GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Yup. Snow. It'll blanket the region, but overall the south is likely to see more than the north, especially early on, with the snow ending west to east over the course of the evening. We'll stay comfortably in the teens and 20s today, down into the single digits overnight.As for amounts... Looks like 6-12 inches in these parts, depending on where you are. Here are the projections for:
Full moon with sheep. And it's tough to say which is brighter in Jenn Megyesi's photo from Fat Rooster Farm in Royalton."When I was a kid, painting was easy." Lydia's out and about with her easel, and with help from Wally and not so much help from Auk and Eddy, she ponders the artistic life. As he does every Friday in this spot, Lebanon author and illustrator DB Johnson is chronicling the doings in Lost Woods. Hit the back arrow to catch up on previous weeks or the double back arrow to head back to the beginning if you're a newcomer.Schools begin to end mask mandates. With the announcement from NH Gov. Chris Sununu earlier this week that schools must now roll them back, the Lebanon school board voted Wednesday to end its mandate March 14, reports the Valley News's Nora Doyle-Burr. Mascoma is meeting Monday to consider the issue, while Plainfield School's mandate will end Monday and Cornish Elementary's on March 7. School officials, though, are torn. "We’ve had more cases over the past six weeks than we’ve had since the pandemic began, so this will seem too soon for some of our families and staff,” says one.At Dartmouth, Covid cases may be declining, but flu is ramping up. “I had not been sidelined that hard probably since high school,” one student tells The Dartmouth's Emily Fagell. She reports that as of Monday, the Dick's House health center had seen 23 cases of influenza A, and that the nursing department has seen a tripling of triage calls in recent weeks. Due to that volume and inability to test everyone for flu, students testing negative for Covid but who are at risk of complications from flu can treated with antivirals, but otherwise docs are recommending fluids and over-the-counter meds.Hanover High gets a new principal. Actually, Julie Stevenson has been acting principal since July, after serving as HHS's dean of students. On Wednesday, the VN reports, SAU 70 Superintendent Jay Badams announced that the Dresden board has hired the HHS veteran for the permanent slot, replacing Justin Campbell, who stepped down in 2020. In the meantime, the White River Valley High School in Royalton announced earlier this week that it's hired Jeffrey Thomas, a Hartford High phys ed teacher and coach who'd spent years teaching and coaching at S. Royalton School, as its new principal.SPONSORED: Looking for something to do today? Where to grab a bite to eat? A job or other services in the Upper Valley? Look no further than the Local Upper Valley mobile app—the Upper Valley’s resource for all things local! Four sections brimming with local information: EAT, PLAY, SHOP and LIVE/WORK/STAY, and a comprehensive events calendar with activities along the Connecticut River from Thetford and Lyme to Windsor and Cornish. Search on the Apple Store or GooglePlay for the Local Upper Valley app. Sponsored by the Upper Valley Business Alliance. Note: Right now, link only works on mobile."It’s simultaneously more awesome..." "...and more like a pile of scrap than you would have expected?" The Vermontosaurus has landed on the Atlas Obscura podcast's radar ("a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places"), and host Dylan Thuras and a colleague check it out. They're taken with it, but even more taken with the story behind it—"a huge collaborative art project," Thuras says, "a battle for creative freedom, and an invitation into the wild, creative world of Brian Boland." Who, he adds, "focused more on the joy of doing, and less on the rules around doing it." (Thanks, SF!)Randolph chef lands nomination for James Beard Award. The semi-finalists for the food world's Oscars were announced yesterday, and among the three VT restaurants on the list is Saap, chef Nisachon Morgan Thai restaurant in Randolph. writes Susan Apel in Artful. Morgan and Christian Kruse from Black Flannel Brewing Company in Essex Junction were nominated for best chef in the Northeast—as were Jeff Fournier of the Thompson House Eatery in Jackson, NH and David Vargas at Vida Cantina in Portsmouth.Hiking Close to Home: D Acres. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance this week points to the beautiful, 3.2-mile network attached to D Acres' permaculture and homestead Farm in Dorchester, NH. The trails on meander throughout the farm's property and eventually meet up with trails in Green Woodlands. For sports enthusiasts, the trails are groomed for cross country skiing in the winter and for mountain biking in the summer. For hikers, the trails range from easy to difficult, making a network of fun for the whole family. On Streeter Woods Road of NH-118.Been paying attention this week? The guys who run The News Quiz have some questions for you. Like, why was the underpass between plazas in W. Leb closed? And what is it that Dartmouth's planning to build on Etna Road? And why is New London Hospital not taking new primary care patients? You'll find those and others at the maroon link.Behind that Mt. Washington Avalanche Center daily forecast: a full day's work checking the snowpack. In the Union Leader (possible paywall) Jill