This photo by m•cole•m is so awesome (see larger in her slideshow) that I had to post it with the Legend of the Sleeping Bear. The tale is kind of the Leelanau creation story, and I rewrote it because I couldn't find a version online that I liked. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know or post a comment.

Years and years ago, in the great forest that covered the place that is now named Wisconsin, lived Mishe Mokwa (Mother Bear) and her two cubs. One day, a roaring fire swept through the woods, burning everything from horizon to horizon and driving Mishe Mokwa, her cubs and all the animals before it. Soon they came to a place where they could go no further, the great Lake Michigan.

Like all bears, Mishe Mokwa and her cubs were powerful swimmers, and at her urging they plunged into the lake. Mishe Mokwa knew there would be no food after the fire was spent, so she kept the light and smoke of the fire behind them and swam east. Now bears are powerful swimmers, and Mishe Mokwa and her cubs were fat from the bounty of the forest so they were able to swim through that day and through the night. Somewhere in the dark she lost them.

Late in the next day, she sighted the tall white dunes of Michigan. When she reached the shore and looked back,  her cubs were nowhere to be seen. She called to them with no answer, finally climbing the dunes to look back. As the sky turned red with sunset, she saw her cubs struggling far offshore through the cold waters. Her heart broke as first one and then the other slipped beneath the waves.

Heartbroken and exhausted, she lay upon the dune for days and days, watching the places where her cubs had perished. Gitche Manitou was moved by her sorrow and faithfulness and raised two islands, North Manitou and South Manitou to celebrate the bravery of the cubs. Knowing that her heart would never mend, Gitche Manitou laid a slumber upon Mishe Mokwa and drew the sand over her like a blanket.

Sand & Shadows. by John Levanen

It's been a very busy time at Leelanau.com. More precisely, at Leelanau Communications, Inc., the company that produces Leelanau.com. In addition to a lot of work for the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association, including the forthcoming Traverse City Wine & Art Festival, we've been working to redo Leelanau.com to take advantage of social media including Facebook, our Leelanau.com Flickr group and our This Week in Leelanau email.

Last week the northern lights made an appearance over Leelanau, and Ken Scott got out and took some great shots! There's one below and you can see more in his Northern Lights slideshow or on his Facebook.

Northern Lights are usually a rare treat but lately we've been seeing them more often. A little over a year ago astronomer Dick Cookman - who owns Enerdyne in Suttons Bay - noted that we are right in the middle of the best aurora borealis viewing in a decade, so hopefully there's more on the way.

Ken also has a short aurora time lapse and you there are also see two short time lapses by Guy Strong that you can watch here and here.

Real Bikes with Bear Power!

In addition to signs in the sky, we've also seen signs of spring in the form of morel mushrooms and cherry blossoms. Both are out there now, though the morels are fairly elusive and the cherry blossoms sparser than normal. Another sign of spring, pair of Sandhill Cranes, were caught at Glen Lake by Mark Miller.

Coming Events

Artist in Residence Presentation ~ Thursday, May 3rd

Linda Walker from Mattawan, MI, is a muralist and decorative painter while pursuing a Graduate Teaching Certificate in Art Education at Grand Valley State University. She will use her residency to focus on plein air painting with the goal of expanding her professional portfolio. Attend her presentation Thursday night at the Glen Arbor Art Association Office.

Spring Sip & Savor Wine Tour ~ Friday, May 5th & Saturday May 6th

Join the 19 wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association the weekend of May 5-6, 2012 for the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association’s annual Spring Sip & Savor wine trail event. In addition to food & wine pairings at each winery, participants are encouraged to participate in the Sip o’ de Mayo Hat Contest try to win one of the prizes that many of the wineries will be offering and the fabulous Grand Prize.

A few other items of interest from our Leelanau Calendar at the Suttons Bay Powwow this Friday from 1:30 - 9 PM, the Traverse City Chocolate Festival this Sunday from 1-4 PM and a pair of Leelanau Chamber events, the Business Expo from 11-6 on Wednesday at the Strongheart Center and the Chamber's Business After Hours next Thursday at 5:30 at Sugarfoot Saloon.

Many more on the Leelanau Calendar!

The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay has Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (PG-13) starring Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, Kristin Scott Thomas ending tonight. Starting Friday is 21 Jump Street (R) starring Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Ice Cube.

The Bluebird in Leland invites you to their Ethnic Dinners every Wednesday and Thursday through the winter & spring. Their season is winding down, but you can head out tonight for Italian and next week for Southwestern featuring Camarones Cozumel, Tortilla Crusted Snapper, Manchengo Chicken Chili Satays and Black Bean, Corn, and Portugese Sausage Nacho w/fire roasted bell peppers & Jalapenos!

