WELCOME TO FRIDAY, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, getting even warmer. We've got this high pressure with us through the weekend, and though there may be some high clouds later today, we'll be bumping up toward 70 (and getting past it over the weekend). Little wind to speak of, shifting to come from the southwest this afternoon. Upper 40s tonight.Barred owl hunting. And caught on Erin Donahue's trail cam. Writes Ted Levin: "Thirty thousand years ago, on the wall of a cave in southern France, an artist painted the image of an owl. Large round head and substantial forward-facing eyes. Owls have eye tubes, not eyeballs, which account for 5 percent of the body mass in some species. (By comparison, our eyes account for 0.0003 percent of our body mass.) Owls see by starlight. Hear footfalls miles away. Their brains are tiny—certainly not candidates for avian Mensa—nevertheless, they hunt with unerring accuracy on the darkest, quietest nights."Eddie goes quantum. At least, in Lost Woods it looks like he can be in two places at once. Or says he can. Maybe. He and Auk talk it over. As he does every week in this spot, Lebanon writer and illustrator DB Johnson chronicles the doings in his favorite patch of forest—and on his blog this week, he gives us a glimpse out his studio window.Dartmouth releases three-year plan to promote "diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB)." The plan calls for a range of steps over the next few years, from tracking the experiences of staff, faculty, and students over time, to improving recruitment and retention of diverse groups, to mentoring "underrepresented/marginalized students," to expanding efforts to boost diversity in STEM. It also calls on the college to "take steps to restore injustices" faced in the past by "Native Americans, enslaved Africans, LGBTQ-identified people, women, and those who identify as Jewish." Plan at the link.With cost of heating fuels so high, WindowDressers' volunteer window-insert builds take off. As Frances Mize writes in the Valley News, the Maine-based organization behind the community-based effort gives communities "a chance to take weatherization into their own hands." There's a Hartford and Hartland build starting today, and over the next two weeks similar efforts in Randolph; Vershire, Chelsea, and Corinth; and Bradford. Mize rounds up dates, details, and contact info.North Pomfret pipe organ repairman a “walking encyclopedia of organ history.” That’s the designation the Herald’s Jo Levasseur gives David Moore, who has been cleaning and restoring pipe organs all over the country for over 50 years. Levasseur found him and his assistant, John Atwood, recently at the First Congregational Church in Royalton, disassembling its 1882 organ for a clean and a tune. As it happens, just across the street in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church resides VT’s oldest extant pipe organ, built in 1842. The work of several notable 19th-C. New England organ makers still make music.S. Royalton's “Pay it Forward Board.” That's the board on the wall at RB's Delicatessen for customers to pay for an item, stick the receipt on the board... and make that item available to anyone who needs it. WCAX's Elissa Borden visits RB's to talk about it with Daisey Darling-Salls, who's owned RB's with her husband, Tony, since 2014. “I bet you we have someone at least every day donating to the board," Daisey says. Maybe eggs, or milk, a sandwich, maybe just $5 cash. "It’s a good way for other people to feel good about themselves by helping out anonymously," Daisey says.New London eyes workforce housing proposal from Twin Pines. If approved, the four-building, 60-unit project would go on eight acres of land near New London Hospital currently owned by members of the Cricenti family, reports Liz Sauchelli in the VN. The apartments would be open to people earning 60-80 percent of the area median income in Merrimack County, Sauchelli writes, or up to $58,650 for a single person and $83,750 for a four-person household. The proposal drew strong support from area employers and residents at a planning board meeting last month, Sauchelli writes.Hiking Close to Home: Grantham's Sherwood Forest. This week's suggestion from the Upper Valley Trails Alliance brings you to Sherwood Forest in Grantham, NH. This trail network features over eight miles of moderate hiking on abandoned roads and woods trails with lovely views of Miller Pond and Skinner Brook, along with bare rock and historic cellar holes. There are two main parking areas to access the forest: Fisher Meadow and Leavitt Hill Road, both accessible from Exit 13 off I-89.Want to get out in winter but stay warm and comfortable? VT-based travel blogger Tara Schatz, who with her husband Eric runs the Back Roads Ramblers blog ("for regular people who love to explore America, get outdoors, and take the long way home") is up with a new guide to "The Most Beautiful Destinations for Winter Glamping in New England." There are tips on websites to check, tips on what to make sure you pay attention to in listings, and tips on specific spots, like a geodesic dome in Putney, a yurt in Chatham, NH, and a small library, tipi (with indoor fire pit) and pizza oven in central Mass.Been paying attention to Daybreak this week? Because the Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, what did Dartmouth announce it's seen a case of this week? And just what does JAM stand for? And what's Eddie Moran of Lalo's Taqueria in Lebanon all excited about trying to buy locally? 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 one of the solutions people have proposed for keeping trucks from getting stuck in Smugglers' Notch? What has UVM just announced for VT households making less than $60K a year? Plus more...
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions, too. Like, what job in NH has former Mass. US Sen. Scott Brown just announced he's landed? And who generally runs unopposed for re-election in NH? Plus more...
