GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Rain, maybe snow and sleet later... The low pressure system that brought us yesterday's weather is overhead now, and will keep things rainy then showery as it moves out, followed by a cold front. This means that as things end, we could see some snow or icier precipitation late in the day. Temperatures are going to be highly dependent on location, but around here it looks like we could get up to around 40 this afternoon before things start dropping back to something more reasonable for January: mid-20s overnight.Snow scenes. Because, you know, its winter, dang it!
Here's snowfall on the Ottauquechee last week, from Lisa Lacasse.
And sunrise through icy trees in S. Washington, VT (up by Chelsea), from Patricia Swahn.
And, though this one's far afield, it would be cruel not to share: snow patterns on the Nebraska landscape from Sharon's Kit Hood, flying far overhead.
Petition asks VT's Natural Resources Board to "stop the runaround" on Woodstock "farm-to-fork" restaurant. Supporters of Peace Field Farm, which has been trying to build an on-farm restaurant, contend that it's time for the NRB to remove bureaucratic and regulatory roadblocks that have kept the restaurant from opening, reports Tom Ayres in the Vermont Standard. They argue that town officials support the effort by farm owner John Holland and farmer-restauranteur Matt Lombard, that neighbors have "come to terms" with Holland—and that the proposal has been treated unfairly by the state.
SPONSORED: Electricity rate hikes and storms are affecting our fragile grid—and you! As utilities pay more for natural gas to fire up the grid, New Hampshire ratepayers now face the second-highest electricity rates in the nation, behind Hawaii. In fact, all six New England states rank in the top 10 for electric bills. And Vermont utilities are already lining up for '23 rate increases. Hit the maroon link to find out more about the latest rate hikes and how power outages from holiday storms walloped customers in the region. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.Upper Valley nonprofits on both sides of the river land $750K from NH Charitable. The foundation just announced $3.8 million in operating grants to groups all over the state—which, says communications VP Kristen Oliveri, "provide unrestricted operating support so organizations can put the dollars to use where it is most needed." Local recipients of $30K and $60K grants include AVA, COVER, the Claremont Soup Kitchen, The Family Place, the New London Barn Playhouse, Upper Valley Music Center, the Trails Alliance, JAG, Positive Tracks, Vital Communities, and others.Hartland's BG's Market changes hands, gets new manager with a familiar face. Last year, longtime owner Bill Gaucher sold the store, an institution in town, to a Boston firm—and on Jan. 1, writes Tess Hunter in the Standard, handed over management to Ian Rose, former manager of the Skinny Pancake's spots in Hanover and Quechee. Rose tells Hunter he's "taking a local, 'if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it' approach" to running the market—though it is getting a refresh that includes redoing the floors, new lighting and shelving, letting more light in, and “just making the store function better.”Claremont City Council puts off discussion on misconduct allegation against one of its own. The issue stems from a charge that Councilor Jim Contois used his position to pressure the chief of police to lift a no-trespass order issued against him last fall by the owner of a Ford dealership in the city. At its meeting Wednesday night, reports Patrick O'Grady in the Valley News, the council decided to hold a hearing "at a later date"—and rejected a move to recuse Contois and Asst. Mayor Deb Matteau, who chaired a panel looking into the case and announced she'd be a "no" vote on disciplining Contois.SPONSORED: Join Dartmouth for the annual MLK Celebration keynote event Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 pm. This year the event features activist, author and creator of the ‘me too.’ Movement, Tarana Burke. In a fireside chat moderated by Dr. Shontay Delalue, Dartmouth’s Senior Vice President and Senior Diversity Officer, Burke provides insight on working for a more compassionate world. Register here to join us for the live event in Filene Auditorium or to get a link to watch at home. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.“It all amounts to a kid having this beautiful magical form of art and communication and love in their hands.” Children’s book writer and illustrator Lorian Tu grew up loving reading, but the books from her childhood did not represent her. Her grandparents were Chinese and Cuban, and her community Puerto Rican, so she appreciates the wider world today’s children’s books put in kids' hands. Carolyn Parker-Fairbain profiles the Randoph-based author in The Herald, explaining how Tu’s own background influences her characters and collaborations.