The Weather

It's 60 degrees and raining hard at Leelanau Coffee Roasting in Glen Arbor as severe thunderstorms rake the area. They've dumped buckets of (hopefully) morel-bringing rain with more to come. The record high for a May 3rd is 88 from 1955 with the low of 22 set in 1967. Highs are expected in the low 70s today. Rain and thunderstorms will continue overnight, bringing up to an inch of rain by tomorrow. Expect rain to move out tomorrow by noon, bringing mostly sunny skies with highs in the mid to upper 60s. The weekend outlook calls for sunny skies and low 70s on Saturday and mostly cloudy skies and low 70s on Sunday.

Ken Scott captured the Northern Lights late Sunday night. Several more photos from the night are right here and you can also view a short video below!

If you're in Fishtown in Leland this summer, keep an eye peeled for the resident otters. Zoe Allen-Wickler shot this great video of a couple of otters at play.

Otters in Fishtown! from Fishtown Preservation on Vimeo.

This spring the Suttons Bay Chamber of Commerce and Suttons Bay Schools are combining forces to create a new event, SUTTONS BAY SATURDAY. On April 30th eighteen area businesses will donate 10% of their proceeds back to the department of your choice at Suttons Bay Schools. This is a great opportunity for local residents to get out and see the new spring merchandise that fills the stores, enjoy a nice meal at a local establishment while supporting your local businesses and local schools at the same time. In this era of budget cuts the schools need us more than ever, and a strong school is vital to the long term health of our community.

Shopping local is fun, but there is more to it than that. There is a tremendous multiplier effect in choosing to shop local. Each dollar spent with a local business returns 3x more money to our local economy than that spent at a chain store.

Photo credit: The Red Ladder by Bean in Sylvan Lake

Here's a  feature from a few years back by Cherie Spaulding. While May is typically morel season in Leelanau, our weird spring has pushed them ahead. Leif Sporck of Sporck Tile Art went out a few days ago and found some (click for pics). Reports continue to pour in and our very own Jordan Bates filled a Detroit Tigers ball cap in a few minutes yesterday!

It's springtime once again in Northern Michigan, and not only have daffodils broken through, confirmations of morel mushrooms are arriving daily. For a few short weeks, folks flock to the woods in search of this elusive, edible mushroom.

Morel mushroom taste delicious, this is no secret, but the season itself is a sort of cultural absurdity. The "hunters" protect the whereabouts of their source as if it were the location of the Holy Grail. If you have ever wondered who your true friends are or just how well you have transferred your status from "down-stater" to "local" you find out pretty quickly during morel season.

Unfortunately, the toughest part about morel season is not deciding how to prepare this earthy delicious fungi; nor is the greatest challenge identifying them from other common mushrooms. The most difficult part of morel hunting is locating and claiming your own special spot, relatively secure from open-mouthed paper sacks and the hungry claws of hunters. Once you find one and finally sink your teeth in, you won't regret a single moment spent in pursuit of this earthly goodness--morels are divine!

As eager as you may be to fry up a fresh pick, consider a few pointers from avid hunters in our region:

1. KNOW YOUR SHROOMS. Learn to identify the "true morel" before you head in to the woods, or at least make certain you have the real deal before you serve them for dinner.

2. PROPER COLLECTING RECEPTACLE. Avid hunters insist on using a potato or orange bag--something netted, with holes--for collecting. A paper bag is fashionable, too, but purist prefer that pickers leave a trail of spores falling through the holes in the bag. (I recently read that the mushrooms begin to decompose almost immediately if they cannot "breathe," so collecting them in a plastic bag is poor practice, but would suffice in pinch.)

3. LEARN THE LOCATIONS. An oak forest will probably never produce a morel, so say the experts; be sure to look for ash, maple, elm, poplar, and apple trees, commonly referred to as "host trees." Morels may be found in surprisingly varied soil conditions, near sandy dune or swamp. Returning to the exact location year after year may or may not produce satisfying results. Generally a successful location one year will breed abundance the next, but one never knows. That is why they call this little bugger--elusive--one just never knows exactly where to look.

4. GET PERSONAL. One of the most successful hunters I know spends a significant amount of time on bent knee. Once you discover one morel, there are bound to be others, so staying calm and surveying the surroundings often proves the most productive tactic. When a morel is spotted, hunt around, but tread lightly. Many morel have been overlooked, or worse yet--squashed--in hasty anticipation of potential finds.

