GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Heads Up: No CoffeeBreak on Monday. In fact, I'll be taking the next few Mondays off to recharge a bit before spring actually arrives. Which it will. And jigsaw-doers, no need to fret: It'll be there on Tuesdays.Partly sunny until it's not. Mid 40s. It'll look a lot like yesterday until later this afternoon, when an approaching system introduces itself by way of arriving clouds. Then, as the temperature drops to around freezing tonight, we get rain and snow, then freezing rain and sleet as well. A lot will depend on where you are: "We`re anticipating some areas could see a few to perhaps several inches of snow/sleet, while others could get around a quarter of an inch of ice accumulation," say the weather folks. "Hazardous travel is likely, so anyone with travel plans this weekend should check back regularly." So much fun!In the wild... and the not-so-wild.
For starters, there's this last, lonely winter holdout on the former Hanover golf course, from Jim Citron—at least, for the moment;
And Laura Hirsch writes, "Living in downtown Lebanon, my opportunities for seeing and photographing wildlife near my house are limited. But finally, a photo I can submit to Daybreak! At the Coop Food Store in Lebanon! At first I was amazed by someone’s ladder-climbing prowess. Then walking around this display I realized: It’s a bunny."
And finally, actually in the wild: On a walk earlier this week, VINS executive director Alden Smith came across this snacking otter. As VINS' Emily Boren writes, it was "only possible because of the efforts to clean up the Ottauquechee back in the '70s."
Did you check out "Dear Daybreak" yesterday? If not, you missed Jon Kaplan and his early mud-season bike ride, when the itch to get out on wheels just couldn't be denied; Bob Hagen reflecting, in verse, on keeping—and sharing—apples over the winter; and Barbara Fildes' description and photo of a moment of communal grace in the face of immense loss. If you've got an anecdote or a description of life in these parts, send it in!Tri-Valley Transit gets EV go-ahead after all. The bus company, which runs in Orange and northern Windsor counties, had been girding itself to pause all electric vehicle initiatives in the face of a federal pause on green funding. But on Tuesday, reports Maryellen Apelquist in The Herald, it got word from VTrans that grant funding will resume. “I think for so much of it, we’re in the same position as everybody else,” regional director Mike Reiderer says. “Things that seemed secure aren’t necessarily secure.” Even with the resumed funding, there's a challenge: it's hard to find electric 18- to 20-passenger buses.An array of new businesses coming to Woodstock. As Lauren Dorsey writes in the Standard, "a number of the storefronts in and around Woodstock Village are currently closed to the public." But that's about to change in a big way, and she surveys what's ahead, including: a new home and garden store; a new café, Dreamscape, which has already had its soft opening in the spot once occupied by Soulfully Good; Pizza With a Purpose coming to Central St. next year; a possible branch of Stowe's Ranch Camp combo bike shop/restaurant; and then, as you've read, Farmer & the Bell and Oakes & Evelyn.SPONSORED: After this weekend tickets will be harder to get—but you should try! After opening weekend, last season’s sold-out smash hit, Something Rotten, had audiences clamoring for tickets. This years production of A Man of No Importance from We the People Theatre promises another sold-out run. Don’t miss out, get your tickets now! The show opens tonight and runs through April 13. Come early to get the best seats. The Briggs Opera House opens 30 minutes before curtain. We can’t wait to see you in the theater! Sponsored by We the People Theatre.Hanover will vote on zoning changes to ease new housing. There are three proposals that the planning board intends to put before voters at the May 13 town meeting, reports Emma Roth-Wells in the Valley News. One, she writes, would allow more infill housing, making it possible to build up to four housing units in "as many as two separate buildings" on lots served by town water and sewer. Another would make it possible for nonprofits like Twin Pines to create workforce housing in areas they’re already allowed to build in, but without a special exemption. The third involves Dartmouth wayfinding signs.Conk-a-reek. That may not be the official way of transcribing male redwing blackbirds' call, but it sure works. And as Northern Woodlands' Jack Saul writes in this week's "This Week in the Woods", they're out there establishing territories and waiting for females to amble back from warmer climes. Also out there this fourth week of March: skunk cabbage flowers, hoping pollinating insects will be attracted to the smell; and a whole variety of strawberry leaves—woodland, wild, and barren—with some tips on how to tell them apart.SPONSORED: Lebanon Opera House presents a tribute to three Country Music Hall of Fame members: Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton on Saturday, April 5. The Trailblazing Women of Country Music tour includes the chart-topping hits of Patsy, Loretta, and Dolly – from Crazy and Walkin' After Midnight to Coal Miner's Daughter and Jolene. Featuring an incredible all-female band with two Nashville-based singers (Rissi Plamer and Kristina Train), expect an evening of sing-along fun celebrating three country music icons. Sponsored by Lebanon Opera House.Hiking Sort of Close to Home: West River Trail, Brattleboro, VT. This 3.5 mile multi-use pathway on the bed of the former West River Railroad, paralleling the West River, is a mud season suggestion from the UVTA. It's popular with runners, bikers (mountain or hybrid recommended), families, and those seeking a leisurely stroll. To access the Marina Trailhead: From Exit 3 of I-91, go south from the Roundabout on Putney Road 1.3 miles and make a hard right onto Spring Tree Road (just before the bridge over the West River). Turn left, then right, and go 0.3 miles to the trailhead at the end of the road.Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions. Like, whose 1965 typewriter will you find in the Rauner Library? And whose paintings feature in a new exhibit at the Hood Museum opening tomorrow? Those and more at the link.But wait! How closely were you following VT and NH?
Because Seven Days wants to know if you know what government transparency experts say about the ethics disclosures completed by Vermont legislators?
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, which state official's term did Governor Kelly Ayotte decline to renew for now?
In Peterborough, a heated gathering with a Democratic state legislator offers a window on the debate over trans rights. Rep. Jonah Wheeler was one of two Democrats who on March 20 sided with NH Republicans to back a bill letting businesses and government agencies separate bathrooms and other facilities based on biological sex at birth. On Tuesday, reports Ethan DeWitt in NH Bulletin, Wheeler stood before an overflow crowd in the Peterborough public library to explain and defend his vote. "There were women in this town who told me that they don’t feel safe in their spaces anymore,” he said. Constituents pushed back. DeWitt details the scene.Ayotte pushes back against arts funding cuts. As you read earlier this week, GOP members of a New Hampshire House panel want to axe the state's arts division and other arts funding. But at a press conference Wednesday, reports Amanda Gokee in the Globe's NH newsletter, Gov. Kelly Ayotte told reporters, “My budget had my priorities in it, and I funded the arts in my budget. I did not make those reductions in my budget, so I don’t agree with them.” And she's not the only one. GOP Executive Council member Janet Stevens argues that the arts are a crucial economic driver.NH, VT will lose millions in federal health funding.
In all, reports WMUR's Adam Sexton, "an $80 million hole is opening up in New Hampshire's budget" after the feds announced this week they're clawing back pandemic-era grant funding that was supposed to last through September. "This was an unexpected notice that has created a lot of work to be able to try to figure out what we're going to do," says health and human services Commissioner Lori Weaver. State health officials "are now trying to sort out how to address [the] gaping hole," Sexton says.
In VT, reports Colin Flanders in Seven Days, the state Department of Health will lose roughly $7 million in federal grants it had been using to track infectious disease, improve access to vaccines, and address health disparities. The state's mental health department also "expects to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of now-discontinued grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration."
VT is paying a Louisville company $414,827 to alert crime victims about offenders' movements. It's not working. In fact, reports Charlotte Oliver for UVM's Community News Service, victim advocates in state's attorneys' offices now avoid recommending that victims sign up for the service because it's been so inaccurate. Victims have been notified an offender was released when in reality they were transferred, they've been notified about cases that aren't theirs, and perhaps worst of all, they haven't been notified when an abuser's been released. Even so, corrections officials say it's working "as designed."In VT, an education secretary in the limelight who'd rather not be there. Alison Novak's wide-ranging feature on Zoie Saunders in Seven Days is part personality profile—collaborative, dogged, willing to take on tough jobs, but also intensely private—and part policy assessment. Saunders has won praise from school administrators—"I feel like she had our back," says one—but also criticism for what the same administrator calls going into "political-AI-bot mode" when she talks policy. Novak delves in particular into Saunders' work on the school reform proposal she's spearheading, its reception both on the ground and in the legislature, and Saunders' efforts to defend and explain it.You know, cockroaches can be pretty graceful in flight. Of course, it helps that it's a pretty Cuban cockroach, also called the green banana roach. And it also helps that it's in extremely slow motion. In the latest Ant Lab video from Adrian Smith at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, he shows us 23 different insects, from a green June beetle to a snipe fly to a tufted thyatirine (it's a type of moth) and the really remarkable differences in how they take off and fly. You won't look at bugs in flight the same way again.The Friday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak. And hey, a pro tip: If you, like several people who've written in, like to keep track of your previous guesses, you'll find a "guess history" behind that little question mark icon at the top right.