Armstrong details her day spent with avalanche center snow ranger Jeff Fongemie at Tuckerman Ravine looking at snow texture, cornices, and other signs of potential avalanche danger. After a day of gauging the snowpack and taking measurements, the MWAC's rangers confer... then at home wake up early to check weather developments overnight before agreeing on a forecast by 7 am.It takes a village to restore a radio signal. As snow piles up once again, NHPR’s president and CEO, Jim Schachter, shares a story about the occupational hazards that can come with keeping Morning Edition on the air in NH. Earlier this month, a receiver that sends the station’s signal to Coos County went down, and an NHPR technician had to drive up to Colebrook to reboot it. But the road to the tower was waist-deep in snow and unplowed. Passerby snowmobilers couldn’t even get through. Enter the Swift Diamond Riders, a local ATV club, and their “enormous robotic-looking contraption.”Vermonters may be willing to pay more for milk, but getting it directly to farmers and farmworkers... that's more complicated. In a VPR-Vermont PBS poll last month, nearly three-quarters of respondents said they would be willing to pay between 5 and 20 percent more for dairy products to support the industry, VPR's Elodie Reed reports. But as she points out, "The fact is, in today’s world, there are middle people. That’s because there are a whole lot of steps to get milk from a cow, in a barn, to your dining room table." One approach: Buy direct from farmers.In new UVM program to train community journalists, a small sign of hope. Earlier this month, writes Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days, the university launched a series of free online classes for community members who want to learn to write for a local newspaper. Cory Dawson, who teaches the class, tells Allen that you don't need a degree in journalism to be a reporter—just curiosity, a sharp eye for detail, and a sense of fairness. Plus, figuring out how to cover contentious issues involving your neighbors fairly and accurately. Within a few hours of registration opening, writes Allen, all the slots were filled.Hey, want to compete with Daybreak? Here's your chance! I'm kidding, but the opportunity is real: VTDigger is looking for its first dedicated newsletter editor to "improve and expand its email offerings." In particular, they're hoping to find an ace writer who can "author a narrative newsletter to educate and inform...readers about the most important stories of our day" as well as to help Digger revamp their newsletter strategy. It's exciting—every quality venture like this invigorates the region's news ecosystem."You're terrible. Why don't you go back to running?" That was a male cross-country ski coach talking once to Trina Hosmer, a middle-distance runner who'd taken up xc skiing at UVM—and in 1970 was part of one of the early US women's teams competing internationally. The five-decade climb from those days to Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins has been a long one, chronicled in a new book, Trail to Gold: The Journey of 53 Women Skiers, pulled together by Middlebury grad and former Olympian Sue Long Wemyss and a group of women from the 2013-14 national team, writes Seven Days' Steve Goldstein.Eccentric architecture, stirring portraits, magical landscapes, and more. These are just some of the riches among the recently announced 2022 World Photography Award finalists and shortlist, whittled down from tens of thousands of submissions. You could spend all day in these galleries of the best-of-the-best: nature slowly reclaiming abandoned old houses in a region of Croatia; a climate change-ravaged coastal village in Bangladesh struggling to remain intact; a portrait portfolio amplifying the beauty of people with visible differences; an unsettling close-up of exotic-animal markets in Italy...
And the numbers...
Dartmouth is basically holding steady, with 95 cases reported yesterday, compared to 93 on Tuesday. The college's dashboard reports 58 active undergrad cases (-13 since Tuesday), 24 among grad and professional students (+5), and 13 among faculty/staff (+10). There have been 118 combined new cases among students over the previous seven days, as well as 21 among faculty/staff. 55 students are isolating on campus, 27 are isolating off-campus, and 19 faculty/staff are in isolation.
NH has been holding steady over the past week, with a 7-day average now of 330 new cases a day, compared to 329 as of last Friday. The state reported 4,683 new cases over the past week, including 691 yesterday, bringing its total to 296,870. There have been 44 deaths reported since Thursday last week; the total now stands at 2,370. Hospitalizations continue to trend downward: 95 people are currently hospitalized (-20 since last Thursday). The state reports 2,063 active cases statewide(-952) and 190 (-84) active cases in Grafton County, 101 (-53) in Sullivan, and 181 (-94) in Merrimack. In town-by-town numbers, the state says Hanover has 69 (+4 over the past week), Claremont has 36 (-39), Lebanon has 20 (-5), Newport has 17 (-7), Grantham has 13 (no change), New London has 12 (no change), Haverhill has 10 (-10), Plainfield has 8 (no change), Canaan has 8 (+2), Charlestown has 6 (-7), Rumney has 6 (+at least 2), Sunapee has 5 (-1), and Piermont, Orford, Wentworth, Lyme, Grafton, Orange, Enfield, Cornish, Croydon, Springfield, and Newbury have 1-4 each. Dorchester is off the list.