5. LEAVE A TRACE. Besides stealing someone's favorite spot, the greatest mushrooming faux pas one can commit is to pick the mushroom--root and all--from the ground. Instead of this method, break the mushrooms stem and leave the remaining stem and root in the ground. The idea, I think, is to leave a few spores for the next year, but other hunters gauge the abundance of the area by what remains, and there is still a strange satisfaction in knowing that you missed them by only a moment or two. (Do not leave garbage in the woods, however.)

6. BE SAFE! This applies to ALL aspects of the hunt: searching, finding, identifying and eating. Use a compass in the woods if you have no sense of direction (or even if you do.) Take friends or tell someone your plans. Have a snack and water handy, and a jacket never hurt.

7. BE CONSIDERATE.

8. HAVE FUN! Most important facet of all.

Salmon Fillets With Morel Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 5 shallots, minced
• 18 ounces morels, trimmed, cleaned and sliced
• 3/4 cup bottled clam juice
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 3 Tbsp. whipped cream
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh tarragon or 1/2 tsp. dried
• 6 8-ounce salmon fillets
• fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. butter, melted

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté 2 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Add Morels; sauté until beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Add clam juice and wine; boil until liquids have almost evaporated, about 20 minutes.

Add cream to mushrooms; boil until thickened, about 1 minute. Mix in chopped tarragon. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat broiler. Arrange salmon skin side down on broiler pan. Brush with lemon juice, then butter. Broil until just cooked through, without turning, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Transfer to plates. Spoon Morels over.

Serves 6

The Leelanau Community Cultural Center will host the "Exposures 2012" exhibit to celebrate the art and creative writing of Leelanau County students in grades 7-12 chosen for this year’s publication. The opening reception is on Friday, April 27 from 4:30 to 7:30 pm featuring original artwork, essays and poetry, and live music. Hors d'oeuvres are provided for everyone’s enjoyment courtesy of the LCCC Board, local grocery stores and restaurants.

All students whose work is included in the book will receive a complimentary copy of Exposures 2012. Additional copies will go on sale for $5 per copy at area book stores. The exhibit continues on Saturday, April 28 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Old Art Building in Leland.

The Great Lakes Echo has been asking photographers to send them their toughest Great Lakes shots for their Flash Point series. They recently featured Ken Scott of Ken Scott Photography...

South Manitou Lighthouse

Lit by a full moon, this is a stack of 350, 30-second exposures.

The hard part was getting the timing to work out so I could travel out to the island when there would be a full enough moon to light the landscape and no clouds to interfere with the shoot. It was a crap shoot and took a few trips out to get the timing the way I wanted it.

The easy part was hanging out on the beach under a full moon!

The interesting part (for me) is how technology has changed and with it, so have techniques. I used to do long exposures on film to get star trails, but if there was any man-made lighting, like street lamps, it would over-expose that part of the image and many times make the whole image unusable. Now with digital, you can take shorter exposures keeping lights better exposed and stack many photos to get the star trail effect without blowing out highlights. The time lapse of all the images to make this photo are here.

-Ken Scott

Forecast Radar Cameras Photos

Your weather just got better.

Coming Events

Check the Leelanau Calendar for events.  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!

More Weather Resources

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!).

Spring is an excellent time for new or frequent visitors to enjoy Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. From signs of spring at the farmsteads of Port Oneida learning about returning migratory birds along Lakeshore's magnificent trails, a Ranger-led hike in the park can be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Every Saturday afternoon at 1 PM you can meet a Park Ranger at the Philip Hart Visitor Center in Empire. They'll introduce the afternoon's topic and then lead a car caravan a short distance to where the walk will begin. Each week features a different topic and location, and hikes last 1 to 1 1/2 hours and are no longer than 1 1/2 miles. Dress for the weather!

• The Best of Both Worlds (April 7) - Experience the best of both worlds at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Rangers will take you to a place where history and nature both share the spotlight.
• What’s the Point of the Dunes? (April 14) - Explore the Sleeping Bear Point Trail and learn why the dunes are here.
• Picture Yourself at Sleeping Bear Dunes (April 21) - For the official start of National Park Week, join a Park Ranger for a hike with some magnificent views. Bring your camera to capture the scenery.
• National Junior Ranger Day (April 28) - Join Park Rangers for a day of fun exploring, learning about and protecting Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Events start at 10:00 a.m. and the swearing in ceremony is at 3:00 p.m.

The Saturdays at the Lakeshore program is held every Saturday from now until mid-June when summer programs start. Hikes are free. Participants need only purchase the park entrance pass or have an annual pass displayed in their vehicle to join in the fun. Please call 231-326-5134 extension 328 to make reservations and for details, or visit www.nps.gov/slbe visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sbdnl.