GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, warmer. Oh, those winds from the south! We'll be getting up toward 70 today under mostly clear skies, with clouds not showing up until tonight as a cold front and winds arrive from the Great Lakes, bring the likelihood of rain tomorrow. Lows overnight around 50.And speaking of winds... Patricia Corrigan was on Main Street in old West Leb when a stiff breeze surged through the apple blossoms. Brief, but oh so picturesque.And by the way, that rain can't come too soon. Vermont has raised the fire danger level to Very High in a large swath of the state, including Orange County and the western parts of Windsor County; it remains High in the eastern towns of Windsor County."Renee was the nuclear core of our family, and then suddenly on Tuesday, the reactor melted down." Renee Manheimer, who lived in Norwich and taught Spanish at Crossroads Academy, died unexpectedly from a brain tumor last week. Seeking to capture his wife in words that wouldn't fit in a formal obituary, her husband Josh penned a love letter and sent it in to Daybreak. Renee grew up in Peru at a time of civil war, and "could see things others couldn’t because she had to learn how to read people to survive." But she also lived with passion and spirit. "She could eat the hottest pepper, the yellow habanero, raw like an apple," he begins. Read on at the link.After Randolph okays police budget, a look at what comes next. The money is enough to fund three officers, an administrative assistant, and 1,100 hours of part-time officer coverage, reports the Herald's Darren Marcy, but it's basically a stopgap as the town seeks a more permanent solution to its policing needs. A new committee appointed by the selectboard has just a few months to prep a proposal for town meeting next March. It's complicated, because the police district does not cover the whole town. “I’m not terribly optimistic we’re going to find a solution in the time we have," says board chair Trini Brassard.Woodstock expands incentives to landlords in neighboring towns as it tries to find workforce housing. Last year, the town's economic development commission—worried about increasingly out-of-reach real estate—created a program to pay landlords to build or refurbish rental units or convert short-term rentals to long-term. Now, reports VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein, it's being expanded to Bridgewater, Pomfret, Reading, and Hartland for tenants who work an average of at least 25 hours per week in Woodstock. “You just have to try everything and see what works,” says the commission's Jill Davies.SPONSORED: Summer weather predictions... and why is the setting sun so orange? Smoke from Canadian wildfires has made for some glorious sunsets in New England in recent weeks. But it’s also a reminder that hot, dry weather conditions and wildfires out West are creating a "new normal" that’s affecting our weather, too. Hit the maroon link to find out more about predicted above-average temps this summer, the odds of another El Niño effect, and how to take advantage of all that sunshine. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.Standard readies launch of new “What to Do and Where to Save" app for the Upper Valley. Technically, the Woodstock-based weekly's Do802, coming this summer, won't be an app, but a phone-friendly website aimed at both locals and visitors. It'll contain a "rolling log" of events, plus a page where businesses can list last-minute deals—say, a theater trying to fill unsold seats in the hours before showtime. “When people use Do802, and if a business participates in Do802, they’re actually supporting local journalism," says publisher Dan Cotter. "They’re helping us create revenue to keep our newspaper afloat."Facing complaints from neighbors, Hartford to consider closing Wilder Park & Ride. For years, nearby residents have fretted about what they say is illegal dumping, loitering, and drug use, though Hartford Police Chief Gregory Sheldon tells the Valley News's Patrick Adrian that many of those reports “are unfounded.” Still, on Tuesday, Adrian reports, Town Manager Gail Ostrout told the selectboard she recommends closing it, at least temporarily. “Currently the way the park and ride is being utilized is not safe for the community, and it’s not a good use of resources or the staff in the town,” she said.
Are you on a waitlist for child care in the Upper Valley? The show Brave Little State from Vermont Public wants to hear from you. They're currently reporting on this question from a listener named Julie: "I’m curious about the young families who are on waiting lists for child care: What decisions are they forced to make? How are they managing?" The folks at Brave Little State want to profile a family in the Upper Valley that's stuck waiting for child care and making tough trade-offs as a result. You can email the show or leave them a voicemail (802-552-4880) if interested.SPONSORED: Trumbull Hall Troupe 2023 open auditions are June 10th! Students in grades 6 through 12 by the fall of 2023 are eligible. Once you are in the Troupe, you are in until you age out or decide to leave. Cast members are guaranteed a spot in the show—and each show's auditions determine which role they’ll rock. Our 2023 show is Les Misérables - School Edition! To find out more and to sign up for an audition slot hit the burgundy link or go here. Sponsored by the Trumbull Hall Troupe.Rollin' and Strollin' Close to Home. Those are the trail options highlighted in a new guide created by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance's Kaitie Eddington, who writes, "While the hikes with views are beautiful and worth the hype, they can be quite strenuous. So I've made a list of hikes that are relatively flat and easy but connect you to nature that is just as beautiful! Some are wheelchair and stroller accessible so this one is something for every user." From Lyme to Plainfield and Wilder to Woodstock, you'll find plenty of suggestions.Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, how did Canaan's Great Fire of 1923 start? And where was that accused ValleyNet embezzler found? And how long does it take Fairlee's Broken Hearts Burger to prep French fries? Those and other questions at the link.But wait! How closely were you following VT and NH?
