GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Maybe some snow, but then rain. Low pressure is settling in to our northwest, and that's creating airflow that'll bring new moisture to the region. Given temps climbing from around freezing into the mid-40s, though, whatever falls will mostly come as rain—a chance this morning, a likelihood this afternoon. Otherwise, it'll be cloudy, winds from the southeast, low or mid 30s tonight.Red fox pouncing. On Erin Donahue's trail cam. Ted Levin: "Red foxes are built and behave like cats. Long whiskers, vertically slit pupils, long slender legs and canine teeth, partially retractable claws... They pounce straight up and then down, as though jackknifing off a diving board, pinning a mouse to the ground. They're everywhere: Europe, Asia, North Africa, Japan, and North America, except the desert Southwest, the most extensive range of any wild carnivore, covering more than 27 million square miles. Red foxes were introduced to Australia, where they thrive, much to the distress of native marsupials."Sketching Eddie. Remember when Lost Woods occupied this space on Fridays? Well, in case you've been missing it, illustrator DB Johnson has just created a short video of the sketching process for creating Eddie, his most kinetic character. It's pretty kinetic, itself.Blind drawing decides Leb school board race. At least for now. "I’ve been with the City Clerk’s Office for 15 years, and I have never seen this happen,” said City Clerk Kristen Kenniston yesterday, as she joined acting school district clerk Brian Davis at City Hall, where she held a food container containing paper strips with the names of Jessica Saturley-Hall and John D'Entremont. The two tied for third place in Tuesday's contest for three school board seats. Davis drew Saturley-Hall's name, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News. D'Entremont has until 5 pm today to decide on whether to ask for a recount.Windsor school board back in the news following recount request. The Mt. Ascutney School Board—which is also dealing with the aftermath of its out-of-court settlement with fired principal Tiffany Riley—faced a series of questions at its meeting earlier this week about the conduct of school district elections last week, reports Mike Donoghue in The Vermont Standard. In particular, speakers focused on Windsor Town Clerk Amy McMullen, who in election-day voting narrowly won a seat on the board—and also spent Election Day standing next to the ballot box, filling in for the school district clerk.Meanwhile, in New Hampshire... As several towns prep for floor meetings this weekend, the VN continues to round up results from Tuesday's voting. After much discussion, voters in Orford opted to “consider the feasibility” of buying the Orford Congregational Church building, John Lippman reports. Voters in Sunapee rejected the idea of making the town's fire chief and rec director full-time positions. Voters in Grafton narrowly rejected spending $210K for the first phase of a new library, and New London voters axed a proposal to buy land for a new police station. Those and more at the link.SPONSORED: Sweat at Northern Stage is “what GREAT THEATER is all about!” Now through March 26th only! When globalization and automation bring massive cuts to a factory in Reading, PA, decades-old friendships unravel and the racial fault lines of the town are exposed. Can the union strike hold or will everyone have to fend for themselves? Sweat is a heart-wrenching portrait of the human cost of the decline in manufacturing that shines a light on working class communities that often feel left behind. Tickets starting at $19. Visit NorthernStage.org or call 802-296-7000. Sponsored by Northern Stage.The Orange County sheriff's dept has two deputies. One wants to move to Montana. “He’s got the wanderlust,” Sheriff George Contois told a meeting at the Chelsea Grange earlier this week. “He’s ready to see the world.” If he finds a job out there, reports Darren Marcy in the Herald, that will leave Contois with a single, newly hired deputy to cover the department's statutory duty at the county courthouse, and none to fulfill its patrol contracts with towns. Which, Marcy notes, is how the department funds itself. "Without money," he writes, "Contois can’t hire new deputies and without deputies he can’t make money."Wild Royalton fight involving multiple people with bats and guns draws outcry from neighbors. That's because the town, they say, has been slow to deal with ongoing problems at the address—"It’s only a matter of time until I sell my house and move,” one neighbor told the selectboard Tuesday. Witnesses to the fight, Marcy reports in the Herald, have said they heard gunshots and crashing vehicles, and saw people beating a travel trailer with a bat, breaking out windows. A state police official told the board they're short on troopers and can't provide rapid coverage overnight, Marcy writes.Where people ponder "one of the most important life choices (glazed or cinnamon)." That, of course, is Lou's, in Hanover, which veteran journalist (and Dartmouth grad) David Shribman has just profiled for the Wall Street Journal's "Time Capsule" series on beloved spots that haven't changed much over the years. It was "part doughnut shop, part diner, part informal town hall" from the get-go, Shribman writes, though the menu these days includes ingredients like quinoa and mesclun that were impossible to find in these parts in 1947. Lots of photos. (Gift link, no paywall)Woodstock's Soulfully Good Café gets new owners, a touch of the South. The Central Street café's new owners, Seth and Dashia Cox, are from Washington, GA, a small town between Atlanta and Augusta. Nicole DeNoyers, who bought the café in 2019, moved to Poultney after falling in love during the pandemic—"Couldn't have seen that coming," she