“We had a rule: That we played until one of us started bleeding or crying.” That's Windsor High's Sydney Perry talking about her one-on-one driveway hoops games against her older sister, Reese. Perry, Audrey Rupp, and Sophia Rockwood, all of whom had an older sister star for Windsor, are mainstays in the Yellowjackets' bid to win a second Div. III crown this season. In the VN, Benjamin Rosenberg profiles the three. The battle is fierce this year, and Windsor will have to get past Thetford—coached by Jolene Cadwell, who in the '90s put up 1,964 points for Thetford, fourth all-time in VT.Out there in the woods right now. January, writes the team at the VT Center for Ecostudies "is about survival" for species that stick around instead of migrating. But there's an astonishing amount going on out their right now, as they make clear in the "Field Guide to January." Great Horned Owls start nesting as early as this month, and you may hear them publicizing their territory. Beavers, meanwhile, are hanging out in their lodges—a family of eight can go through a ton of bark. Birch trees are shedding bark to stay healthy. And white-tailed deer and ruffed grouse have their own survival strategies.Hiking (Kinda) Close to Home: Hubbard Park in Montpelier. The park, says the Upper Valley Trails Alliance, features a variety of trails and other rec opportunities. It has 7 miles of trails for pedestrians and bikes (on designated paths). Its multiple trailheads include one in downtown Montpelier behind the State House and one near the North Branch Nature Center. The park also features shelters, playgrounds, toilets, a pond, sledding area, and ball fields—in addition to the 54-foot-tall Hubbard Tower (open seasonally), which allows visitors a wonderful view from its lookout.“I was a kid off the boat, adrift in the New World.” Charles Simic, former US poet laureate and longtime UNH professor, died Monday at 84. In NH Bulletin, former Monitor editor and "self-appointed poetry beat writer" Mike Pride offers an appreciation. Simic, whose childhood in Belgrade was marked by WWII, arrived in New Hampshire half a century ago; Pride recalls not just his interviews with Simic, but the evening the two shared a stage with NH's two other then-living national poets laureate, Maxine Kumin and Don Hall. With Simic's death, all three are gone, but, Pride writes, "their lifework abides."NH hospitals sue state over ER "boarding." The 15 hospitals are taking aim at the state's practice of boarding people who are held involuntarily due to a mental health crisis in emergency rooms for days or weeks until psychiatric beds are available, reports Paul Cuno-Booth for NHPR. The hospitals want to force the state health department to start transferring such patients to designated mental health facilities “immediately,” arguing it's required by state law. The state’s mental health system is stretched to capacity, with too few beds for the number of people who need emergency psychiatric care.Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because the Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, which NH town just got switched by the Census Bureau from "urban cluster" to rural? And which Upper Valley cider-maker just became a finalist for a Good Food Award? And just what does the Filipino fruit calamansi taste like? You'll find those and other questions at the burgundy link.But wait! How closely were you following VT and NH?
Because Seven Days wants to know if you know what's been going on around the state this week—including, what's a St. J-based hemp processing company hoping will happen this year?
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings in the Granite State—like, what are some NH farms using donated used Christmas trees for?
VT judicial system struggles with unprecedented backlog of court cases. “I’ve been a lawyer in Vermont for 34 years and I've never seen anything like this,” Defender General Matthew Valerio told legislators yesterday. The backlog, caused largely by the pandemic and its ensuing lockdowns, has been persistent, Sarah Mearhoff reports for VTDigger: As recently as last Friday, there were 1,156 felony cases and 2,205 misdemeanor cases that had been pending for longer than two years. "If nothing is done to try to resolve these backlogs, you're going to see at some point misdemeanors that are seven years old, 10 years old by the time you get to them,” Valerio said.Rutland settles on a new name for its high school mascot. It's "Rutland." You may remember that there's been a battle over whether to get rid of the school's longtime "Raiders" moniker and arrowhead logo after students argued they carried racist connotations. Two years ago the school board replaced the name with "Ravens." A year ago, a new board reinstated "Raiders." Now the current board has chosen plain old "Rutland." “There are a significant number of students that really want to be done with this conversation," principal Greg Schillinger tells WCAX. "They want the adults to stop talking about it."Michelin offers a guide to the Vermont cheese trail. The "trail" itself is actually more extensive than the road trip Michelin maps out (with 45 stops in all), but if you're looking for good VT cheese ideas, the Michelin Guide's Sophie Friedman provides a handy reference. There's a loving description of Jasper Hill Farm; quick swings by Vermont Creamery, Woodcock Farm, Lazy Lady Farm, and Grafton Village Cheese; visits to Vermont Shepherd in Putney, Parish Hill Creamery in Westminster West, and Big Picture Farm in Putney; and a stop by Billings Farm and other Woodstock destinations.It’s not just Fido looking cute. Every one of the finalists in the 2022 Dog Photography Awards is gorgeous, funny, or astonishing. Somehow the judges managed to pick the top three in each category. The photos are pure art, and the stories behind them pure joy (click on each picture to read about it). There could be no more welcome sight, should you need rescuing from a snow mass, than Kyron, a border collie caught on camera the moment paws break through snow. And agility dog Bagheera is, in a word, balletic.The Friday Vordle. If you're new to Vordle, you should know that fresh ones appear on weekends using words from the Friday Daybreak, and you can get a reminder email each weekend morning. If you'd like that, sign up here.