Because Seven Days wants to know if you know who's the longtime TV host who announced plans to step down this week?
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, which seafood staple is seeing severe overfishing off the East Coast?
By five votes, NH House sets aside parental rights bill. The vote to postpone the measure indefinitely—meaning it can't come up again this year or next—was 195-190, reports the Globe's Steven Porter (here via MSN), with two Republicans joining Democrats against it. The bill would have required schools to give information about a child’s gender identity to their parents, if requested. Democrats celebrated the result; Republicans excoriated it. "Parents will have to continue to accept that school is a mysterious and secretive black box where they deposit their children," said GOP leader Jason Osborne.Federal judge rules NH must stop ER boarding of psychiatric patients in a year. The ruling by district court judge Landya McCafferty in the case brought by hospitals around the state came despite the state's argument that it needed at least two years to build a stronger mental health system. She had previously ruled that holding involuntarily admitted patients in emergency rooms constituted an illegal seizure of hospital property. On Wednesday, reports NHPR, 34 adults were waiting in emergency rooms for mental health treatment, while 37 beds "were unavailable due to renovations or staffing constraints."With survival suits, 60 pounds of instruments, and sometimes a long portage with a 40-pound canoe, two women monitor the health of more than 70 Vermont lakes. And they've only got a relatively short span during the spring to do it in, writes Rachel Hellman in Seven Days, since spring thaw "acts as a sort of blender mixing up lake sediments," which soon settle. Biologists Leslie Matthews, 61, and Kellie Merrell, 52, have been working together for the state's Agency of Natural Resources for a dozen years, and Hellman profiles them, their work, and their accomplishments. "We have the responsibility of protecting some of the best remaining waters in the nation," says Merrell.It's a little too soon to tell yet what Wednesday night's frost did to fruit crops in VT, but farmers are wary. “There is definitely damage out there, but it will take some time to assess the extent,” UVM Extension Vegetable and Berry Specialist Vern Grubinger tells Vermont Public's Howard Weiss-Tisman. “Once we see black centers of strawberry flowers, and browned blueberry flowers, that’s a bummer.” Temps dropped into the 20s for hours overnight."If you come to work with Ring Dings and Red Bull and you get heat exhaustion... you're violating our policies.” Paving season in VT is short, so crews cram in as much as they can over the summer. But summer is hot. In Seven Days, Carolyn Shapiro speaks with Heidi and Jeff LaRouche, who own Four Seasons Traffic Control in Poultney, about keeping their flaggers safe. “Our policies are you must bring water and Gatorade, nutritious food, fruit, vegetables, sandwiches, trail mix," says Jeff LaRouche. The three-year-old company actively works to hire women and people from underemployed groups—those with autism, vets, retirees, and first-time job seekers.You might even enjoy standing in line, or on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. Most post offices are utilitarian structures hardly known for their atmosphere, but some are stunners. In Architectural Digest, Katherine McLaughlin looks at 11 buildings around the world that are far more than a place to mail a package. Some, like the neoclassical central post office in Kolkata, India, have been in use for 150 years, processing mail for the 13 million residents of the city. In Bonn, Germany, a former palace, with Beethoven standing guard, was the main post office until 2008. The architect for the Winslow, AZ adobe post office also designed the FDR presidential library in NY State.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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Today at 4, the Enfield Public Library hosts author Annie Hartnett, who'll be talking about her two books, 2017's Rabbit Cake and last year's Unlikely Animals. That novel is set in a fictional version of the Upper Valley and in particular the New Hampshire town of Everton, and narrated by a chorus of the dead residents of the Maple Street Cemetery—a setting Hartnett began pondering when she lived for a time in a cemetery groundskeeper's house. The book weaves together the opioid crisis, boomerang children, healing powers, Corbin Park (the local hunting preserve for millionaires)—and the ghost of real-life naturalist Ernest Harold Baynes, who lived in Meriden.
From 5 to 7 today, the Norwich Historical Society throws an opening reception for "Becoming Norwich," its new exhibit of cartoonist Emily Zea's illustrated history of the town and the artifacts, portraits, photographs, and archives she drew from to create her expansive but highly detailed work.
This evening at 6:30, the Friends of the Dunbar Free Library in Grantham host a panel on local news—where it stands now and where it's headed—with three people who make it their daily job to think about such issues: Matt Clary, editor of the Valley News; Dana Wormald, editor-in-chief of the New Hampshire Bulletin; and me, Rob Gurwitt, writer and publisher of Daybreak. It starts with some brief talks by each of us, then opens into a Q&A. The Friends will hold their annual meeting afterward. In the lower level of Grantham Town Hall.
