GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
"Arguably perfect spring weather." Those weather folks sure know how to hedge a bet, don't they? But yeah, I'd call it pretty near perfect. With one small caveat: Even though we've got high pressure edging in and dry air, there's enough instability in the atmosphere that there's a slight chance of showers late this afternoon. Still: sunny muh of the day, more clouds in the afternoon, temps into the low 70s, calm northwest winds. Down into the lower 40s tonight.Water two ways...
Early morning on Lake Fairlee, looking northeast from Robinson Hill Rd across the lake just after last week's rain "as the sun was shining and the mist was rising," writes Petey Becker.
And sky reflected in the Ompomponoosuc, where it broadens before passing under I-91 and meeting the Connecticut, by Annemieke McLane.
Lydia: "Is there a lot of stuff we don't know about plants?" Henry: "You have no idea..." It's Week 24 of Lost Woods, and Henry's hard at work on a book about the secret life of plants while Lebanon writer and illustrator D.B. Johnson is hard at work on his next set of strips: Scroll right to see what happens next or left to catch up on previous weeks. And if you've missed a week (or more), check out the archive and synopsis behind the three little parallel lines at the top right.CCBA considers pitch for sports surfaces on field by Witherell Center. The proposal, reports Tris Wykes on his Octopus Athletics blog, is backed by a group that includes Stanley Cup champion Ben Lovejoy. It would include one artificial-turf surface and another with "textured flooring often found in multi-sport indoor facilities," Wykes writes, though the proposal is in such an early stage that CCBA director Kerry Artman emailed him, "We are still trying to figure out for ourselves what might work." Whatever happens, city rec director Paul Coats tells Wykes, "the city’s need for recreational fields isn’t going away.”Dartmouth moving to "less limited access" June 1, "full access" Aug. 1. In a community update yesterday, Covid task force chairs Lisa Adams and Josh Keniston said that in light of national trends, the college will ease its guidelines soon. Masks and twice-weekly testing (for the unvaccinated) will still be required and some physical distancing requirements remain, but visitors will now be allowed outdoors without approval and events can grow in size. More faculty and staff will also be allowed on campus. Details on "Full Access" are still being developed, though all students on campus must be vaccinated.About that truck. You know, the one that got stuck under the bridge in WRJ? It was from Mississippi, Hartford Deputy Police Chief Brad Vail says, being driven by its owner. Ouch. And hauling electrical equipment to Twin State Electric in WRJ, reports Doug Josler of Sabil & Sons, which handled the wreck. Getting it free took work: Sabil had to let out the air pressure in the suspension system, which gained them about five inches, enough to clear the underpass and back the truck up the little hill into the Bridge Street/N. Main Street intersection. "There's a lot of signage there," Josler says, "but [trucks] continue to try it."Aaaand... it's Mexican by a hair! Remember last week's We The People news quiz and its question about what kind of restaurant should go in the Canoe Club space? Well, 553 people have spoken, and the two clear leaders are Mexican and Italian, followed by American and French. Not much enthusiasm for Thai, Deli, or Diner, though "None of the Above" did pretty well. Breakdown at the link, plus a button for this week's news quiz, which among other things asks how you're feeling about mask-wearing in public spaces now.Hiking close to home: Eshqua Bog Natural Area. The bog in Hartland is a unique ecosystem, the Upper Valley Trails Alliance says, offering an amazing array of plants. The one-mile trail includes a recently renovated, 460-foot fully accessible boardwalk. The whole mile is beautiful and friendly to hikers of all abilities, with a number of benches strategically placed along the trail. If you want to add more mileage, there are many other good trail options in the area. Follow the directions at the link carefully so you don’t miss the small parking area off Garvin Hill Road.Looks like being on the edge of the country during Covid was an advantage. The personal finance site Wallethub has just done a ranking of "safest states" during the pandemic, based on vaccination rates, testing positivity, hospitalization, death rate, and transmission rate. Hawaii came in tops, followed quickly by VT, ME, MA, NH, and AK. RI, CT, and DC round out the top 10. At the bottom? FL, WV, and coming in last, MI.NH to expand access to mental health services. Gov. Chris Sununu yesterday issued the order in response to Tuesday's state Supreme Court ruling psychiatric patients being held involuntarily in emergency rooms. It adds beds and