GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Fog again, then sun. The valleys are likely to be socked in through mid-day again, but after that things will look a lot like yesterday: brilliant sun, highs in the low 70s, winds maybe a tad stronger than yesterday. Down into the upper 40s or low 50s tonight, clouds building in overnight as a cold front heads our way.Two very different looks at fall...
If you, like me, were wondering yesterday morning where that promised sun was, Timothy Lin has an answer. He sent his drone up near Mascoma Lake, looking southeast. It was sunny up high, an ocean of fog below. For comparison (and a lovely view of the lake), here's dawn of the day before, looking the same direction.
And down below the clouds—and just because this seems particularly apt for the runup to Halloween—here's what Robin Weisburger saw on a walk past the "neighborhood" beaver pond on Orfordville Road in Orford.
Gazillion one, gazillion two... Eddie and Auk dig for gold, run around, spend more than a little time counting ants... It's Lost Woods Week 45, and as he does every Friday in this spot, Lebanon author and illustrator DB Johnson (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg and other classics) chronicles the doings in his favorite patch of trees. Scroll right to move on to the next panel or left to catch up on previous weeks. If you happen to notice people with film cameras around... This week and running into the week after next, the crew of a film to be called If I Could Ride will be at work around the Upper Valley: at Plainfield's Willow Brook Farm Equestrian Center, Mt. Ascutney Hospital, White's Dairy Farm in Hartland, and elsewhere. The film, based on a book by Windsor's Don Miller, is about two teenage girls from vastly different backgrounds who bond over horses. It's directed by Shawn Welling, director of the 2021 action film Narco Sub.SPONSORED: Sharon Academy nurtures intelligent, independent, and creative thinking. Are you looking at options for middle and high school? Learn more about TSA’s approach to nurturing leadership abilities through rigorous academics and a deeper learning curriculum at its In-Person Information Event for Prospective Families: Sunday, October 17, from 3:30-5:30 pm. Students and families are encouraged to attend. More info at the maroon link or email Amber Wylie at [email protected]. Looking forward to seeing you there! Sponsored by The Sharon Academy.Remains of missing Weathersfield woman found. On Wednesday, reports John Gregg in the Valley News, police agencies searched properties near 50-year-old Tonia Bushway's home. She'd been missing since July. Search dogs found the remains next to her property; they've been brought to the Chief Medical Examiner's office in Burlington. According to a GoFundMe page set up by family and friends in August, the family had found squatters living in her home "and the property was trashed." One of her daughters told WCAX earlier this week the family was frustrated that more hadn't been done to find her.In Fairlee, Chapman's Place evolves. Back in 2007, the historic Colby Block, a building with apartments and six businesses across from Chapman's General Store, burned down. The lot sat vacant for 14 years, but earlier this year, developer Jonah Richard and his cousins, who own Chapman's, bought it. First they planted flowers, installed a gazebo and a Bedouin tent, and opened a coffee hut. Now they're on to Phase Two: landscaping, tree planting, and in general bringing more life back to that end of town. Maroon link takes you to a WCAX story; here's Jonah's newsletter with more details (scroll down).Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved... The Enfield Selectboard Wednesday passed a resolution requesting "in the strongest possible terms" that residents and visitors wear a face mask in public where physical distancing isn't possible, regardless of vaccine status, and that they respect the requirements posted by individual businesses and organizations. The town has seen an uptick in cases—8 as of yesterday—as have nearby towns, including Canaan and Lebanon.Hiking Close to Home: Holt's Ledge. This roughly 3-mile hike in Lyme boasts beautiful 360-degree views atop the ledge, says the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. Starting at the Dartmouth Skiway and crossing a section of the Appalachian Trail, this hike takes you up to the precipitous ledge: a site where peregrine falcons were successfully reintroduced to New England after being driven out by DDT use. There is a fence along the ledge to protect their nests (and hikers on foggy days) but don't let that put you off from enjoying the gorgeous fall foliage views.Okay, let's see if you've been paying attention this week. The guys at The News Quiz are back, and they've got some questions. Why was Dartmouth's Alumni Gym closed on Wednesday? What's the name of the new subterranean restaurant opening in Hanover? Who(m) did the addiction nonprofit Hope for New Hampshire Recovery sue? You'll find those and more at the link."The most exciting thing to happen to the electricity sector in New Hampshire in decades." As