MSU shares that Michigan has over 1500 commercial farms growing peppers, which are packed with Vitamins A & C! Head over to MSU Extension for tips on storing & cooking peppers and down to your local farm market to buy them!
See more in Joel’s 366 gallery of mostly monochrome shots.
Mackinac Bridge Night Reflections by Michigan Nut Photography
If you’ve been following Michigan in Pictures for any length of time, you are almost certainly familiar with the work of Michigan Nut aka John McCormick. He just announced that his 2025 Michigan Calendars are available so what are you waiting for??
Get your Christmas gifts early on his website!
So when you look into the sun and see the words you could have sung
It’s not too late, only begun
We can still make summer
Yes, summer always comes anyway
-Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull)
There’s a lot of wild stories flying around about today’s eclipse. One that isn’t is the fact that there are a LOT of counterfeit glasses out there. If you are not CERTAIN the ones you have are legit, DO NOT WEAR THEM. You could go permanently blind.
Diane took this back in May 2012. See more in her Sunrise~Sunset album on Flickr.
Have a great eclipse & for sure share any pictures here or to this post on Facebook!
Frankfort Harbor, photo by Julie
My friend Enrico of Traverse Today and his sons shared a great aerial video from Frankfort the other day:
Julie took this stunning shot last Saturday. View her photo bigger and see more in her Drone shots slideshow.
Lots more from Frankfort on Michigan in Pictures.
Great Blue Heron Leaving its Roost, photo by Rodney Campbell
Hope you have a wonderful week, even if you look a little goofy at times. ;)
The Michigan Natural Features Inventory entry for Great Blue Heron Rookeries explains:
The great blue herons in Michigan are largely migratory, with almost all leaving the state during the winter months. Most leave by end of October and return in early to mid-March.
The great blue heron is mostly a colonial nester, occasionally they nest in single pairs. Colonies are typically found in lowland swamps, islands, upland hardwoods and forests adjacent to lakes, ponds and rivers. Nests are usually in trees and may be as high as 98 ft. (30 m) or more from the ground. The platform like nests are constructed out of medium-sized sticks and materials may be added throughout the nesting cycle. Nests are usually lined with finer twigs, leaves, grass, pine needles, moss, reeds, or dry gras. The same nests are refurbished and used year after year.
Most great blue herons return to southern Michigan heronries in mid-March although a few may remain through the winter if there are areas of open water. Courtship and nest building commences from early April in southern Michigan to early May in the extreme northern portions of the state. Both sexes are involved in the nest building process with males primarily gathering sticks from the ground, nearby trees, or ungarded nearby nests.
More about Great Blue Herons on Michigan in Pictures.
View Rodney’s photo background bigtacular and see more in his Birds slideshow.
It’s that time of year when I look back and try to remember what happened, a task that is made a lot easier by the nifty analytics provided by the good folks at WordPress.com (and the questionable folks at Facebook).
One thing that happened was the re-design of Michigan in Pictures to feature bigger photos, something that pretty much everyone seems to appreciate.
Honorable Mention is the consistently popular post Know Your Michigan Turtles. It was originally published in 2013 and continued to be the most consistently visited post on Michigan in Pictures in 2015. This year I featured the Spiny Soft-shell Turtle on World Tortoise Day and was even re-tweeted by American Tortoise Rescue, the amazing organization behind the day and worldwide turtle preservation. As a turtle fan, I find this awesome.
December 7th ~ How Pere Marquette 1225 inspired the Polar Express by Bob Gudas
Subtitle the story of how this iconic engine provided inspiration for the iconic children’s book by Michigan Author Chris Van Allsburg “Why it’s important to preserve our history.”
November 10th ~ The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald via Wikimedia Commons
If there’s a Michigan folk song that everyone knows, it’s Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Read about how he wrote it, watch the best darn video on the internet featuring this song, and marvel at the fact I can’t tell the difference between Walter Cronkite and Harry Reasoner.
January 13th ~ Ice Caves Return to Lake Michigan by Heather Higham
Two years ago, Lake Michigan’s ice caves blew up, drawing tens of thousands of people to the shores of Lake Michigan, and when they formed this year, Heather was there!
August 3rd ~ Jellyfish Stormfront by Tom Parrent
The crazy storm of early August 2015 devastated areas of Northern Lower Michigan including leveling acres and acres of trees in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and rendering the village of Glen Arbor inaccessible for days.
April 20th ~ Coast Guard shares Manitou Passage shipwrecks from above by the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City
The top post of the year is this aerial photo of the 1917 wreck of the Rising Sun by a Traverse City based Coast Guard aircrew. Several more photos available at the link.
Thanks everyone for being a part of Michigan in Pictures in 2015!
Reports of morels are coming in from all across the state. They’ll be celebrating our delicious woodland friends this weekend (May 8-10) at the Mesick Mushroom Festival and next weekend (May 14-17) at the National Morel Mushroom Festival in Boyne City.
If you’re looking for Michigan morel photos and features, click that link for a ton from Michigan in Pictures. Happy hunting!!
Julie says these plus a few others will make a great topping for a ribeye! View the photo bigger and see more in her Spring/Summer slideshow.
know these things, photo by .brianday
Michigan Radio’s Stateside program interviewed Dr. Larissa Larsen of the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Michigan about how our warming climate & heavier rains impacts how we plan & manage cities. It’s an interesting concept and another financial eventuality we’ll need to include in our long-term planning … assuming we ever do any of that.
This photo is from Brian’s fantastic Time Traveler Series. See it bigger and see more in the time traveler slideshow.
More weather on Michigan in Pictures.
Irish Hills Towers from Route 12 (View 1), photo by DarrylW4
The Adrian Daily Telegram reports that ownership of the Irish Hills Towers has formally been transfered to the Irish Hills Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The towers have been stabilized and are being evaluated, and it appears that the IHHS would need about $300,000 to restore this attraction. Keep up with their progress at the Irish Hills Historical Society Facebook.
This page on the Irish Hills Towers notes that the top of the towers is 1400 feet above sea level, which makes them the highest point in southeastern Michigan. On a clear day (if they were open) you could see for seven miles with a ten lakes visible. Michigan in Pictures has more shots of these iconic landmarks including the history of the towers and a crazy cool photo by Matt Callow.
Darren took the photo and suggests that he’d like to see the towers restored and converted to a museum for Michigan’s Roadside Attractions. Check it out on black and see more in his Irish Hills Towers slideshow.
Untitled, photo by Brooke Pennington
I refuse to give the ice storm that’s outside my door any power.
Brooke takes some great shots of flowers – check this out on black, see more in his slideshow or here on Michigan in Pictures.
Michigan in Pictures 