services at psychiatric facilities. Sununu also ordered a review of the state's mental health services "to determine if the providers we currently utilize are truly equipped and truly capable of meeting the need of New Hampshire citizens," he said at a press conference yesterday.Sununu says he plans to end extra unemployment benefits early. The Biden administration wants to keep the federal program that adds $300 onto benefits going until September, but states can opt out. In an online meeting yesterday, reports the Monitor's David Brooks, NH's guv told a business group, "The federal government wants to do it all the way to September. We’re not doing that.” One caution came from a Boston Fed economist, who noted, Brooks writes, that "the pandemic recovery has been weakest for those who are most dependent on government payments such as unemployment."NH's new weather normal: warmer fall days, but cooler nights. On his Granite Geek blog, David Brooks (yeah, I know, he's been busy) notes that the Weather Service has just changed its 30-year normal dates from 1981-2010 to 1991-2020, and that while the average daytime temp in Concord (the only official 30-year site in the state) increased by more than 3 degrees—more than any other season—average daily lows actually dropped 1.5 degrees. “We were a little bit surprised by it,” says a National Weather Service meteorologist. On the other hand, average snow totals went up.NH's top epidemiologist has "concerns" about CDC's new mask guidance. As you may know, the federal agency yesterday said that fully vaccinated people can ditch masks in most situations, both indoors and out. At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Dr. Benjamin Chan said he thinks the move is premature, and worries about how, for instance, a business can know if unmasked people are actually vaccinated. He said state health officials will review the new guidance before deciding whether to implement it, reports NHPR's Dan Barrick.“It feels like a pressure off of us, that we have done some good for future children and society." That was the reaction of Brenda Hannon, a member of a group of former residents of the St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington, after VT Gov. Phil Scott yesterday signed into law a measure eliminating the three-year limit on filing civil lawsuits over childhood physical abuse. Hannon and others testified on its behalf, describing physical and sexual abuse by priests, nuns and others who worked at the orphanage, reports VTDigger's Alan J. Keays. "It was a pit of despair in that place,” Hannon tells him.GMP enlists residential batteries to help keep regional grid balanced. It's the first time, the company said in a press release yesterday, that stored energy in a network of home Powerwalls will be fed into regional grid operator ISO-New England's system. Typically, ISO-NE calls on power companies to increase or decrease output as needed to keep electricity flows stable. The program will take advantage of 200 homes with Powerwall batteries, and pay customers $13.50 a month. The company hopes to expand it down the road. An EV charging station you won't find along the road: It's for airplanes. And it's been developed by Beta Technologies, the Burlington-based electronic aircraft pioneer. You may remember that Beta recently landed a UPS contract for 10 of its planes; it's also doing "some of the most advanced flight testing in the industry," writes Derek Brouwer in a Seven Days profile of the company and its founder, former pro hockey draft pick Kyle Clark. Beta's building a network of recharging stations from Burlington to Springfield, Ohio for its planes, and is funding a project to electrify Rutland's airport."Empty Stages" project highlights... well, just that. It was launched by the Champlain Trio, a year-old chamber music group, who enlisted filmmaker and Northeast Kingdom event-producer Jay Craven to document their performances at six pandemic-endangered venues around the state. The camera work, writes Seven Days' Amy Lilly, "intersperses close-ups of finger work, facial expressions and communicative gestures with sweeping shots of the room's empty seats. The sound is almost studio quality." It will be available to people who buy tix to the trio's May 22 livestreamed concert in Greensboro.See? It says right here: "Great Lake"... I'm not proud of this, but I'm a sucker for foreign travelogues about VT or NH that mangle the facts or the language or both. This one's a breathless guide to Burlington and VT on a site called NetworksAsia, and among other things, it recommends visiting the Absolutely No Gravity brewery, checking out "the ecology and background of this Great Lake" (that would be the rejected Lake Champlain), and packing "a bikini due to the fact that you might discover a nice day, or simply feel like obtaining insane." Translation software: the gift that keeps on giving.
Last numbers for the week.