tells Robert Shumskis in the Standard—and eventually got tired of making the commute over the mountains. The Coxes had fallen in love with the area while two of their children worked at the Woodstock Inn. "We knew we had to take the leap," says Seth.After several weeks of logging, Oak Hill's new course takes shape. It's part of an effort by the Friends of Oak Hill, the college, and the Hanover Improvement Society to create a set of trails that are usable for snow-making (as well as hiking and mountain biking) and to open the trails to more users of all ages. Yesterday, the Friends put up a drone video by Adam Groff that follows the course and gives an aerial view of the emerging trail system.Hiking Close to Home: Bedell Bridge State Historic Site, Haverhill, NH. As we approach spring, be sure to check out this 74-acre NH State Park gem. The site offers a short network of trails along the Connecticut River that is an excellent place for bird watching: The trail leads to a wildlife viewing platform overlooking a wetland. From the Haverhill Commons, drive north on NH-10 for 0.5 miles. Turn left onto Meadow Road and proceed 0.8 miles to the parking area. The first trail is at the beginning of the circular parking area. The second can be found by walking back down Meadow Road approximately 400 feet.With new album, Royalton's Ali T does it all on her own. Including "playing all the instruments, recording all the vocal tracks, and doing all the editing and mixing," writes Alex Hanson in the VN. He talks to the singer-songwriter—Alison Turner offstage—about her early self-recording days in middle school, her evolution as an introvert who performs, what she learned recording her first two albums, and learning to let go of her work on Pancakes at Midnight, her latest. "You’re never done,” she tells Hanson. “Even now, listening back, I’m like, ‘Oooh, that should have been louder.’"Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, who just expelled Mid Vermont Christian School from mainstream sports competition in VT? And what's that unusual venue where the Hopkins Center is hosting a show this spring? And which international conglomerate just supoenaed a bunch of NH towns? More at the link.But wait! How closely were you following VT and NH?
Because Seven Days wants to know if you know what's been going on around the state this week—like, VT lawmakers have grown concerned about the skyrocketing costs of a key bill proposing what new policy?
And NHPR's got a whole set of questionsabout doings in the Granite State—like, who defeated Jody Underwood for a seat on the Croydon School Board?
According to the Mt. Washington Avalanche Center, two skiers decided to descend the steep terrain known as Wildcat B from the Wildcat Ridge Trail—despite a warning from a third skier that MWAC's avalanche forecast indicated it would be risky. One triggered an avalanche, was caught, carried 500 feet, and fully buried except for a hand—which the second skier saw, and began digging. "This incident represents one of very few full-burial saves in the history of avalanche incidents on the East Coast," the MWAC writes in its report.
Senate Republicans, who backed the measure, argued that schools and teachers should not be able to withhold information about a child's health or behavior from parents. Democrats countered that the bill effectively targets transgender and gay youth, and puts their ability to rely on trusted adults outside the home at risk. The House has its own version; last year, it killed a similar measure after Gov. Chris Sununu promised to veto it, writes the AP's Holly Ramer.
The Free State Project, in 10 episodes. NBC10 Boston has been airing a 10-part series about the libertarian-born effort and its effect on New Hampshire politics and communities, and several of its episodes are set right around here. From the project's beginnings to its adherents and detractors to crypto and the annual "Christian camp with harder drugs" in the north woods known as Porcfest, to two episodes on last year's Croydon schools uproar and one on Grafton and the Free Town Project (and bears), the series goes both deep and wide, with lots of profiles, interviews, and footage. (Thanks, AG!)VT DMV wants licenses to go mobile. The agency's proposal to let Vermonters put driver’s licenses and other state ID on their phones is part of a larger piece of legislation aimed at advancing the DMV's modernization, writes VTDigger's Shaun Robinson. The mobile app would not just let you keep your official details on your phone—though you'd still have to produce a physical card if asked—but allow users to choose which details to share (like, name, birthdate, and photo if carded). The bill would also abolish those little validation stickers for license plates. It's still in the Senate, and has a long way to go."Street View" the DMZ. In the 70 years since the end of the Korean War, the 160-mile-long demilitarized zone between North and South Korea has been pretty much left to its own devices, with few humans living or traveling there. That’s fantastic news for plants and animals—an astonishing 6,168 species call it home, including more than a third of Korea’s endangered species. In Smithsonian, Teresa Nowakowski writes about a new project created by Google and a group of South Korean cultural institutions that explores the art, history and nature of the DMZ, and opens them to the world.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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At 7 this evening, there are a few tickets left for tonight's St. Patrick's Day show at Seven Stars Arts in Sharon, with Jim Rooney and Colin McCaffrey joined by fiddler and dairy farmer Geordie Lynde and VT-based, Cape Breton-inspired Gaelic band Footworks (Jacob Brillhart on fiddle, Jon Brillhart on whistle, and Tory Heft on guitar).
