Yep, and last night's rain is headed east. Today high pressure descends from Canada and it'll actually get sunny. Eventually. Temps are running about 10 degrees below seasonal norms, so we're barely getting into the 50s — and not until the afternoon. Lows at or below freezing tonight, with scattered to widespread frost. Beautiful tomorrow, though, and a bit warmer.Remember yesterday's item about I-91 southbound closing between Bradford and Fairlee later this month? The VN's Tim Camerato now has the back-story. The six-mile stretch will be shut down for three weeks while VTrans contractors work on a section of rock that's been shedding debris (it's covered in mesh right now, in case you're curious). Crews will rappel down the ledge face to remove roots that loosen rocks during freeze/thaw cycles and remove or pin back boulders that might fall onto the highway. UV writers have a new collective space to ply their craft. WriterSpace opened this week at River Valley Community College in Leb, the brainchild of local speculative fiction writer Sparrow Alden. "Developing writing habits and skills for many folks happens in community," she says in an email. While it's open for writers just to drop in and work, Alden's also planned workshops, advice sessions, an "editing critique" session for writers who need critical feedback, and National Novel Writing Month write-ins in November.And speaking of the UV and writers.... Archer Mayor's new mystery novel is set in downtown Windsor and at DHMC, among other locales. That's per the VN's Sarah Earle, who runs down new UV-related books. Family doc and Geisel prof Catherine Florio Pipas is out with A Doctor’s Dozen, with advice on individual and community wellness. Environmental icon Gus Speth shifts direction with "a quiet, meditative" new book of poetry. Lyme writer and photographer David Van Wie visits fly-fishing waters around the US tied to famous writers and artists.
But a few of the bumping-along tier will be showing up in the region soon. Marianne Williamson will be in Claremont on Monday. Colorado's Michael Bennet will be at the Hop on Tuesday. And John Delaney will be in Claremont a week from Sunday. Amy Klobuchar will also be in NH, but the closest she'll get is Manchester.
VTDigger's
Erin Petenko is up with an analysis of recent Census data showing that while the state had just 560 more people in 2018 than it did in 2010, Burlington and surrounding towns grew markedly. Comparing 2008-2012 to 2013-2017, Hartford, Norwich, Sharon, and Thetford all lost population; Hartland, Strafford and Royalton grew modestly. Story and interactive map at the link.
That's columnist Bill Schubart in a wide-ranging piece looking at all the "once-necessary cultural, administrative and real estate infrastructure" around the state that needs to be pared back. Critical-access hospitals, school districts, public colleges, police and fire departments, public-access television stations, nonprofits, local governments, state agencies... "[A]ll filled a vital need in Vermont’s growth and culture but change demands reconsideration and redesign," he writes.
This is notable because they're the carriers of Zika and dengue fever. It's unclear, however, whether they're here to stay. There's evidence they're surviving in Massachusetts, but they have yet to show they can make it through a Vermont winter. Here's hoping we actually get one.
Here's a shot looking down the valley between Elephant Head and Mt. Mansfield, by Reddit user and photographer dmccullum. The trees are near their peak, the dawn light's rosy in the distance... "I'm so glad I pulled myself out of bed at 5 am," s/he notes. Us, too.
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Every other year, Thetford's Open Fields School auctions off painted goose eggs as a fundraiser. The auction's tomorrow, but from 4:30 to 8 today you can get a preview at Newberry Market. Writer/illustrator David Macaulay,
New Yorker
cartoonist Harry Bliss, children's-book illustrator Priscilla Alpaugh, local artists Debra Kraemer and Shannon Wallis are part of a long list of artists. Pics at the link.
The band's three members — Taylor Armerding, Andy Greene, and Kirk Lord — were all part of the surpassingly wonderful Bluegrass Gospel Project, and they have decades of bluegrass and Americana under their belts. They know how to sing, how to harmonize, and above all, how to play. Hard. At 7:30 in the Upper Gallery.
Hard to believe that it's been a dozen years since Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective burst onto the international scene with
Watina
, the album that made Belize's Garifuna people's music cool. Palacio died the following year, but the collective has carried on, experimenting with new rhythms, electronic music, and dub techniques. It'll be an all-out dance party. Starts at 7.
Only one or two were left as of last night. Batiste, of course, is the bandleader for
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert;
he grew up outside New Orleans, went to Juilliard, hangs out with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra... Anyway, it'll be an incandescent show.
Watson's the young phenom violinist who grew up in Hanover, became familiar to Classicopia audiences, and now plies her art professionally in Providence. Weiser's been rocking classical piano in the Upper Valley for years. They're doing a program of Viennese music (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Kreisler, and others) for violin and piano. At Leb's First Congregational Church at 7:30.
And if you need a little help getting on your way this morning, check out Watson and Weiser's "It Ain't Necessarily So" at the link above, or
from their new album. Or, of course, both.
See you Monday.
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