Today is the opening day of walleye season in Michigan. I couldn’t find a good walleye photo, but even though Pearl Lake isn’t on the list of top walleye lakes in Michigan, I thought it captured the mood perfectly! Much more at Michigan Walleye on Absolute Michigan.
Check this out background bigtacular and in Jim’s My Most Interesting Photos slideshow.
Weekend Find, photo by LadyDragonflyCC – See through my Eyes!
The Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr reached a major milestone that we almost missed: the 150,000th photo was added to the group by Christine aka LadyDragonflyCC!! The 100,000th photo was added 2 years ago. At that time there were about 2400 people in our group which has now grown to almost 3200 people. The group was started way back in August of 2005 and you can go back to the beginning right here.
See Christine’s photo bigger and see more in her tasty morel slideshow.
Speaking of morels, don’t miss the annual Mesick Morel Mushroom Festival today through Sunday (May 11-13) and the National Morel Mushroom Festival next weekend (May 17-20) in Boyne City.
The Old Ball Game, photo by dblstripe
“Ernie (Harwell) is probably the most beloved person who has ever been in Detroit with the Detroit Tigers. He is loved by everybody and rightfully so. He’s a great broadcaster but even a better person. That comes across on his broadcasts.”
~ Detroit Tiger Hall of Famer Al Kaline
Two years ago today, one of the greatest members of the Detroit Tigers organization passed away. It’s no coincidence that Ernie Harwell received a baseball announcer’s highest honor by winning the Ford Frick Award from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Here’s his Hall of Fame induction speech, set to a scrapbook of photos. There’s much more about Ernie Harwell on Michigan in Pictures.
Bryan shot this photo of the pitchers mound at old Tiger Stadium aka Ernie Harwell Park last fall. Check it out background big and in his Detroit slideshow.
We’ll close with words from Harwell’s farewell address that you can read in full at the Baseball Almanac. Click head over to “Ernie” on Absolute Michigan to read about the play about him by Mitch Albom and to see Ernie with thousands of the fans he talks about here…
“Thank you for letting me be part of your family. Thank you for taking me with you to that cottage up north, to the beach, the picnic, your work place and your backyard.
Thank you for sneaking your transistor under the pillow as you grew up loving the Tigers.
Now I might have been a small part of your life. But you have been a very large part of mine. And it’s my privilege and honor to share with you the greatest game of all.”
Ribbit Tell’em, photo by EEKaWILL
Spring is frog season, and today’s Anishinaabemowin word of the day is Omagakii which means frog. Omagakiins means little frog and Omagakiinsag means little frogs.
Anishinaabemow.in is a very cool (though no longer updated) website that used short videos to teach words and short phrases in Anishinaabemowin. They explain that:
Anishinaabemowin is the traditional language of the Anishinaabe people. It is sometimes referred to as Ojibwe, Ojibway, Saulteaux or Indian by people in the community. Outsiders sometimes refer to it as Ojibwa or Chippewa. On this site we refer to it by the proper name in the language Anishinaabemowin.
Some facts about Anishinaabemowin
- During the Fur Trade era Anishinaabemowin was referred to as the ‘Lingua Franca’ or trade language of what is now called Canada, meaning at one time if you wanted to conduct business here you had to speak Anishinaabemowin
- At one time Guiness Book of World Records listed Anishinaabemowin as having the most complex verb structure of any language in the world, a testament to the intellectual capacity of our ancestors
- A number of English words are adopted from Anishinaabemowing including Totem (used in Freudian studies and to refer to West Coast art) which is adapted from Dodem or clan, Mocassin (leather slipper) which is adapted from Makasin or shoe and countless place names.
- Anishinaabemowin is spoken in communities from Quebec to British Columbia, From Northern Ontario to the Midwestern United States. The diffusion of speakers means that it is now spoken in places where there never were Anishinaabeg before.
- Old Anishinaabeg don’t die, they just Maazhiwe.
Check Will’s photo out bigger and also see the Frog slideshow from the Absolute Michigan pool!
Iroquois Point Light and the Northern Lights, photo by yooper1949
It’s hard to let the Northern Lights go when they come for a visit as they did earlier this week, so here’s one more shot! You can read all about Point Iroquois Light from Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light.
The Iroquois tribe made their home far away in New York. Point Iroquois is located at the east end of Lake Superior, where the lake narrows into the St. Mary’s River. If you’re wondering like I was how this point came to bear their name, the brochure for Point Iroquois has the answer:
The area around Sault Ste. Marie (“The Soo”), including Whitefish Bay, has been called the “Heartland” of the Chippewa Indians. This tribe is also called Ojibwa, and sometimes refer to themselves as “Anishinabeg,” which is their word for “original people.” The Iroquois lived about 400 miles away, mostly in what is now western New York. In the 1600’s these nations were at war, at least in part because of European influence and fur trade competition. The Iroquois often sent expeditions far from their homeland and attempted to control the trade routes leading east from the Great Lakes.