Also at 7, via Zoom, the Norwich Bookstore joins in a "spring showcase" with NYC-based publisher Four Way Books, featuring poets Rigoberto González, James Allen Hall, Carlie Hoffman, and Jen Levitt.
This evening at 7:30 (tomorrow at the same time, Sunday at 2 pm), BarnArts launches its production of The Good Doctor, Neil Simon's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short stories. Seven actors, nine stories (each directed by one of the actors): As BarnArts writes, "What happens when a humble city worker sneezes on their boss during a play? What is the perfect lunch? Is three rubles a fair price to watch someone drown?...The Good Doctor begins with a narrator, a Chekhov-like writer, who leads the audience through nine scenes that go from ridiculous to absurd to charming and back again as the narrator reflects on the creative process." In Woodstock's Town Hall Theater. Runs through next weekend. Here's Ray Couture's write-up and interviewin the Standard with actor/co-director Olivia Piepmeier.
Also at 7:30, the Anonymous Coffeehouse takes over the First Congregational Church of Lebanon with music, high spirits, and a large table groaning with baked goods. First on stage is Springfield VT-based folk, country, American singer-songwriter Andrew Vannorstrand; he'll be followed at 8:15 by local country/bluegrass band Dan & the Dinosaurs; and at 9 pm Upper Valley music vets Martin Decato and Pooh Sprague dole out country, blues, folk, and originals.
Tomorrow evening at 7, Roots & Wings, the coffeehouse at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich, brings in folksinger, songwriter, guitar/banjo/mountain dulcimer-player, and multiple-time Prairie Home Companion guest Sally Rogers. Windsor-based folk singer Dave Richardson will open.
Also at 7 tomorrow, the local nonprofit Music Helps, which aims to "make making music accessible to everyone in the Upper Valley," hosts a benefit concert at Tracy Hall in Norwich featuring fifth-generation VT fiddler (and multi-instrumentalist with pretty much anything that's got strings) Patrick Ross.
Tomorrow at 7:30, Good Neighbor Health Clinics host a benefit concert at the Briggs Opera House in WRJ with veteran NH singer, songwriter, and rocker Brooks Hubbard, who got his start in these parts, headed to Nashville for six years—where he formed a band and toured—then returned north a couple of years ago. The emcee for the night is Good Neighbor volunteer physician Adam Sorscher, fresh off his Anonymous Coffeehouse emcee gig the night before. Proceeds support the work of Good Neighbor's free medical and dental clinics for uninsured and underinsured Upper Valley residents.
After months of prep, the Chris Bustard Memorial Snow Race and Relay starts off Sunday morning at 9:30 at the Dartmouth Skiway. The "skimo" race memorializes Bustard, an avid member of local ski mountaineering circles and Dartmouth grad who lived in Lebanon until he was killed by a car while out for a run in Florida last December. Participants can race uphill and downhill on skis or snowshoes, or just choose to ski at their own pace. Proceeds go to Bustard's young son's college account. Here's The Dartmouth with background.
And Sunday at 3, it's Upper Valley Music Center's annual faculty showcase at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Everything from classical to traditional tunes to original songs by the Center's ace faculty. Admission by "freewill donation," proceeds go to UVMC's tuition assistance program.
And to take us into the weekend...
Let's put ourselves in the boisterous and boundary-demolishing hands of Paris-born, French-Spanish singer Manu Chao (though he also has
English, Italian, Arabic, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Greek, and probably some other languages under his belt). Here he is a few weeks ago with the Barcelona-based, Latin America-infused group, RumbaKana and "Déjame."
It's going to be a fine weekend out there! 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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