This week's photo was taken by Mark Miller at Empire Beach. See more of his great work in his slideshow.