of the start of this month, the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire is officially incorporated, writes Bob Sanders in NH Business Review. Thirteen towns, including Lebanon, Hanover, Enfield, Plainfield, and Walpole, are members. It's designed, Sanders writes, to act like a power broker, buying and delivering electricity over the utilities' transmission lines. The idea, ultimately, is to deliver power more cheaply and broaden the choice of power sources for consumers. Next up: actual plans...Loud protests at NH meetings are becoming the norm. Across NH, school boards and other public gatherings are being greeted by packed houses these days, writes Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, and the people are angry. They arrive in large numbers to protest policy-making around vaccines and mask-wearing, often yelling and even threatening public officials. A group called RebuildNH is using social media to organize turnout at many of these; its founder is glad to see that “people who have never been involved before are getting involved.” He expects the protests to remain civil, despite the tension."You can't give a foliage report for Vermont right now because it's so different. North to south, high elevation to low elevation, east to west, even within the same hillside." That's photographer Adam Silverman talking to WPTZ's Liz Strzepa about the state of the leaves in VT right now. They're pretty varied, with brilliant foliage in some spots, browns and muted colors in others. Northern VT is still in drought; southern VT saw more rain than usual during the summer, and that's produced a fungus called Anthracnose that keeps the colors dull. Fortunately, it's usually short-lived.In clear glass bottles. That, it turns out, is how consumers of Vermont maple syrup in the Northeast prefer it, according to VT's official Maple Data Dashboard. It's designed to give producers some insight into their customers, writes Dan D'Ambrosio in the Free Press. The average spent by the 1,758 respondents on maple products altogether? $86. On VT-branded? $40. Though if you're a you're a "single Hispanic woman, age 25-34, with a bachelor's degree, making between $35,000 and $50,000 annually," D'Ambrosio points out, then it's $23. Here's the dashboard if you want to play around. When you see a snowplow called Taylor Drift, you'll know why. In her latest Artful post, Susan Apel reminds us of the perils of letting the internet decide things. Recall a few years back, people were invited to submit and vote on the name of a British submarine, and the name that won was Boaty McBoatface. “Now children in Vermont’s elementary schools are having their own Boatyesque moment,” writes Apel, as VTrans has asked them to suggest names for the state’s 250 snowplows. Expect a Billie Icelish or TimothéePlowamet among them. Or—worse yet—the Melta Variant."I mean, whose day isn't going to be better after watching a pink and yellow rosy maple moth fly in super slow motion?" You know what? The guy's right! And it's not just because all the moths in this video from Ant Lab, a project of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, came from right here: They were collected in Cornish back in July. They're beautiful! And they're so cool to watch in slow motion. And you'll learn a ton about how moths fly. (Hat tip, The Browser.)
Let's see...For the time being, Daybreak is reporting Covid numbers on Tuesdays and Fridays.
NH reported 361 new cases on Tuesday, 400 Wednesday, and 528 yesterday; with additional catch-up numbers, it now has 123,562 for the pandemic. There have been 12 deaths since Monday, bringing the total to 1,497. The active caseload stands at 3,966 (+464 since Monday) and hospitalizations at 130 (-11). The state reports 206 active cases in Grafton County (+21), 258 in Sullivan County (+53), and 447 in Merrimack County (+67). Town-by-town numbers reported by the state: Claremont: 113 (+23 since Monday); Newport 66 (+3); Charlestown 28 (+2); Lebanon 20 (+4); Sunapee 14 (+at least 10); New London 12 (+6); Hanover 12 (+7); Canaan 10 (-5); Newbury 10 (no change); Enfield 8 (+1); Croydon 7 (+at least 3); Wentworth 6 (-4); Haverhill, Piermont, Warren, Orford, Rumney, Lyme, Dorchester, Orange, Grafton, Grantham, Springfield, Wilmot, and have 1-4 each.
VT reported 88 new cases on Tuesday, 133 Wednesday, and 287 yesterday, its second-highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic (the highest was just a few weeks ago). It now stands at 34,923 for the pandemic. There were 5 new deaths during that time; they now number 328. As of yesterday, 35 people with confirmed cases were hospitalized (-7). Windsor County has seen 30 new cases reported since Monday, for a total of 2,373 for the pandemic, with 270 new cases over the past two weeks; Orange County gained 25 cases during the same time, with 95 over the past two weeks for a total of 1,125 for the pandemic.
Dartmouth reported yesterday that it's now got 0 cases among undergrads, 3 among grad and professional students (no change), and 1 among faculty and staff (-1). Nobody is in quarantine, 4 students and 8 faculty/staff are in isolation.