Accounts of an important battle at Point Iroquois in 1662 have been passed down for over 300 years. They tell how an Iroquois war party camped near the point where the lighthouse now stands, and how the Chippewa secretly watched their movements and mounted a surprise attack near dawn. The Iroquois were defeated decisively, and apparently never again ventured this far west.
Here’s information on visiting Point Iroquois Lighthouse and you can also see it on Google Maps.
Carl seems to have a knack for shooting the Northern Lights at the lighthouses of Northern Michigan. Check it out background bigtacular and see a ton more in his Lighthouse slideshow.
Much more northern lights and lighthouses on Michigan in Pictures!
Reflection, photo by Xavist on the colorful way
Quite a number of photographers in our Absolute Michigan pool caught photos of the aurora borealis. More including a great video over on Absolute Michigan.
See Xavist’s photo background bigtacular, catch another that is currently the cover of our Absolute Michigan Facebook or enjoy some great photos from the U.P. in his slideshow.
Much (much) more northern lights information & photos on Michigan in Pictures.
Trash the Dress, photo by Steven White Photographic Art
Wikipedia says that Trash the Dress is:
…also known as fearless bridal or rock the frock, is a style of wedding photography that contrasts elegant clothing with an environment in which it is out of place. It is generally shot in the style of fashion and glamour photography. “Trash the dress” is the art of destruction or deconstruction of a brides wedding dress to create a new “artwork” that the bride would be proud to display on their wall. This new “masterpiece” is formed in the creative destruction of the dress. This will normally be portrayed in a sequence of images or simply a single image…
It may be done as an additional shoot after the wedding, almost as a declaration that the wedding is done and the dress will not be used again. It is seen as an alternative to storing the dress away.
It’s also being used for prom dresses now. Check this out background bigtacular and in Steven’s Portraits slideshow and at stevenwhitephotographicart.com.
There’s a Trash the Dress group on Flickr and also check out the Trash the Dress Michigan slideshow on Flickr.
Grand Sable Lake, photo by Gary of the North
The Michigan DNR says (in part from this PDF) that Grand Sable Lake:
…is a scenic undeveloped lake located in Alger County, about 6 miles southwest of Grand Marais. The 630 acre lake lies within the boundaries of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (PRNL). The shoreline is mostly wooded with mixed hardwoods, conifers, and cedar species. Most of the surrounding soils are sandy. Sand dunes 200 ft high are located on the north end. Grand Sable Lake has a maximum depth of 85 feet, but averages around 35-40 feet. The banks drop off quite rapidly. Even so, the shoreline at the public access site on the northeast shoreline remains shallow for over 200 feet, dropping quickly into deep water…
Access to the lake before the area became part of the PRNL was from the small park on the north end. At that time, the park was managed by the village of Grand Marais. A 1949 fisheries survey documented the presence of rock bass, northern pike, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, white suckers, and minnow species. Past stocking efforts included rainbow trout, splake, smelt, smallmouth, largemouth, pike, bluegills, and lake trout.
It’s apparently 50% white suckers now – click through to read more. Also see the Grand Sable Loop at DW Hikes.
Check this out background big and check out some other views here and here. More in Gary’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore slideshow.
Much (much) more from the awesomely amazing Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Michigan in Pictures!
DSC02766_tonemapped, photo by ansonredford.
I thought I’d feature a photo from our Michigan Cover Photos Group. You can add pics to it if you want to have them featured on our Michigan in Pictures Facebook and also the Absolute Michigan Facebook.
Recently we featured Donald’s photo of one of the sculptures on the Wayne County Courthouse. This is one of four that depict Law, Commerce, Agriculture, and Mechanics. They were executed by sculptor J. Massey Rhind.
Check it out background bigtacular and see some more including an amazing HDR of the courrthouse in Donald’s slideshow.
A real pretty White Morel, photo by rickrjw.
“We are seeing the unusual becoming the norm.”
~Nate Fuller, Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy
Michigan’s strange “Summer Spring” has seen magnolias, cherries, trillium, daffodils and all manner of plants blooming more or less at once under the pressure cooker of a week of 70 and 80 degree days. For some reason the news that morel mushrooms are being found already in Southwest Michigan has been the most shocking to me of all the action of so far. Hunters from further north in Manistee & Traverse City reported finding tiny ones as well at morels.com.
You can usually set your clock to morels in late April to early May, but it appears we have to revise our The general wisdom appears to be that although it is very early and pretty dry out there, forecast rain over the next few days could bring these delicious woodland treasures out.
Rick found this beauty last year around Boyne City. Check it out background bigilicious and see more in his mushroom slideshow.
Much more Michigan morel info on Michigan in Pictures.
Michigan in Pictures 