Dartmouth is back up to 1 active case among students and remains at 2 among faculty/staff. There are 1 student and 1 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 1 student and 7 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 222 new cases yesterday for a cumulative total of 97,304. There were 4 new deaths, raising the total to 1,326, while 62 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 1). The current active caseload stands at 1,450 (up 48). The state reports 77 active cases in Grafton County (down 1), 47 in Sullivan (up 6), and 124 in Merrimack (up 7). In town-by-town numbers, the state says Claremont has 18 active cases (up 5), Lebanon has 17 (up 1), Newport has 12 (no change), Newbury has 7 (up 1), and Rumney has 5 (up at least 1). Haverhill, Piermont, Warren, Orford, Hanover, Canaan, Enfield, Grafton, Plainfield, Grantham, Cornish, Croydon, Sunapee, New London, Charlestown, and Unity have 1-4 each. Wentworth is off the list.
VT reported 72 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 23,724. Deaths held steady at 252, while 10 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 2). Windsor County gained 5 new cases and stands at 1,413 for the pandemic, with 76 over the past 14 days, while Orange County added 4 cases and stands at 793 cumulatively, with 57 cases in the past 14 days.
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Today and tomorrow, Dartmouth's Russian Department hosts an international gathering of scholars and researchers online for its... wait for it... Funny Dostoevsky Conference. "For decades," they write, "readers and critics have emphasized 'dark Dostoevsky' or 'heavy Dostoevsky,' in the process saddling Dostoevsky with the partially undeserved reputation of being one of the deepest, darkest, and most depressing writers of European modernity." Well, no more. Slapstick in Dostoevsky, laughter in Dostoevsky, insults in Dostoevsky... it all comes under the scholarly microscope. Kicks off at 10 am.
This evening and tomorrow at 7 pm, ArtisTree holds its third annual "2 Days in May" short playwriting festival. A panel of local theater people chose four scripts, which will be read (actually, they've already been filmed) by a set of local actors. The first-place script, Rowing, Onward, is by Dartmouth lecturer Eugenie Carabatsos. Tix are $5.
Meanwhile, today's the deadline to register for tomorrow's 10 am workshop at Billings Farm on beekeeping. Troy Hall, of Hall Apiaries in Plainfield, will talk over basic concepts, caring for hives, conservation methods, and how to plant and manage your land for the benefit of pollinators. You can either go in person or attend via Zoom. $10 for members, $15 for non-members.
Starting tomorrow and running for the next two Saturdays, Sustainable Hanover is hosting a free Demo Day for electric bicycles: one-hour test rides to check them out. It's part of Local Motion’s Upper Valley E-Bike Library program, hosted by local energy committees, so after Memorial Day, the bikes will move on to Sharon, Norwich, Lebanon, and nine other communities, winding up in New London in October. Schedule and reservations here.
Tomorrow at 4 pm, AVA Gallery hosts West Central Behavioral Health's Anna West and the Center for Integrative Health's Julie Puttgen for a talk on on art, art therapy, and mental health during the pandemic. It's part of a joint effort by AVA and West Central to mark Mental Health Awareness Month with a group exhibition, "Tethered by Light," which explores themes related to light, spirit, hope, community, isolation, and Covid-19 imposed isolation.
And tomorrow at 7 pm in Plainfield, former Claremont Opera House director Thom Wolke is throwing a concert featuring Guy Davis, singer-songwriter Joe D'Urso, and folksingers Daniel and Faith Senie. It's a "bon voyage" event: After two decades here, Thom's hitting the road come June in an RV, headed off to explore the folk/roots world across America. The concert will be in a large, open-walled, wedding-style tent on the ball field at the Plainfield end of Stage Road, just off Route 12A. Masks are required, and if you want a comfortable chair, you should bring it. Tix are $25, cash only, exact change encouraged. You can reserve at [email protected] or call 603-675-5454.
Finally, on Sunday at 6:30 pm, the Howe hosts Quechee photographer Lisa Lacasse for a talk on buying, flying, and photographing with drones. If you read Daybreak, you know that Lisa's work is featured here regularly; and if you buy postage stamps, you may have seen her photos of Vermont for the USPS's "Winter Scenes" series this past winter.
Pervis Staples died last week at the age of 85. He and his sisters, Mavis and Cleotha, were founding members of the Staple Singers (Yvonne joined later), led by their father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples, who'd migrated north from Mississippi and worked in a steel mill while their mother worked the night shift at a downtown Chicago hotel. To keep the kids busy when they were little, their dad had them sit in a circle and sing, and out of that came one of the great gospel and R&B groups of the 20th century.
(that's Pervis between his sisters). It's Friday. Turn it up loud.
Oh, and yeah:
Zero
Gravity. And "getting crazy."
See you Monday.
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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