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At 6:30 this evening, Here in the Valley is back live at the Briggs in WRJ with the Brooks Hubbard Band. It's a homecoming concert for Hubbard, who got his musical start in these parts but has spent the past six years in Nashville—and he's brought along a band of Nashville musicians to back him up. HitV's founders, Jes & Jakob, open. This will be both in-person (vaccines and masks required, tix $25 advance, $35 at the door) and streamed (suggested price $15).
This evening at 7:30, Classicopia kicks off a weekend of performances of "In Memory," a memorial for the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and a way to illustrate "the power of music to help us both describe and ultimately overcome our pain," as artistic director Daniel Weister puts it. Emmanuel Borowsky on violin, Frances Borowsky on cello, and Weiser on piano will perform works composed at times of great suffering by Bach, Rachmaninoff, Barber, Smetana, and Shostakovich—including Barber's Adagio for Strings and Shostakovich's stunning second Piano Trio. Tonight at the Old South Church in Windsor, tomorrow at 4 pm at the Austin-Nelson home in Hanover, and Sunday at 2 pm at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon.
Also at 7:30 this evening, at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, it's the second show of this season's Anonymous Coffeehouse. Things start off with Footworks, a father/daughter/son trio that specializes in the rollicking music of Cape Breton; at 8:15 it's Windsor's Ethan Lawrence, who blends his part-Salvadoran heritage with other influences to play outlaw country, rock, Latin, and blues; and at 9, it's popular VT-based Americana and progressive bluegrass band, Still Hill. In the church sanctuary, masks required.
Tomorrow and Sunday, the artists and craftspeople who are part of Vermont North By Hand will open their studios for tours. There are a baker's dozen of them sprinkled through Bradford, Corinth, Fairlee, Newbury, Topsham, and Woodsville NH. From 10-5 both days.
You could also, if you're in the mood for a drive, check out the pumpkin people in Plainfield and the scarecrows in Enfield and Grantham, yearly roadside attractions that, as the VN's Liz Sauchelli writes in her fond description, are "another example of community members doing something to put a smile on the faces of their friends and neighbors, or passing strangers—or pumpkins, dressed in thrift store clothes, with glitter paint."
And if you're in the mood for a drive for music and Indigenous culture, Stowe Vibrancy is throwing its second annual Indigenous People's Day Rocks tomorrow—with Abenaki drummers, singers, storytellers, and artisans from 10:30-2:30 for free at Mayo Field in Stowe, then a concert from 3:30-6:30 ($25 advance, $30 day-of) featuring Dave Keller, the Vermont Jazz Trio, Bella Sances, and blues hall-of-famer Joe Louis Walker.
At 1 pm tomorrow, the Upper Valley Disc Golf Association is holding a community day at Whaleback. There'll be a nine-hole course set up, clinics for beginners, and live music. It's partly an effort to gauge community interest in the sport and whether Whaleback might be able to host a permanent disc golf course, Seth Tow writes in the VN. “Our primary focus is getting people out, showing them the place and having a nice fall afternoon,” says the UVDGA's president, Dan Walsh.
Meanwhile, tomorrow at 3 pm, the Orford Social Library hosts Theo Martey of the Akwaaba Traditional African Drum and Dance Ensemble for his rain-postponed performance and drumming workshop at the Orford bandstand.
Tomorrow at 7:30 pm, virtuoso violinist and Hanover native Roseminna Watson and her friend Melody Fader will perform an evening of both solos and duets at the very-busy-this-weekend First Congregational Church of Lebanon. They’ll play J. S. Bach, Frederic Chopin, Lili Boulanger, Johannes Brahms, and contemporary American composer Missy Mazzoli. There are still tix available ($20 general, $15 for anyone who needs a discount) and masks and vaccinations are required.
In 1957, two years before their deaths a few months apart, Billie Holiday and her former close friend and collaborator, Lester Young, appeared on a CBS show called "The Sound of Jazz." They were part of an astounding all-star band the producers had pulled together—Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, and others. Among other pieces, they performed Holiday's "Fine and Mellow," which is about infidelity. "She had a poor choice of men, and that was one of the reasons, I think, that she could sing this song and a lot of other songs that had to do with dreams and aspirations and fantasies and romance when they turned bad," Nat Hentoff, who was part of the production team, later remembered. "She was an expert at that." When the song was done—and Young had put his soul into his all-too brief solo—Hentoff, the producer, and the recording engineer were all sitting in the control booth with tears in their eyes.Have a fantastic long weekend! Daybreak will publish Monday, so see you then.
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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