GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Showers again, breezy. We face bouts of rain pretty much all day, along with a slight chance of thunder this afternoon. Temperatures will be somewhat warmer, getting into the low or mid 60s on winds from the south, but we'll also be getting gusts into the 30 mph range both morning and afternoon. Still a chance of showers overnight, lows in the lower 40s.Streams and rivers will probably rise. If current forecasts hold, most should pose no problem, but the weather folks warn that "any additional snowmelt or rainfall beyond present forecast expectations could send [some] rivers into minor flooding and others towards bankfull." Plus, ponding in low-lying areas and maybe flooding in farm fields. At the moment, it looks like the only river in the region of any real concern for minor flooding is the Pemigewasset. Link goes to river-by-river hydro forecasts—just hover over a site for the forecast.Law-abiding turkey. That's Kate Emlen's subject line over a brief video from Route 120 in Lebanon, and really, how could you improve on it?The sun, the moon, the hordes... Photographer Jim Block traveled up to Sentinel Rock State Park in Westmore, VT on Monday, which, he writes in his latest blog post, "turned out to be a very nice place to watch the eclipse." There were enough people to give it all a sense of camaraderie, but not too many. Jim documents the whole scene: the people, the eyewear, the totality, the diamond ring, the CMEs...“You guys disgust me." It would be fair to say that tempers ran hot at a Bethel selectboard meeting earlier this week. That was Tom Harty, pastor at the United Church in Bethel, slamming the board for its decision to bar former fire chief Dave Aldrighetti from dismissing a firefighter over a Facebook post and the fact that, as Aldrighetti put it Monday, "This person we’re talking about, we can’t trust him." In the Herald, Darren Marcy details the controversy and Monday's meeting—at which public sentiment lay with Aldrighetti, who'd resigned as chief. Harty got a standing ovation after he made his remarks.Claremont City Council reverses itself, puts citizen referendum process on 2025 ballot. You may remember how, in March, the council ignored state law and refused to put a charter amendment on the ballot to let citizens propose ordinances for the council to consider—even though the proposal had collected enough signatures to qualify. Wednesday, reports Patrick O'Grady in the Valley News, the council voted 8-0 to go ahead with a public vote on the charter amendment—but during municipal elections in 2025, when turnout is typically low, rather than during this year's presidential balloting.SPONSORED: The sun may have had a total eclipse this week, but it's coal that's on the way out in New England! A historic agreement will retire the last two coal plants in New England in favor of “renewable energy parks” that generate solar power and store offshore wind in batteries. Hit the burgundy link to learn the details, and even better, learn how to save over $11,000 when you install home solar during Solaflect's spring incentive—and make clean energy right at home! Sponsored by Solaflect Energy. As spring approaches, area farms confront the fallout from last year. In particular, water. Lots of water. "Farms of all types are dealing with saturated soils, significant reseeding projects, and reduced planting space," writes Lauren Dorsey in the VT Standard. At La Garagista farm and winery, Deirdre Heekin tells her that she's worried about the already high water table and the potential for fungal disease. At S. Pomfret's Brook and Blossom Flower Farm, owner Heather Durkel has cut growing space that flooded last year. Plainfield's Riverview Farm is shifting from pumpkins to Christmas trees... In Grantham, daffodils "show their mettle." "I thought for sure they were goners" after they were buried in heavy snow on April 3, writes Terri Munson in what has to be one of the more hopeful blog posts around, in this case for the Grantham Garden Club, which planted scores of bulbs by the town post office last fall. Instead, they rebounded. And, in fact, they've survived "snow, rain, frost, sleet, and all manner of weather," she notes—even though they broke the surface in mid-February, rather than April. Plenty of photos of valiant daffs.Dartmouth names honorary degree recipients for graduation. You already know about Roger Federer, who'll be the graduation speaker. Up there on the dais with him, the college announced yesterday, will be eight others getting honorary degrees, including former US Rep. Liz Cheney, OpenAI's Mira Murati (who went to Thayer), Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Buolamwini, mathematician and former Baltimore Ravens guard John Urschel, retired Merck CEO Roy Vagelos, Purdue U president Mung Chiang, retired NSA director Paul Nakasone, and Uganda Christian University lecturer Richard Ranger.SPONSORED: 35th Annual Ogontz Choral Workshop. Join us July 18-24 at a rustic resort renowned for its scenic beauty in Lyman, NH. Acclaimed British conductor David Hill will lead singers through Verdi's Requiem and selections