The Leelanau News Blog
leelanau county news • traverse city news • michigan news

The annual Suttons Bay Jazzfest takes place this Saturday, July 26 at Marina Park in Suttons Bay. The event features fine wines and food from the Leelanau Peninsula and world-class jazz music. This year's lineup includes hris Copeland Big Band Featuring Harry Goldson and Claudia Schmidt, Tad Weed Trio, Betty Joplin Quartet, Cooper, Hay, Van Lente Group and Big Noise w/Sam Faught.

Much more information is available at the Suttons Bay Jazzfest home page, at the Suttons Bay Chamber and from Marcus Roberts' web site.

Photo credit: Marcus Roberts by trudeau. Also check out this photo of the Marcus Roberts Trio in action!

ShugarTime-2, photo by jakphoto

News & such

While we aren't updating every day during the summer, we will try and post news and photos and such here. Here are the stories from last week and you can also get weather forecasts and links to comments below!

Coming Events

This weekend, you can look forward to events including the Art Leelanau gala Friday night at the Old Art Building and the Suttons Bay Jazzfest on Saturday. All next week the Traverse City Film Festival takes place and next weekend's events include the Suttons Bay Art Festival (Saturday & Sunday) the Sleeping Bear Dunegrass & Blues Festival in Empire (Thursday - Sunday). For more events, check the Leelanau Calendar. (more...)

Serenity by Stacy Niedzwieck (click photo for wallpaper-sized image)

We're not doing daily news & weather updates until fall, but you can check weather for the week from Weather Underground and here's a few stories & photos that that caught our eye last week:

• Taste of Dehli from the Record-Eagle tells the story of New Dehli natives Rekna Chugh and Rajni Punhani and their excellent Indian food available at NJ's Grocery in Lake Leelanau.
• Finding the Roots of 'Leelanau' in the Enterprise offers an in-depth look at the roots of our county's name.
• KT from Lake Orion caught a near perfect view of Grand Traverse Bay while jimflix took the road to North Manitou from the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

The Glen Arbor Art Association welcomes singer/songwriter Annie Gallup to the Studio Stage/Lake Street Studios (in case of rain, location is Glen Arbor Town Hall) this Wednesday (July 23) at 8 PM. Head over to the Glen Arbor Art Association web site or call 334-6112 for details!

Annie grew up in Michigan and taught herself to play guitar, copping licks from old Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson and Dave Van Ronk albums that she found at the public library. She is the winner of many songwriting competitions, including Kerrville New Folk, and has performed at concert venues throughout North America since 1994, driving enough miles to make it to the moon and almost back.

Check out this interview with Annie Gallup on NPR's All Things Considered and hear more of her work from anniegallup.com!

For the rest of the summer Leelanau.com will go to a summer schedule. That means that some days we'll update the site and this blog and other days we won't.

We will of course continue to post our weekly email newsletter (sign up on our home page) and you can check events in the Leelanau Calendar and follow comments on our July 2008 page.

Sorry if this puts you out, but we want to enjoy summer too!

(click to get the above photo at "background size")

Baled hay (South French Rd) by John Levanen

News from the Week

Last week's news was (as usual) mostly events. We did have a nice Fireworks video from Ken Scott (featuring music from Song of the Lakes) and a cool Sleeping Bear Dunes photo.

The Week's Weather

We had a good deal of sun and (other than Sunday) very summery temps, even cracking 90 for the first time this year!

July 10, 2008: Sunny & low 80s (83/53)
July 11, 2008: Mostly sunny & low 80s (83/52)
July 12, 2008: Mostly sunny & upper 70s (80/64)
July 13, 2008: Partly sunny, windy & 60s (71/60)
July 14, 2008: Partly sunny, a bit of rain & low 70s (73/58)
July 15, 2008: Partly sunny & upper 80s (90/57)
July 16, 2008: Mostly cloudy, some rain & 80s (86/60)

Click for the Leelanau news archive from July 2007 and our July 2008 page!

The first annual North Bar Lake Skimboard Competition takes place this Saturday (July 19) at North Bar Lake just north of Empire.

Registration is from 10 to noon and the competition starts at 1 PM. For details, please call Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak at 231.326.WAVE (9283).

photo: Goofyfooted by Andy McFarlane

Wednesday is apparently Women's Club Day in Leelanau County.

The Glen Lake Woman's Club Art Fair takes place from 10 AM - 4 PM this Wednesday (Jul 16) at the Glen Arbor Town Hall. It showcases fine arts and quality crafts and all profits are used for scholarships. Call 326-6084 for details!

On July 16th (that's Wednesday again), the Northport Women's Club presents a "Magical Tour of Leelanau" - a visit to 5 homes in the Northport area from 9:30 - 4:30. This Leelanau Enterprise article lists the homes:

• Judy Kunst and James Root’s timber frame home in a cherry orchard setting with a view of Grand Traverse Bay.
• Gary and Mary Davis' woodland home on one of the highest points in the county.
• Richard and Sherry Koenig’s "woodwinds" home on Lake Michigan.
• Deborah Alley’s "Faerie" house/studio.
• Robert and Karlin Fellow's historic "Bellaire" cottage on the shores of West Bay.

The event supports local educational, civic and literary initiatives and you can get details by calling 386-9116. You can get a cool video on "woodwinds" at this page on the Symphonic House.

This is part of Mike's great set of Leelanau photos (slideshow). Have a great weekend!

Photographer Ken Scott has put together a great photo show from the Leland Fireworks, complete with a classic track Pearl of America from Song of the Lakes. It's just great, so check it out!

Watch Leland Fireworks ... 2008 on YouTube.

Ken notes that this is a community sponsored event that needs your support, especially if you enjoyed the show and to send any donation(s) to:

Leland Community Improvement Association
PO Box 483
Leland, MI 49654