GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly to mostly sunny. But let's believe it when we see it. One thing we can pretty much count on: there's a warming trend, and though it won't be dramatic today—we're due to hit the mid 30s—by the time rains hit us late on Sunday (bringing, along with snowmelt, some chance of stream flooding), temps could be in the 50s. But for today, there's high pressure coming in, some mix of sun and clouds, and little wind to speak of. Lows tonight in the mid 20s.Ice, ice baby! That's what Kirsten Detrick put in the subject line of her email yesterday, and it's the perfect title for today's theme.
Starting with Herb Detrick's photo of the ice forming on Lake Fairlee yesterday morning. "If you look closely at the upper right and middle left of the photo you can see that the ice is now coming in from all directions," Kirsten writes.
And then moving on to Mary Alcott Ferger's photo of Lake Memphremagog yesterday—which, being a lot bigger, has further to go, but it's getting there.
And finally, much more close up but no less a sign of the times, Jane Masters' photo yesterday of some very cool "icicle lace" in Orange, NH.
In Woodstock, development review board approves on-farm restaurant for Peace Field Farm. The site plan and conditional use approval, writes Tom Ayres in the Standard, come two years after the board first signaled it was okay with the restaurant—and after several other steps signaling town backing for developer John Holland's and farmer/restaurateur Matt Lombard's plan. But no one's celebrating yet, since Peace Field is still awaiting Act 250 approval, with scant sign of progress at the state level. "I don’t know what’s left for Act 250—I think the town is clear," says Holland.Hanover planning board approves church for Greensboro Rd., petitions legislature to repeal or replace law that tied its hands. The move gives Christ Redeemer Church the okay to build a two-story church for 415 worshipers, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News, and comes thanks to a state law affecting land for religious purposes that kept the board from considering issues it would normally have weighed, like lighting and parking. Even so, executive pastor Chris Audino tells Adrian, “From the beginning our intention has been to comply with all the town regulations." Board members say they hope other towns will also express concerns about the law.In Bethel, fortunate timing saves barn in Tuesday fire. Starting with the fact that the fire department had taken delivery of a rescue truck the day before, and several firefighters were at the station when the call came in, reports Darren Marcy in the Herald. Their quick response saved the barn and kept most of Crystal and Jeffrey Townsend's 70 or 80 cows safe, though a dozen were hurt by the heat. “Another five minutes it would have been a different story,” fire chief Dave Aldrighetti tells Marcy. Community members stuck around after to clean up tainted feed, bring in new milking tubing, and patch windows.
SPONSORED: Celebrate the festive season at Pompanoosuc Mills' Holiday Open Houses this weekend! They'll be in our Hanover and E. Thetford showrooms Saturday and Sunday, December 9th & 10th. Discover extraordinary savings on new and in-stock furniture, explore expertly curated gifts from local artisans, and enjoy complimentary door gifts and refreshments. Join us for a unique holiday shopping experience and bring home the joy of handcrafted quality. Sponsored by Pompanoosuc Mills.Photographer of presidents, musicians, the pope, and Olympians turns his lens on VT's barns and covered bridges. Loren Fisher had been a part-timer in Woodstock, then moved there full-time near the start of the pandemic. Despite a long career as a photojournalist and news photographer, he tells Tess Hunter for a profile in the Standard, "I tend to have more passion about this,” referring to his landscape photography around VT. "Every day I can appreciate where I am and what I’m doing. It doesn’t have to be the Olympics. It’s watching the sun come up over Jenne Farm. That is a spectacular thing. Which is why they closed the roads..." Hunter talks to him about it all.Three decades later, a play about gay life in the '90s comes to the Upper Valley. And performed by its author, Dan Butler, who's maybe best known for his decade on the tv series, Frasier. The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me, as Alex Hanson notes in the VN, was written at a time when 'Don’t ask, don’t tell' was law, civil unions were several years away, and "AIDS was then still a death sentence." Even Butler is curious to see how it holds up, he tells Hanson. Butler lives in W. Newbury, across from Haverhill, where the show's being presented by Court Street Arts on Sunday. More below.Hiking Not Quite Close to Home: Lonesome Lake Loop. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance recommends this trek to a glacial lake with views of Franconia Ridge, as a winter hiking experience in the White Mountains. The full loop is just over 3 miles with a climb of about 1,000 feet. Winter parking is best at the Lafayette Campground just off I-93; follow the signs to the Lonesome Lake Hut to find the trail. Check the weather before you go and be sure to layer your clothing to be prepared for cold and variable temperatures. Depending on snow and trail conditions, you will need either snowshoes or microspikes.So... Think you know what's been going on in the Upper Valley? Because Daybreak's News Quiz has some questions for you. Like... Who was just quoted talking about people showing up at Gusanoz' from far away? And how can you tell if a muskrat lodge is occupied in winter? Those questions and more at the link.But wait! How closely were you following VT and NH?
