GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Quick reminder: No Daybreak Monday. Mostly cloudy, maybe a smidge warmer than yesterday. It didn't get nearly as cold last night as it did Wednesday night, and it should get into the 20s this afternoon—though winds start picking up around noon as colder air from the north makes its way into the region again. Down to the single digits tonight, ahead of whatever tomorrow's much-touted coastal storm brings.Speaking of which, here's what to expect. The most recent models show it tracking a bit farther west, so...
Bird life in winter:
A blue jay staying warm in sub-zero temps as it waited in line for a bird feeder in Hanover, by Tom Wilson;
A barred owl sunning itself in Strafford, by Amber Wylie;
"Everybody's a cricket critic." It's full-on summer over in Lost Woods, as Henry and Lydia bask in the sun, talk over the chorus around them, and give us just a moment's glimpse of what waits beyond the cold and snow (and mud season). As he does every Friday in this spot, Lebanon author and illustrator DB Johnson chronicles the doings in his favorite patch of trees. Hit the back arrow to catch up on previous weeks or to head right back to the beginning.DHMC faces Covid outbreak. The issue was reported yesterday by NH state health officials, reports Nora Doyle-Burr in the Valley News, and the hospital's chief quality officer, Dr. Michael Calderwood, told her DHMC is seeing an “increased number” of cases among both patients and employees on two floors. Both state officials and Calderwood attribute the outbreak to the Omicron variant's high transmissibility. Calderwood adds that none of the infected patients has “required escalation of their care.”Nearly a quarter of Dartmouth's students have tested positive this month. Soleil Gaylord reports in The Dartmouth that about 23 percent of the total student body—including students not in the Upper Vally—has tested positive since Jan. 1. Most of those cases are likely Omicron, but the high incidence is not to be taken lightly, policy fellow Anne Sosin says. “Many students in our community are individually at lower risk—however, our community includes people who are at higher risk,” she explains. “Our concern is that they can transmit onward to people in our communities who are at higher risk.”
SPONSORED: “...by far the most life-changing week of my life.” Help inspire the high schoolers you know to create the future! This summer, connect them with world-class mentors through affordable programs on college campuses that will drive them to think deeper and dream bigger. Applications are now open for Arts, Astronomy, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Health & Medicine, Global Issues, Environmental Science, Mathematical Sciences, and Technology & Design. Students from cross-border schools like Hanover and Rivendell are welcome to apply! Sponsored by The Governor’s Institutes of VT.“This is not NIMBY. We had a prison here for 200 years.” That's Windsor town manager Tom Marsh talking to the VN's Patrick O'Grady about townspeople's opposition to measures currently in the VT Legislature that would turn the former Southeast State Correctional Facility into a juvenile detention facility. In town surveys, residents overwhelmingly oppose using the site for any sort of prison or social-service facility, Marsh says. The state has been casting about for a new juvenile facility.The downtown Leb library is open again. After a year of renovations, Susan Apel writes in Artful, it features greater accessibility, "comfortable chairs," and a pair of new meeting rooms. It's one of nine Carnegie libraries in NH (libraries funded around the turn of the last century by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie). "Libraries have always been among my best and oldest friends," Susan muses. "So I am eagerly anticipating a return visit to the Lebanon Library." A grand re-opening's planned for later this spring."Ovens give us the ability to cook food and continue life. So taking apart ovens is tough." But that's what had to be done last summer as a volunteer crew organized by King Arthur Baking and led by wood-fired oven maestro Richard Miscovich demolished the old and much-loved Barrett Meadow community oven in Norwich, prepped the foundation for a new one, and then built it. KA is up with a very cool video by N. Pomfret filmmaker Evan Kay showing the whole process in 6 minutes, narrated by Miscovich. (Note: I have a strong rooting interest in that oven, detailed in this article from years back.)Skiing Close to Home: Green Woodlands. This week's suggestion from the Upper Valley Trails Alliance brings you to one of the region's xc skiing gems. Located in Lyme and Dorchester, NH, "Greens" offers 30 miles of groomed ski trails through a variety of terrain. There are four huts for skiers to get warm and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. Skiers and snowshoers (outside the ski tracks) only. The system has two main entrances, one at 1756 NH RT 118 in Dorchester, and the other at the end of Lyme's Dorchester Rd. between