Michigan Weirdness

Emerald ash borers have killed almost every ash tree in Michigan, and all of these trees will be dead when these bugs are finished. Originally from Asia, ash borers were first spotted in the Detroit area in 2002. They probably got here in wooden packing materials from China. Asian ash trees and the ash borers have lived together forever, but North American ash trees don’t know how to combat this invasive species.

What do you do with dead ash trees?

The Leila Arboretum in Battle Creek created a fantasy forest. Artists transformed the once beautiful ash trees into a still beautiful fantasy forest. We saw this one while in Battle Creek for a book store gig in 2015.

We stopped in Holland, Michigan, on our way to Colorado later in 2015. I hadn’t been there since I was a kid.

We couldn’t resist a photo of De Zwaan, the classic Dutch windmill on Windmill Island. This windmill was constructed in 1761 in Netherlands and moved to Michigan (and Windmill Island Gardens) in 1964.

If you couldn’t figure this out by the name, Holland, Michigan’s first European settlers were Dutch. Albertus C. VanRaalte led a group of 60 people from Rotterdam to this stretch of Michigan in 1847. Many more Dutch followed in the years thereafter.

Photographs by Linda McDonnell