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Sweatshirts, hats, and, of course, coffee/tea/cocoa mugs. It's all available thanks to Strong Rabbit Designs in Sharon. Check out what's available and wear it or drink from it proudly! Email me ([email protected]) if you've got questions.
At 4 pm today, Woodstock's Norman Williams Public Library hosts a reception and artist's talk by oil painter Elizabeth Leone Holmes about her ongoing exhibition at the library, "Geography/Seasons 4x4," which collects her work depicting favorite locations in all seasons and weather.
Also starting at 4 this afternoon and lasting until 7, you can drop by the Russo Auditorium at the Hood Museum in Hanover and find all sorts of materials for a "self-guided crafting activity." It's open to all ages, no experience necessary. Even if you're just there to get in out of the weather, give your imagination free rein!
This evening at 7, Fairlee Arts kicks off three Fridays of silent films in the Fairlee Town Hall auditorium. Tonight it's Edwin Porter's The Great Train Robbery from 1903, one of the first films in American cinema period, let alone one with a story to tell, and Charlie Chaplin's 1925 The Gold Rush. No charge for admission.
Also at 7, Hop Film presents Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin at the Loew. It stars Colin Farrell as Padraic, a cow herder, and Brendan Gleeson as Colm, a fiddler. They've been fast friends forever, until Colm abruptly calls their friendship off. “I just don’t like you no more,” he says. McDonagh's films, the NYT wrote in its review last fall, are "where the picturesque and the profane intermingle, where jaunty humor keeps company with gruesome violence."
At 7:30 this evening, Parish Players opens its two-weekend run of Alan Haehnel's My Ode to Joy, the performer and former high school English teacher's onstage show of original poetry "celebrating the power and beauty of words arranged into poems"—with music and video along for the ride. Tomorrow at 7:30 and Sunday at 3, repeated next weekend.
And at 9 this evening (doors open at 8), Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover brings in Green Mountain Roots to its stage. As they write: "A rock n roll jam band based in the Upper Valley.... Original songwriting, classic covers, and blazin' jams. Green Mountain Roots provides a psychedelic listening experience and good time vibe."
Tomorrow at 1 pm, Hop Film presents the Met Opera in HD performance of Fedora, the Met's new production of Umberto Giordano’s opera about a Russian princess who falls in love with her fiancé's murderer. Grand settings in St. Petersburg, Paris, and a Swiss villa. In the Loew.
Tomorrow night at 7:30, the Norwich contra dance is back in Tracy Hall with ace musicians Colin McCaffrey and Colin Langford and Greenfield, MA-based caller Liz Nelson. Masks required.
And Sunday at 2 pm at the Thetford Community Center, it's your chance to see circus artists Liam Gundlach and Ripley Burns in their two-person show, "Riplium Menagerie." The two—he's an acrobat and extraordinary diabolo artist, she's an acrobat, hand balancer, and foot juggler—have been refining their act for the past several years and are taking it out into the circus world. Here's a teaser video. For reservations (though you can also just show up) email [email protected].
And music to end the week...
Pathbreaking rock guitarist and two-time Rock Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Beck died on Tuesday after contracting bacterial meningitis. The tributes have been flowing in since his family announced his death Wednesday, and you'll have no trouble finding them (
). But of course, the best way to appreciate musicians is to watch them at work.
at the Rock Hall's 25th anniversary
concert in 2009, at Madison Square Garden.
See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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