Because Seven Days wants to know if you know: "According to the national Public Interest Research Group, Vermont is among the five states with the fewest protections for owners of _____."
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, "What new energy program is set to take effect after two years of controversy in New Hampshire?"
The Chinook. Nope, not the salmon or helicopter. The dog. NH's state dog, in fact, introduced in 1917 by Arthur Walden, who also introduced dog sledding to the state. Now, writes Amanda Gokee in the Globe's morning NH newsletter (no paywall), historian Bob Cottrell is aiming to fill in Granite Staters on a mostly unknown piece of state history. The first Chinook's parents were a Northern Husky that had been on Robert Peary’s North Pole expedition and a mutt, as Walden aimed to breed a strong but easygoing sled dog. Once he had enough, he used them to sled to the top of Mt. Washington—and the South Pole."Where have all these birds gone?” Sean O’Brien, who works at UNH's cooperative extension, has been getting that question a lot recently. So he dug into it, and tells NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian that a couple of things are going on. For one thing, it's a mast year. There are a lot of acorns out there in the woods so birds can stick to the forest and don't need to come out into the open. There's also habitat loss caused by climate change and other forces, which seems to be affecting birds with long migrations—thrushes, tanagers, Baltimore Orioles—more than birds like owls and woodpeckers, which stick around.Slate Ridge: "I think all sides might be okay with this going away at some point." That's Bennington Banner reporter Michael Albans, detailing the state of play on the Pawlet gun training facility to VT Public's Jenn Jarecki. Albans was the only reporter able to get into Slate Ridge when town officials inspected it recently—after owner Daniel Banyai "got in my face a little bit about our past coverage" but then relented. He talks about the new arrest warrant for Banyai, who's been directed to turn himself in by Dec. 22; what he saw at Slate Ridge; what the controversy has cost Banyai and his neighbors; and why he leans toward thinking things might eventually settle down.With former Castleton State dean's killer still on the loose, townspeople raise reward money. It's been two months since Renee Fleming was shot on a rail trail near campus, with no signs that police are closing in on a suspect. So Mark Brown, owner of an auto salvage business in town, has jump-started a reward fund aimed at finding the murderer with $5,000 of his own. "He stole [our] sense of safety and security," he tells VTDigger's Tiffany Tan. "We're not going to look the other way." The fund has grown to $23,000, including contributions from the town and from Fleming's husband, writer Ron Powers.NOFA-VT pauses farmers market program for SNAP recipients. The Northeast Organic Farmers Association's popular "Crop Cash" program allowed food stamp recipients to supplement their SNAP spending with coupons for fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other market staples. This year, though, the group saw surging demand, writes VTDigger's Emma Cotton, spending almost twice what it had budgeted. So it's paused things through the winter—existing coupons won't be useable, and no new coupons will be issued. NOFA expects the program to return next summer.New chairlifts, more efficient snow guns, a ski-through lighthouse: what skiers will find this winter at the region's resorts. The NYT's Christopher Steiner (gift link) has a survey of what ski areas in VT, NH, ME, and NY have been up to. Expanding snowmaking abilities—and making them more efficient—has been a big one, even at Mad River Glen. So are quad lifts. There's also night skiing at Middlebury's Snow Bowl, a new lodge at Cranmore, plans to rebuild the tramway at Cannon—and that lighthouse, at Sunapee.A body in motion. For the first time in 17 years, a woman has been named the overall winner of the Red Bull Illume Image Quest photography competition, which celebrates adventure and action sports. Australian Krystle Wright captured a streak of light in Long Canyon, Utah—and climber Angela VanWiemeersch, a kinetic speck—by photographing from within a fissure. Sand, water, sky, ice, even buildings—and the athletes moving through them—are the subjects of the winning photos in the ten categories. There are some unreal photos in there: click on each one to bring up the story behind it.The Friday Vordle. And hey! Are you new to Vordle? Did you know that fresh ones appear on weekends, using words from the Friday Daybreak? You can get a reminder email each weekend morning: Just sign up here.