from European Sacred Music, ed. John Rutter. Mezzo-soprano Paula Rockwell will provide vocal instruction, master classes, and a solo recital. Register by April 30 to save $100. Scholarships for music students! Questions? Email [email protected] or phone 215-962-2998. Sponsored by Ogontz Arts.Owner of Station Market on WRJ's Sykes Mountain Ave. seeks to build new car wash next door. Leb's Summit Distributing wants to put the 100-foot-long "tunnel" car wash on a leased lot currently used for overflow Greyhound parking, reports the VN's Patrick Adrian. He notes that the proposed car wash "is only a few hundred feet away from an existing car wash" owned by Charles and Allen Hall that stands next to their former car dealership, Gateway Motors. Hartford's planning commission takes up the Summit proposal Monday.Hiking Not So Close to Home: Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge, Whitefield, NH. This is a beautiful refuge with almost 6,500 acres of wetland and forest, says the Upper Valley Trails Alliance, perfect for a family outing. No guaranteed moose sightings, but it's possible—along with over 200 species of birds and an impressive array of plants and flowers. Most trails are flat and relatively easy, but you still get beautiful views of Cherry Pond and the Presidentials. There are also great biking trails. Access most of the trails from the parking area off Airport Road in Whitefield (which can get crowded on some weekends).So... Think you know what's been going on in the Upper Valley? Because Daybreak's News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, which much-loved Upper Valley community performing arts group had to cancel its marquee event this year? And where the heck in the Upper Valley is the "Dry Bridge"? Those questions and more at the link.And how closely were you following VT and NH?
Because Seven Days wants to know if you know how many people state officials estimate visited Vermont for the eclipse.
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, what has the former head of the White Mountains Trail Collective been accused of?
Conway NH voters pass mural ordinance, but it hardly settles donut sign controversy. This was a while ago, but remember how last year Leavitt’s Country Bakery was told by the town that a sign painted by high school students was advertising, not art, and had to be taken down? The owner sued. But on Tuesday, reports the AP's Kathy McCormack, voters overwhelmingly backed an ordinance that requires town approval for art on public and commercial property—without "intrusion into the artistic expression or the content of work.” The lawyer for the bakery owner calls it unconstitutional. In Littleton, NH, a life-saving vending machine. Put there by a regional health consortium, it sits outside an office building and dispenses the overdose reversal drug naloxone. The idea, the consortium's Jennifer Goulet tells NHPR's Paul Cuno-Booth, is that while businesses and workplaces in town keep naloxone on hand, some people are reluctant to ask for it. "So creating this opportunity meant they didn't even have to speak to a person, if that was the thing that was hindering them," she says. The machine is free to use and dispenses six doses at a time, 24 hours a day.Trigger warning: This piece contains the words “Franconia Notch merge” and “Vermont” and references I-93. That's part of a note atop Heather Hopp-Bruce's Globe op-ed (via MSN, no paywall), "I (barely) survived the eclipse drive from Vermont to Boston." She describes the experience: cell service down; digital mapping programs overwhelmed; masses of cars trying each new dodge any working app did suggest; the padiddle behind them who, "in rare moments of the traffic moving, tried to use the right lane to dart ahead a few car lengths before unsuccessfully attempting to remerge into the left lane."A three-hour tour… Somewhere in Micronesia, three mariners went fishing in a small skiff with an outboard motor. They weren’t newbies at navigating the waters, writes Ellen Francis in the Washington Post (gift link), but their motor died, leaving them stranded on a desert island with a non-functioning radio. For a week they drank water from a well and ate coconuts. Meanwhile, the US Navy began searching a massive area of 78,000 square nautical miles, which they narrowed down to, well, a single beach, where the men had spelled “HELP” with palm fronds laid on the sand. Coast Guard rescue followed. Oh, and hey: Ever wanted to learn to play a musical saw? This guy—who seems to be on his way to playing pretty much every instrument ever invented—shows you how. Don't forget: You need two inflection points!Vordlers, there's no easy way to say this. Yesterday, NewsGames—the Hanover-based company that makes the Vordle for Daybreak and similar games for local news organizations across the country—got a cease-and-desist letter from the New York Times. As you may know, the Times, which bought Wordle two years ago, has been taking aim at the makers of Wordle-like games. So today's—at the burgundy link—will be the last. This comes as a harsh blow to us all. Believe me, we'll keep you updated if things develop.