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Daybreak tote bags! Thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, the usual: sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
The feature-length documentary, by Concord NH-based father-and-son filmmakers Dan and Samuel Habib, got its start as an Emmy-winning NYT "Op-Doc". It's about Samuel's search as a 21-year-old with cerebral palsy for an adult life on his own—and his trip across the US seeking out wisdom from disabled mentors. The Habibs will be there for a Q&A. The screening and discussion are open and free to the public, 4:30 pm in a wheelchair-friendly venue at DHMC in Auditorium E and F. Registration required at the link.
The Boston-based folk-rock band is fronted by Rebecca on acoustic guitar, Kat on the keys, and Rachael on electric guitar. The three were raised on everything from Bonnie Raitt and the Stones to Springsteen and Dylan, and started out playing benefit concerts, high school talent shows, and coffee houses before reaching wider recognition. 7:30 pm.
Things get going at 7:30 pm with Vermont guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter Derek Burkins; at 8 pm the VT-based husband & wife duo of Naomi Morse (fiddle, voice) and Emmet McGowan (guitar, voice), who perform as The Poor Cousins; and at 9 pm, Andrew and Noah VanNorstrand, once of Great Bear Trio fame, now part of the folk roots band The Faux Paws.
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Sidesplitting and somber by turns, [it] explores transformations and generations. From marriage to divorce to chance encounters, from a Long Island neighborhood grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy to a rowdy group of community thespians on opening night..."
Local directors join forces with some of the Upper Valley's finest acting talent for s
even plays, 10 minutes each. 7:30 pm tonight and tomorrow night, 3 pm Sunday, and then again next weekend.A Man of No Importance opens at the Briggs Opera House in WRJ. We the People Theatre's traces
Dublin bus driver Alfie Byrne’s attempt to put on an amateur theater production of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome” in the face of strenuous objections from the Church. With a live band in charge of the Irish-inflected score. Runs for the next three weekends, 7:30 Friday and Saturday nights, 3 pm on Sundays.
Bow Thayer, Steve Ferraris, and Krishna Guthrie and their "boundary-stretching Modern Mountain Music". 8 pm.
Saturday
Kruck's kids' book, illustrated by Carmen Mok, follows Alfred and his dream of making a garden grow—and making a friend. 10 am tomorrow.
In case you were planning to go to Aaron Jafferis' HopStop workshop tomorrow, it's been cancelled.
The pianist and UVM prof's project of free piano concerts in every VT town to raise awareness of climate change is coming to Hartland's Damon Hall tomorrow at 3 pm. As he does everywhere he goes, Feurzeig performs with locals, in this case Rebecca Wood and Chiho Kaneko.
. Paintings and assemblages. 3 pm tomorrow.
As they put it, "Prepare to be dazzled and delighted as friends and neighbors display their talents as singers, dancers, musicians, poets, actors, and more." 7 pm tomorrow.
The "high-energy threesome play deep cuts from the 70's-80's, one-hit wonders and songs you forgot you knew and loved." 8 pm tomorrow.
Sunday
Japanese ensemble drumming with a twist, or as LOH puts it, "The company has broadened and embellished this historical art form into a powerful performance style that blends the traditional rhythms of Japan with the beat of world rhythms. Their work is very physical and often described as 'dancing with drums.'" 4 pm Sunday.
And to get us up on our feet ahead of the weekend...
We head (sort of) to the Balkans, thanks to the Vienna-based quintet Baba Yaga, whose members come from Austria, Israel, and Montenegro, and who go for everything from Balkan tunes to klezmer to gypsy jazz.
Enjoy the weekend, whatever it throws at us! See you Tuesday.
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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