Need to cram over the weekend for next Tuesday? The Valley News has continued its coverage of local legislative contests, and statewide outlets in both states have checked in with some new reporting, as well. Here are updated guides to resources and stories you can find out there in:
Will some NH voters deliberately "overvote" next week to force a ballot hand-count? Impossible to say. But the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU has been warning that there's a national movement to spur doubt about ballot machines by marking a ballot too many times for a given race—say, for three candidates in a two-seat legislative district—which slows things down. In NH, writes David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog, there's been social-media chatter, especially in the south and Seacoast, raising doubts about Accuvote machines—which are more accurate than hand counts, but aging quickly.VT sees second bear attack in three months. VT Fish & Wildlife reported yesterday that on Wednesday, 43-year-old Sarah Dietl of Winhall was attacked by a bear outside her condo complex near Stratton Mountain Resort after her shih tzu chased a cub in the yard up a tree. The mother charged Dietl and knocked her to the ground. Her partner managed to get her inside, but when the couple "tried to get their dog to come inside, the bear allegedly charged at the door. It was unable to get inside," reports WPTZ. Investigators say the bear family may have been attracted by a bird feeder, pumpkins, and a dumpster.Live on camera: polar bears gathering for the winter. Every year at this time, the northernmost seaport of Manitoba becomes a polar bear magnet. They’re hungry and waiting for their ship to come in—that is, the ice to form on the Hudson Bay—to take them where the ringed seals are, and to dine. It’s not exactly a tourist hub (tundra that it is), but fortunately for us, Polar Bear International and other orgs have set up live streams around the Wapusk National Park so we can watch the bears do what they do: loaf around, wrestle, sniff out snacks. And it’s not just hype: there really be bears.Jeezum, dude! The first time we met Jake Laser in Daybreak, he had built a personal hovercraft in his parents' basement in Norwich. Then he flew it at Storrs Pond. Now, two years later, he's got 3.2 million YouTube followers, lives in LA... and is still hell-bent on flying. Only these days, the tech is catching up to his ambitions. So he builds himself an Iron Man suit (complete with voice-activated helmet), an electric-jet backpack and electric-jet thrusters for his hands, programs them to fly to him, and after much trial and error, emotional turmoil, $50K, and a bloodied knee, gets off the ground and back down. Safely.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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Well, it's First Friday, of course, and there'll be plenty to see and do in downtown WRJ. JAM is hosting two events at 5 S. Main: singer-songwriters Allison Fay Brown (5-5:30) and Shane Palko (5:30-7), and from 5-8, the Twin State Zine & Comic Fair with comics, zines, poetry chap books, and other self-published work by local artists and Center for Cartoon Studies students. Over at the Main Street Museum, pianist Stevie Pomije and the player piano will be honoring soldiers and those on the home front with "Musical Stories of War." From 5-9, Kishka Gallery will be holding an opening reception for Jana Flynn and her works on paper. From 5-7, Two Rivers Printmaking Studio will hold a reception to close out its silent auction (though you can head to the studio as early as 11 am to check out the items yourself, or see them online here).
This evening at 6:30, the Hanover Historical Society hosts NH-based art historian Cristina Ashjian for a talk on the "country house movement", the NH Board of Agriculture's effort in the early 20th century to boost the rural economy by selling off abandoned farms, and some of the great estates—The Fells on Lake Sunapee, The Rocks in Bethlehem, and others—that were stitched together from old farmland. At the RW Black Center.
At 7 pm, the Trumbull Hall Troupe kicks off a three-night run at the Lebanon Opera House of the "high school edition" of Chicago, the somewhat more family-safe version of the Kander & Ebb & Fosse musical about Jazz Age Chicago, corruption, headline-grabbing "merry murderesses," and more: with lots of glitter and a score that's now part of America's musical memory banks.
Also at 7, the Norwich Bookstore presents an evening with poets Matt Donovan and Nathan McClain. Donovan's most recent collection, The Dug-Up Gun Museum, is the result of his decision to crisscross the country talking about guns with people who own or use or have been harmed by them, exploring American gun culture and violence from all angles (here's Benjamin Ayleshire's Seven Days interview with him). Nathan McClain's collection, Previously Owned, explores American history and heritage through myth and popular culture.
At 7:30, Artistree in S. Pomfret brings in veteran jazz guitarist Paul Asbell and his Burmese Panther Quintet for a night of music from their "Burmese Panther" CD. Collectively, they've got a serious performing pedigree (like, with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Clark Terry, and plenty of others), and they're all active as musicians as well as teachers at UVM, Dartmouth, St. Michael's, and elsewhere.
Also at 7:30, the Springfield (VT) Community Players kick off two weekends of performances of The Sweet Delilah Swim Club, by the writing team of Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. Five women, all friends from college, for decades have been meeting every August at the same beach cottage; the play swoops in on four of those weekends, starting when the women are 44 and ending when they're 77. There are arguments, a hurricane, friends sticking together through thick and thin...and lots of one-liners.
Tomorrow night starting at 6 with an artists' talk and then moving on to a performance at 7, the Chandler in Randolph presents the Garifuna Collective, which has been in residency around the region the last few weeks. Founded by the late Andy Palacio to keep alive the culture of African-Amerindian Garifuna communities on the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras (as well as in communities all over the US), the collective these days travels the world, sharing music and stories.
And at 7:30 tomorrow evening, Artistree welcomes in Annie And Some Farmers, the loosely local band that got together after meeting at a farmers' barn jam session. It's led by singer and bassist Annie Rowell and includes Meriden-raised fiddler Geordie Lynd (now in Walden VT), percussionist Jeffrey Yurek, vocalist Silene DeCiucies, and Plainfield guitarist (oh, right, and Edgewater Farm co-owner) Pooh Sprague.
And to take us into the weekend...
Let's turn to the Garifuna Collective,
Get outside this weekend! And 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.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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