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There's a new Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, 252 or 520 pieces, just in time for these long nights by the fire. Plus, of course, fleece vests, hoodies, sweatshirts, even a throw blanket. And hats, mugs, and—once you work up a puzzle-piece sweat—tees. Check it all out at the link!
It's Wassail Weekend in Woodstock, when the town pulls out all the stops for the holidays. Things get going today with a day-long scavenger hunt, a Victorian celebration at Billings, carriage rides through the village, a vintage book sale at the Norman Williams Public Library, a 4:30 pm organ concert at the First Congregational Church, and Prydein at the Town Hall Theatre tonight (see below). Tomorrow, a craft and food market, a parade, Ham Gillett channeling Dylan Thomas, and plenty more music (also see below); then, even more on Sunday.
You get to pick your version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol this evening. At 7 pm, the Chandler in Randolph hosts a traditional radio theater version by Just the Players Dessert Theater. As they write, "Will Scrooge get his just desserts? One thing is for certain, you will!" And, of course, Northern Stage is continuing its much-lauded run of the play at the Barrette Theater in WRJ, starting at 7:30.
Also at 7:30, Prydein takes the stage at the Woodstock Town Hall Theater as part of Pentangle Arts' contributions to Wassail Weekend. The "bagpipe rock" band got its start at UVM, and over the years its blend of funk, soul, and rock in the Celtic style has won it a large and growing fan base.
Also at 7:30 this evening, Court Street Arts in Haverhill brings in the high-energy American roots trio Low Lily for a "Winter Solstice Celebration." Liz Simmons on guitar, Flynn Cohen on guitar and mandolin, and Natalie Padilla on fiddle and banjo—plus tight, three-way harmonies and a pop curve that won them folk fans internationally when Lissa Schneckenburger was part of the band, and have continued full force with Padilla. As usual, dinner available at the Bailiff's Café at Alumni Hall.
And at 9 tonight, the stage at Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover hosts High Summer. A gathering of Burlington musicians who've played in the likes of Steady Betty, Mal Maiz, Japhy Ryder, Myra Flynn’s FLYNN, and Barika, it's a "deep groove" outfit led by singer Miriam Bernardo and backed by horns, keyboard, percussion, and guitars.
Saturday
At 1 pm tomorrow, the Hop presents the Met Opera in HD version of Daniel Catán's 1996 opera, Florencia en el Amazonas. As the Met writes, the magical realist opera "tells the enchanting story of an opera diva who returns to her native South America to perform at the legendary opera house of Manaus—and to search for her lost lover, who has vanished into the jungle." With soprano Ailyn Pérez as Florencia Grimaldi. At the Loew.
At 6 pm tomorrow, BarnArts hosts its 7th annual Holiday Cabaret, part of Wassail Weekend. It features dancing to the Speak Easy Prohibition Band (Bob Merrill, Tim Gilmore, Peter Concilio, Glendon Ingalls, Katie Runde Sanchez, and Grace Wallace), along with seasonal music from BarnArts performers. It's not cheap—$100 for a ticket—but that does include a four-course farm-to-table dinner.