Reservoir Pond in Lyme and Cummins Pond in Dorchester.Been paying attention this week? The guys who run The News Quiz have some questions for you. Like, what is it that Dartmouth is planning to build on the east side of Lyme Road? And what's the newest product going to be in NH state liquor stores? And what's been proposed for a big 12A expansion? You'll find those and others at the maroon link.WISE, Northern Stage team up for WISE history podcast. It's called... WISER...and it celebrates the anti-gender-based-violence nonprofit's 50th anniversary. The podcast premiered yesterday and is the work of Northern Stage director and producer Jess Chayes, who spent a chunk of last summer collecting stories from people involved in WISE's past. Because Northern Stage isn't actually in the podcast business, to hear it you'll need to "subscribe" to all five episodes (with one released each Thursday) through the theater company's usual ticket-buying process, though there's no charge.$1.84 million bond for Hanover High track, baseball field to go to town meeting votes. Sportswriter Tris Wykes, whose Octopus Athletics blog regularly went deep into the UV sports scene, is back at the Valley News. He reports that the track "was last resurfaced in 2006 and features uneven stretches caused by frost heaves." The baseball diamond, which is behind the Norwich Farmers Market off Route 5, "has long been plagued by poor drainage," forcing the school to juggle schedules when the field is waterlogged. Voters in both towns will be asked to approve the bond."The conversation stops at the words 'Section 8.'” And that, writes NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt, is increasingly a problem for Granite Staters who rely on those subsidies for housing, sometimes wait years to get their vouchers—and then discover in the state's tight housing market that no landlord will rent to them. Six years ago, 90 percent of them could get housing on the private market; these days it's more like 60 percent. Landlords argue that using the program requires stricter maintenance protocols and carries additional costs, and that the solution is building more subsidized housing around the state.A "long-overdue reinvention" of VT's charitable food system—thanks to the pandemic. For one thing, writes Melissa Pasanen in a thorough look at the topic in Seven Days, providers have "shifted their focus away from pounds of food distributed and toward delivering the kinds of foods people want and need." They've found ways to support small businesses—think Everyone Eats, the highly popular restaurant-based effort to feed people in need—while getting food to Vermonters. And they found that distributing food in ways that eliminated the stigma attached to getting free food was really popular.VT bill to require contractors to register with the state passes Senate, moves to guv's desk. The measure, which would apply to any contractor who agrees with a homeowner on work worth $3,500 or more, has been fought over for more than a decade. The goal, writes Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days, is to stem cases of fraud or substandard work; opponents believe it places an undue burden on small-businesspeople. Gov. Phil Scott has said he thinks the $3,500 threshold is too low, and his press secretary says he has "serious concerns" with the measure but hasn't indicated how he'll act.Rare eagle visits Maine, enjoys the seafood, might settle down. For the past several weeks, a bird far from home has captured the imagination of coastal New England. A Steller’s sea eagle is believed to have come here all the way from Russia or Japan, making pit stops across North America before parking it in Maine in December. The AP’s Patrick Whittle reports that bird enthusiasts have traveled from all over for this rare chance to see the raptor with an 8-foot wing span—one of the largest eagles in the world. With plenty to eat and a familiar climate, it seems in no hurry to leave. And on a frozen lake in Finland: a fox the size of a football field. Okay, not actually a fox, but the likeness of one, carved into snow. A Finnish architect-designer has made a winter tradition of heading out onto a nearby lake after fresh snowfall and using his feet and a shovel to create gigantic ephemeral art. This year it’s a 295-foot fox—drawn with remarkable precision and detail. “Once the piece was complete,” writes My Modern Met’s Jessica Stewart, “he treated himself to the hot coffee that he’d brought along and hiked up a nearby cliff to photograph his drawing.” A few days later, that fox was gone.
And the numbers...
Dartmouth's numbers continue to drop modestly, down to 520 total cases (from 541 Monday). The college's dashboard yesterday reported 405 active undergrad cases (-19), 57 among grad and professional students (+10), and 58 among faculty/staff (-12). There have been 925 combined new cases among students over the previous seven days, as well as 114 among faculty/staff. 370 students are isolating on campus, 92 are isolating off-campus, and 75 faculty/staff are in isolation.
