Up north in Michigan : a portrait of place in four seasons / Jerry Dennis.

Spring. Loon song -- Spring arrives -- Water, water -- The color of steelhead -- A random act -- An April shower -- Opening days -- Night watch on The Malabar -- The overlooked forest -- Drenched in color -- From a hilltop, looking back -- Yellowthroats and agates -- The night country -- Rivers and time -- A bountiful weekend -- The dawn chorus -- Summer. Summer and slow time -- Getting lost -- Island song -- The wind on the beach -- Sandblasted -- Our bay life -- The rules of cottage living -- Sparks in the sky -- Ways of seeing Sleeping Bear -- Shorewalking -- Creek music -- Boys of summer -- A spur of the moment kind of day -- Surprised by beauty -- In the upper country -- Making trail -- August explorations -- Making memories -- Summer work and high water -- Autumn. The fringe of autumn -- The many autumns -- A riot of colors, with violins -- The autumn trail -- A round river -- River rush -- Bird camp memories -- Two-trackin' -- The restless season -- A November wind -- Winter. Winter roads -- Winter and white space -- The quiet hours -- Ken Scott's ice caves -- Star matter -- Winter time -- Waxwings in winter -- My lost lake -- Real winter -- Visitors -- Season of snow and boots.

"Northern Michigan is a place, like all places, in change. Over the past half century, its landscape has been bulldozed, subdivided, and built upon. Climate change warms the water of the Great Lakes at an alarming rate-Lake Superior is now the fastest-warming large body of freshwater on the planet-creating increasingly frequent and severe storm events, altering aquatic and shoreline ecosystems, and contributing to further invasions by non-native plants and animals. And yet the essence of this region, known to many as simply "Up North," has proved remarkably perennial. Millions of acres of state and national forests and other public lands remain intact. Small towns peppered across the rural countryside have changed little over the decades, pushing back the machinery of progress with the help of dedicated land conservancies, conservation organizations, and other advocacy groups. Up North in Michigan, the new collection from celebrated nature writer Jerry Dennis, captures its author's lifelong journey to better know this place he calls home by exploring it in every season, in every kind of weather, on foot, on bicycle, in canoes and cars. The essays in this book are more than an homage to a particular region, its people, and its natural wonders. They are a reflection on the Up North that can only be experienced through your feet and fingertips, through your ears, mouth, and nose-the Up North that makes its way into your bones as surely as sand makes its way into wood grain."--Provided by publisher.