Oct. 17, 2022: Here’s a roundup of fall colors around the Old Mission Peninsula. It’s a good thing I took photos yesterday, because it’s really windy today, and I’m guessing a lot of those leaves might be gone in the next day or two.
It was also a good day for taking photos because of the lighting. With fall colors especially, it’s good to take pics on a day that’s overcast because it really makes the colors pop. Yes, those colors really are that brilliant! Read the captions for locations and any stories attached to the pic.
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A lot of artists ask if they can use my photos for landscape paintings. The answer is yes! Feel free! I only ask that you send me a photo of the painting when you’re done, so I can post it here on the Gazette. You can either text it to me, (231) 590-4715, or email it to [email protected].
(UPDATE, Oct. 19, 2022: I started writing this post a couple of days ago, right before my power went out due to the high winds. The power is still out, so I hauled my laptop to the library and am writing this from there. I don’t know why, but my little sliver of Bluff Road is always the first to go out and the last to get power restored. At this writing, Consumers Energy gives an estimated restoration time of 5:15 p.m. (after pushing it back and back over the last couple days). If and when I ever get power back, I’m going to call Consumers and get someone on the phone for an interview about all of our power issues on the OMP. Let me know what questions you’d like me ask, [email protected].)
Fall Colors on Center Road, Old Mission Peninsula (from Johnson Farms’ Home Barn, looking south) | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road; this is a little shed across the road from Johnson Farms’ “home barn” north of Mapleton. Back in the 1970s and 80s, I ran the cherry cooling pad at this location. The pad was eventually moved south to the bottom of the hill on Center Road; thank goodness, because getting trucks in and out on that blind curve was nothing short of perilous. There also used to be a farmhouse here where my siblings first lived (I never did; my parents built the new house in Old Mission the year I was born, 1960) | Jane Boursaw PhotoFlowers at Johnson Farms’ home barn north of Mapleton | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at the Johnson Farms’ home barn north of Mapleton | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near the Boursaw Road Intersection, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near the Boursaw Road Intersection, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near the Boursaw Road Intersection, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near the Boursaw Road Intersection, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near the Boursaw Road Intersection, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road; Missy Jamieson’s Barn at one time, now the Lehto Barn | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near the Ladd Road Intersection | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near the Ladd Road Intersection | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near 2 Lads Winery, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road near 2 Lads Winery, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Mission Road; I grew up on the shore on the right of this photo; my dad, Walter Johnson, planted those trees on the right | Jane Boursaw PhotoOld Mission General Store on Mission Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoThe Log Church Replica on Mission Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoThe Dougherty House, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoHalloween Decorations at the Old Mission Inn on Mission Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoOld Mission Congregational Church on Mission Road. Tim and I were married here on Dec. 31, 1993. | Jane Boursaw PhotoHaserot Beach in the village of Old Mission | Jane Boursaw PhotoBay Street in the village of Old Mission | Jane Boursaw PhotoWoodland Road in the village of Old Mission | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Brinkman Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Brinkman Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Tompkins Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Tompkins Road (Becky Tester’s Horse Farm), Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoHessler Log Home at Lighthouse Park | Jane Boursaw PhotoMission Point Lighthouse, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoWar Memorial at Lighthouse Park, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road near the Old Mission Road Intersection | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road by Old Mission Tavern | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road by Old Mission Flowers/Ladd Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoOgdensburg Cemetery, corner of Ladd Road and Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors looking west from Center Road (my brother Ward Johnson’s farm)/Old Mission Peninsula United Methodist Church | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road; Dean and Laura Johnson’s Barn | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at the Hogsback on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at the Hogsback on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at my brother Ward Johnson’s farm off Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at my brother Ward Johnson’s farm off Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at my brother Ward Johnson’s farm off Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoGrapes off Center Road near the Hogsback | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at my brother Ward Johnson’s farm off Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Smokey Hollow Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at “The Cut-Across near the Hogsback (between Smokey Hollow Road and Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road near the Seven Hills Road Intersection | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Winery Hill (Chateau Grand Traverse) | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Bluff Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Bluff Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Bluff Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoSome guy on East Shore Road, hopefully heading to get a sandwich | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on East Shore Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on McKinley Road, Old Mission Peninsula | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road – This Tree is Amazing! | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoThe Pumpkin Patch at First Congregational Church on Center Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Peninsula Drive | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Peninsula Drive | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Island View Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Island View Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Peninsula Drive | Jane Boursaw PhotoLorey Kroupa’s Harbor Station; corner of Peninsula Drive and Bowers Harbor Road | Jane Boursaw PhotoGorman’s Halloween Decorations on Peninsula Drive | Jane Boursaw PhotoGorman’s Pumpkins on Peninsula Drive | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors at the Peninsula Township Cemetery; Peninsula Drive South of the Kroupa Road Intersection | Jane Boursaw PhotoFall Colors on Peninsula Drive south of the Kroupa Road Intersection | Jane Boursaw PhotoJohnson Farms Apple Orchard, aka “The 40” | Jane Boursaw Photo
SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
Because Old Mission Gazette is a "Reader Supported Newspaper" -- meaning it exists because of your financial support -- I hope you'll consider tossing a few bucks our way if I mention your event, your business, your organization or your news item, or if you simply love reading about what's happening on the OMP. In a time when local news is becoming a thing of the past, supporting an independent community newspaper is more important now than ever. Thank you so much for your support! -Jane Boursaw, Editor/Publisher, Old Mission Gazette
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Looking at these spectacular pictures, while sitting here in Gainesville, GA, made me reach out to you in appreciation. Your photography generated a wealth of emotions that I haven’t felt for some years. The happiest days of my life were spent in Traverse City with my young family. Career advancement took me away but Traverse City and area remain my spiritual home. Thank you for such elegant beauty. Daryle J. Harris
As always, your photos are spectacular Jane. Thanks for the tour. I have been amazed at how tenacious the leaves have been through the wind and rain we are enjoying this fall. Amazed, but thankful. I love the fall
Cuz,
I’m reminded of Michigan’s state motto that Dad would recite: If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.
Lotsa history: The “shed” across the red barn was where our grandparents parked their Hudson (car).
The colorful “smokey hollow,” our Grandma Stella called it before a formal name was assigned. She rode under that canopy of trees with her father on a cutter from their farm that bordered the Edgecomb farm to Haserot. (From there they crossed the ice covered bay for groceries in Elk Rapids because it was easier & closer during winter. The bear rug from the Johnson farmhouse was bartered on the shore for groceries with local Anishinaabe.)
Beautiful🍁
Beautiful!
Looking at these spectacular pictures, while sitting here in Gainesville, GA, made me reach out to you in appreciation. Your photography generated a wealth of emotions that I haven’t felt for some years. The happiest days of my life were spent in Traverse City with my young family. Career advancement took me away but Traverse City and area remain my spiritual home. Thank you for such elegant beauty. Daryle J. Harris
Thank you for a gorgeous color tour! It’s almost like being there.
Thank you for sharing! Beautiful!
LOVE the photos! thanks for sharing Jane 🙂
As always, your photos are spectacular Jane. Thanks for the tour. I have been amazed at how tenacious the leaves have been through the wind and rain we are enjoying this fall. Amazed, but thankful. I love the fall
Cuz,
I’m reminded of Michigan’s state motto that Dad would recite: If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.
Lotsa history: The “shed” across the red barn was where our grandparents parked their Hudson (car).
The colorful “smokey hollow,” our Grandma Stella called it before a formal name was assigned. She rode under that canopy of trees with her father on a cutter from their farm that bordered the Edgecomb farm to Haserot. (From there they crossed the ice covered bay for groceries in Elk Rapids because it was easier & closer during winter. The bear rug from the Johnson farmhouse was bartered on the shore for groceries with local Anishinaabe.)
I looked at every single beautiful photo. Loved them.
Beautiful! Thank you so much Jane. Wish I was there.
Loved the photos, Jane, thanks so much for sharing!