VT is also holding steady, reporting 264 new cases Wednesday and 206 yesterday, bringing it to 111,794 total. There were 6 new deaths over the past two days, with 593 during the pandemic. Hospitalizations continue to drop: As of yesterday, 37 people with confirmed cases were hospitalized (-7 since Tuesday), with 6 of them (-2) in the ICU. Windsor County has seen 23 new cases since Tuesday, with 7,206 for the pandemic and 134 new cases over the past two weeks; Orange County gained 43 cases during that time for a total of 3,240, with 75 over the previous two weeks.
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The WRJ-based Friends of Veterans last week sent out a press release noting that in 2021, for the fourth time, it was able to hand out over $100K—$103,232, to be exact—to VT and NH veterans in need. The organization, run entirely by volunteers, has grown over the years (it gave out $16,000 in 2010), and takes a hands-on approach to help: rental or mortgage assistance when eviction or foreclosure is imminent, home repairs, furnace repairs, vehicle repairs if needed for jobs or ongoing medical appointments, and, most recently, help for vets with PTSD to acquire service dogs and pay their veterinary bills. They are always looking for new volunteers.
Before we get into events, just a reminder: For any in-person events tonight, double-check websites for possible cancellations.
This evening at 7 at the Top of the Hop, Jim Nicola, the producer for Rent's original world premiere run at the New York Theatre Workshop, will talk with a panel including stage director Carol Dunne and music prof César Alvarez about the making of the show (including its workshopping at Dartmouth) and impact since then on musical theater and American theater in general. No charge, no tix needed.
At 7:30, the North Country Community Theatre teens open their weekend run of The Little Mermaid—based, of course, on Disney's version. You know the deal: Ariel, Triton, Prince Eric, Ursula, Flounder, Sebastian, and, of course, Under the Sea, Kiss the Girl, and Part of Your World... With a live orchestra and exuberant cast.
Also at 7:30, the Anonymous Coffeehouse is back with a triple bill of live music at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Tonight it features Tommy Crawford (you may remember him as Paul McCartney in Northern Stage's production of Only Yesterday or as Eamon in Once), who'll be telling stories and performing original songs; the Brooklyn-based Native Palms, which coffeehouse organizer Adam Sorscher describes as playing an "eclectic blend of indie styles with a rock 'n' roll attitude"; and blues guitarist Bill Ellis, "revered as an interpreter of folk blues masters" like Leadbelly and Blind Blake, and a frequent onstage companion to his father, banjo legend Tony Ellis.
Tomorrow from 11 am to 3 pm, Windsor's American Precision Museum is hosting a Kids' Day of Engineering, with talks about engineering (ice cores, bridges, vehicle-testing, and more) and various hands-on activities. It'll be in heated space, but most of the museum isn't heated, so if you plan to explore, dress in layers. No charge, but the museum wouldn't turn down donations.
Tomorrow at 3 and 5:30, Billings Farm continues its film series with Summer of Soul, Questlove's much-lauded documentary about the astounding six-week Harlem Cultural Festival in Mount Morris Park over the summer of 1969. With long-forgotten concert footage of Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mavis Staples duetting with Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, and others. That was the summer of Woodstock and the moon landing, a year on from MLK's assassination, and the film is very much about both the music and that moment in history.
Tomorrow at 7:30 pm, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra is back onstage in Spaulding with a program including Mahler's Fourth Symphony and Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, built off a prose poem by the same name written a few years earlier by James Agee. Conductor Filippo Ciabatti will give a pre-show talk at the Top of the Hop at 6:30.
For the last few Sundays, The Listening Room, which is a live music venue that takes over East Coast Van Builds in Bradford for the purpose, has been hosting bands as a running benefit for the effort to build a dog park in town. From 5-8 pm Sunday, they'll have funk/rock bassist, vocalist, and guitarist Dan Gerken, who plays with the Albany NY band Timbre Coup, and singer-songwriter James Graham. Tix are by donation.
The Kyiv-based band Folknery describe themselves as "Ukrainian free folk"—rooted in Ukraine's folk traditions but, as a reviewer once put it, with "a gleeful kitchen-sink abandon." Their name is a mashup of William Faulkner and folklore—an idea that came to one of the founders as he was bicycling through Abkhazia delving for folk songs and, one night, Faulkner came to him in a dream proposing that the band use his last name.
part of a larger project to create the soundtrack for a game called
Hungry Shadows
.
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 and writers who want you to 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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