NH's new cases are also dropping.The state reported 724 on Tuesday, 1,023 Wednesday, and 1,941 yesterday, bringing its total to 70,063; its 7-day average of 1,770 is half what it was 10 days ago. There have been 48 deaths reported since Monday; the total now stands at 2,193. Hospitalizations have been trending slightly downward, though they're still higher than they were at the start of January: 387 people are currently hospitalized (-24 since Monday). The state reports 14,542 active cases (-1,099 since Monday). There are 1,163 (-19) active cases in Grafton County, 447 (-21) in Sullivan, and 1,702 (-140) in Merrimack. In town-by-town numbers, the state says Hanover has 421 (-24), Claremont has 184 (+10), Lebanon has 128 (-3), Newport has 105 (-4), Haverhill has 84 (+7), New London has 83 (-13), Enfield has 48 (-4), Canaan has 40 (+2), Charlestown has 37 (-10), Grantham has 30 (no change), Plainfield has 20 (+3), Sunapee has 17 (-10), Grafton has 14 (+2), Newbury has 13 (-2), Unity has 13 (-1), Wilmot has 12 (-3), Orford has 11 (-4), Warren has 11 (-2), Rumney has 8 (-5), Springfield has 8 (-2), Lyme has 8 (-1), Wentworth has 7 (no change), Cornish has 5 (-1), and Piermont, Dorchester, Orange, and Croydon have 1-4 each.
VT's new cases are also trending downward: It reported 435 new cases Tuesday, 538 Wednesday, and 1,490 yesterday, to bring it to 102,153 total. The state reports 8 additional deaths since Monday, bringing it to 529. Hospitalizations have edged up a bit: as of yesterday, 108 people with confirmed cases were hospitalized (+3), with 27 of them (+4) in the ICU. Windsor County has seen 186 new cases since Monday, with 6,764 for the pandemic and 758 new cases over the previous two weeks; Orange County gained 116 cases during that time, with 400 over the previous two weeks for a total of 2,989.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
From 3-6 pm today, the town health officers in West Fairlee, Corinth, Vershire and neighboring towns are hosting a vaccine/booster clinic at the W. Fairlee town offices, 870 VT Route 113 (across from the fire department). No pre-registration needed, though if you've got a vaccine card (and can find it), bring it along. They'll also be administering flu shots, in case you didn't manage to snag one yet.
And from 6 to 8 this evening, Lebanon Rec is throwing a "S'more Ice Skating Party" at the ice rinks in Pat Walsh Park on Bank St. Extension.
This evening at 7:30, Middlebury's performing arts series continues its livestreamed, cello-centric series of concerts with VT-based composer and cellist (and certified global phenom) Zoë Keating, whose multi-layered, expressive, looped approach has won her an ardent following in this country, her native Canada, and around the world. Tix are $15.
Tomorrow at 11 am and again at 1 pm, the Hop is hosting a Zoomed workshop with "English fella and storyteller" Simon Brooks, who'll delve into what makes for a good story. For the whole family, but, the Hop says, "ideal for ages 4-6." In partnership with the West Claremont Center and Claremont Parks & Rec. No charge, but you'll need a ticket.
At 3 pm and again at 5:30 tomorrow, Billings Farm's film series brings in Storm Lake, Beth Levison's 2021 documentary about the Cullen family and its heroic efforts to keep publishing the Pulitzer-winning, twice-weekly Storm Lake (Iowa) Times as the small-town news publishing world crumbles across the country. At 4:30, between showings, there'll be a Q&A with Levison and Phil Camp, owner of The Vermont Standard.
And tomorrow evening at 7 pm, Hop Film screens Matthew Heineman's recent documentary, The First Wave. At the start of the pandemic, Heineman (a Dartmouth grad) and his crew embedded themselves in a Queens hospital—and over the next four months captured what it was like on the ground as Covid cases exploded in the city, exhausted medical workers scrambled to deal with an illness no one understood, and patients (two of them featured in the film) struggled to survive. Tix are $10, but free for all health care workers and D-H employees. Conversation with Heineman and Dartmouth's Dr. Lisa Adams afterward.
Also at 7 pm tomorrow, the Etna Library presents a zoomed concert by Gaelic musician Kyle Carey, who fuses American folk music with the traditional music of Cape Breton, Ireland and Scotland—honed both on Cape Breton and Scotland's Isle of Skye. Zoom link here.
I think we've got to go with Zoë Keating, right? Here she is on stage in London (and making her way there, cello slung stylishly over her back) in 2019, with "Possible."
See you Tuesday.
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.
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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