At 7 pm tomorrow, the Chandler in Randolph presents Mr Sun doing a roots-inflected take on Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's classic reinterpretation of the Nutcracker Suite. As the Chandler writes, "If you haven’t heard of the cheerfully named supergroup Mr. Sun, you’ve certainly heard its proponents, four of the finest musicians on the American Roots scene": veteran fiddler Darol Anger, mandolinist Joe K. Walsh, guitarist Grant Gordy, and bassist Aidan O'Donnell. More below.
And at 7:30 pm tomorrow, Pentangle presents The Yale Alley Cats as part of Wassail Weekend. The undergrad a cappella group is 80 years old this year, still touring internationally, releasing albums, and singing their complex rearrangements of classic and contemporary tunes for the famous and not-so-famous. Heck, maybe they'll even do their first, "Sally in Our Alley." At Woodstock's Town Hall Theatre.
Also at 7:30 tomorrow, Norwich Community Dances holds a contra dance at Tracy Hall in Norwich, with Luke Donforth calling and New England trad stars Atlantic Crossing providing the music. Refresher session at 7:15.
At 8 pm tomorrow, Woodstock's North Chapel presents four-time Grammy-winning cellist Eugene Friesen (you may recognize him from the Paul Winter Consort) and VT-based singer-songwriter Elizabeth Rogers (scroll down). They'll be performing a repertoire of Celtic-infused holiday and winter songs and instrumentals, off their album, Down in Yon Forest.
Finally, for tomorrow, it's not like you need a reason to leave the Upper Valley, but if your eye was caught anytime over the past year by Black folk music scholar and proponent Jake Blount and his album of new spirituals for Smithsonian Folkways, The New Faith—here's your chance. He'll be doing songs off the album in a performance labeled "Afrofuturist Spirituals" at Epsilon Spires in Brattleboro. At 7:30 pm.
Sunday
At 2 pm Sunday, Seven Stars Arts in Sharon will host a performance of Renaissance music and seasonal favorites performed by bands that meet at the center: the Panhandlers Steel Band, the Seven Stars Early Music Consort, Clarinet Trio, and Laughing Dragons Recorder Consort.
Sunday at 4 pm, JAM in WRJ is hosting the Upper Valley premiere of Crowdsourced VT Toy Story, which is exactly what it says: a version of Toy Story put together by Burlington's Media Factory with contributions from hundreds of filmmakers—from solo producers to families to, around here, campers at JAM's media camp. All were randomly assigned one of 33 scenes with the one rule that they couldn't use any copyrighted material—it all had to be made from scratch or use royalty-free material. Here's Liz Sauchelli's VN story describing the JAM Camp end of things.
Also at 4 pm on Sunday, Court Street Arts in Haverhill hosts a staged reading of Dan Butler's Off-Broadway play, The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me... Butler, who played Bulldog for over a decade on Frasier, wrote the one-man show about gay life in 1994, and the reading will be his first performance of it in 25 years (see item about Alex Hanson's article above). The performance benefits Help Kids India, a VT nonprofit that supports four preschools in South India. Adult content and language. Q&A with Butler after the performance.
And also at 4 pm on Sunday, the Roots and Wings Coffeehouse at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich presents the Brattleboro-based quartet Windborne.Lauren Breunig, Jeremy Carter-Gordon, Lynn Rowan, and Will Rowan will "draw on midwinter music from traditional, classical, and folk from the US, British isles and beyond. Unique from their typical show, the holiday spirit is accentuated with added instrumentation, from banjos and guitars, to Lithuanian Kanklės, and Irish bodhran." There are only a handful of tickets left, so if you're interested, you'll want to act soon.
And to ease us into the weekend...
The video's not great, but crank up the sound and you won't notice.
And why not?
Because, as guitarist Grant Gordy puts it in his intro, "the next step in evolution [is] from classical music to jazz to bluegrass. I guess."
Have a fine weekend. 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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