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Today at 4 pm, the Creative Play for Seniors workshops at the Norman Williams Public Library run by Marv Klassen-Landis, Ham Gillett, and Michael Zerphy hold their closing show, with the organizers and participants performing work they've created during the series.
At 7 this evening, the Zimbabwean band Makoomba takes the stage at the Chandler in Randolph. The six-member group plays both traditional and modern instruments, and brings a variety of international pop and pan-African styles to their sets, including soukous, funk and reggae.
And this evening at 8, Sawtooth Kitchen hosts Radio Bear—a six-piece collective from East Central VT playing a blend of funk, blues, pop, rock, country and alternative.
Saturday
Tomorrow from 9 to 5 is VINS' Owl Festival, with everything from researchers and naturalists talking about owls to a falconer with her owls to lessons in making owl calls.
From 10 am to 5 pm tomorrow, Revels North holds a workshop day with a chance to learn, sing, and perform VT & NH traditional songs. That's followed at 7 pm by a concert and singalong with Revels North singers, folk singer Jennifer Curtin, and Revels artistic director Alex Cumming. Workshop at Revels hq, 2 Mascoma St Suite #3 in Lebanon; concert at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon.
At 5 pm tomorrow Bloodroot Literary Magazine holds a launch party to celebrate its latest volume. Contributors Rachel Lyon and Ivy Schweitzer will read from their new books, with other readings to follow. At Left Bank Books in Hanover, up above the Dirt Cowboy.
At 6:30 pm tomorrow, the Thetford Hill Church is throwing an "Extravaganza" variety show with a wide mix of music and stories and a dessert buffet reception afterward. Performers include: Charlie Buttrey, Upper Valley Voices, Kit Creeger, the Teccas, Kevin Quigley, Andrei Zharkov, Nicky Corrao, Bill Craig, and others.
At 7 pm, cabaret singer Bob Wetzel will perform his show, "Peasant, Pirate and Poet: the Music of Jimmy Webb" at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich. Webb's name might not be familiar, but his music sure is, from "Up, Up and Away" to "Wichita Lineman" to"MacArthur Park".
There'll be a contra dance tomorrow at 7:30 pm in Norwich's Tracy Hall, with the Boston-based duo Cojiro ("Stompy, fun, and funky") providing the music and veteran caller Steve Zakon-Anderson at the mic.
At 9 tomorrow night, two What Doth Life bands take the stage at Sawtooth Kitchen: The Pilgrims and Time Life Magazines. The Pilgrims, "a fun-loving garage rock band from Windsor," as Alex Hanson puts it in his VN writeup, are advertising it as their last gig. Hanson has his doubts.
Sunday
At 10 Sunday morning, the White River Land Collaborative hosts a forest walk on vernal pools at its land in Tunbridge. Hosts Rudi Ruddell and Emily Boles will lead the walk and a conversation about amphibians and other inhabitants of those vital springtime ecological communities.
At 1:30 pm Sunday, the Thetford Congregational Church (the one on Thetford Hill) will co-host with the Upper Valley Jewish Community a staged reading of a play by rabbi and Holocaust survivor Joseph Polak that dives into the question of how one can reconcile faith in the face of evil. Rabbi Polak and other Holocaust survivors will be on hand afterward for a question-and-answer session. Here's more on the event from the VN's Liz Sauchelli.
At 3 pm Sunday, the Upper Valley Chamber Orchestra will give a concert at the Lebanon Opera House, with works by Haydn, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Gabriela Ortiz, and Leoš Janáček.
At 7:30 pm on Sunday, Court Street Arts in Haverhill hosts Ordinary Elephant, the married duo of Crystal Harin-Damore and Pete Damore. The Damores, Pop Matters wrote when their first album came out, "are a great songwriting pair, capable of quiet, poignant observation in one moment...and the sly gut-punch of directness in the next."
And to take us into the weekend...
off the Dire Straits founder's new album, which comes out today.
Have a fine time out there! It gets sunny on Sunday. 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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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