Starting at 7 this evening and running until late, JAM in WRJ offers a chance you may never get again: a “Night of Poetry & Black Music” that celebrates the release of poet and Dartmouth professor Vievee Francis's new collection, The Shared World, and brings Steven Johnson, CEO of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation and grandson of blues legend Robert Johnson, up from Mississippi to play with a local band made up of Kit Creeger, Doc Winslow, Steve Drebber, David Westphalen, and Jakob Breitbach. Plus an early peek at Samantha Davidson Green's film-in-progress, I Believe I’ll Go Back Home, which documents a missing chapter in Robert Johnson's life. And bbq from Wicked Awesome, all followed by a dance party.
Also at 7 this evening, the Norwich Bookstore hosts writer Megan Baxter reading from and talking about her forthcoming collection of personal essays, Twenty Square Feet of Skin. You may remember Baxter's 2021 memoir, Farm Girl, which was partly about her time working at Cedar Circle Farm. Now Baxter, who teaches at Colby-Sawyer and owns a small organic farm, is writing about the human body—tattoos, running, weight—and what the publisher's blurb calls "the beauty and peril of physicality."
Meanwhile, at 7:30 tonight, Zach Nugent's Dead Set takes the stage at the Lebanon Opera House to recreate, song for song, the set list from the Grateful Dead's May 5, 1978 appearance at Darmouth's Thompson Arena—their only NH concert, which was part of Green Key weekend. The whole thing, from Promised Land to a Werewolves of London encore. You've got two seating options: a general admission ticket at ground level, where you can groove as you choose, or assigned seats in the balcony, of which a few remain.
Also at 7:30, Court Street Arts in Haverhill hosts a CD release party for The Rough and Tumble, the "dumpster-folk/thriftstore Americana duo" of Mallory Graham and Scott Tyler. They're on tour celebrating their new album, Only This Far—MA last night, at home in Haverhill tonight, ME tomorrow night...—and will be joined by VT singer-songwriter Alex Smith. Food and drink at the Bailiff's Café and a set list that includes all their new songs.
Tomorrow morning at 5:30 (not a typo), naturalist and writer Ted Levin and ornithologist and conservation biologist Tom Sherry, who moved to Hartford last year after retiring from Tulane University, will lead a bird walk in the Hartford Town Forest. Sherry began his career as a Dartmouth post-doc who focused on bird communities in the Hubbard Brook experimental station in the Whites. As the two write, "Spring is the season of profound change: warm weather, black flies, wildflowers, chorusing frogs, and the arrival of birds from the Neotropics, whose patterned yellows, blacks, oranges, reds, greens, and blues would make Benjamin Moore jealous." No need to register: Just meet in the Town Forest trailhead parking area at the end of Reservoir Road (hit the Directions tab at the link).
Tomorrow from 9 am to 6 pm, the area around Colburn Park in Lebanon will fill with music as Upper Valley Music Center presents its 2023 Sing & Play Festival. Recitals at UVMC and the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, a busking tent by Lucky's, jams in Colburn Park, choral singing, a family dance, and a whole lot more. Sunday at 3, there's a Suzuki showcase concert at LOH.
At 3 pm tomorrow, the Norman Williams Public Library hosts Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Tillie Walden for a talk about cartooning, her own work, graphic novels, and more. The Yankee Bookshop will be on hand with copies of her books.
And at 5 tomorrow, AVA Gallery—in conjunction with West Central Behavioral Health—hosts a reception for the multi-artist exhibit An Assemblage of Breaths, in support of mental health awareness. Includes a performance by the poet troubadours of Los Lorcas.
And at 7:30 tomorrow night, the Lebanon Opera House brings in comedian, actor, television writer, author, and musician Paul Reiser—yeah, that Paul Reiser: Diner, Mad About You, Reboot, Stranger Things, The Kominsky Method... He'll be joined by singer-songwriter Vance Gilbert. "I'm preparing to do a comedy special on Showtime for the first time in 32 years," he told the VT Standard last week, "so playing these theaters and opera houses is a terrific way to dust off the comedy chops." So you get to see him before the rest of the country does. There are still some seats left.
Also at 7:30 tomorrow, the Chandler in Randolph presents the Villalobos Brothers at the start of their weeklong residency around the Upper Valley. The classically trained brothers joyously blend Mexican folk with jazz and classical music, which helps explain why they've performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the Latin Grammys, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and Harlem's Apollo Theater. Later this week, BarnArts hosts the band for school residency stops at Sharon Academy, Woodstock Union, Hanover's Ray School, and elsewhere.
Sunday morning, Bradford Rec's "Dayhike and Dine" monthly series of climb-then-eat outings will tackle Moose Mountain's South Peak in Etna—then repair to Jesse's in Hanover to trade trail stories. Meet up at the Bradford Park & Ride at 10 a.m. or at about 10:35 a.m. at Trumbull Hall in Etna (195 Etna Rd).
And from 4-7 pm on Sunday, Community Care of Lyme hosts a conversation, "Mental Health & Suicide" with a variety of mental health professionals. They'll dive into why we need to talk about it, the breadth of the growing problem in VT and NH, signs to look for, resources for support, and more. At the Lyme School.
Now, to take us into the weekend...
It's just got to be the Villalobos Brothers,
. Dare you to try sitting still.
Stay dry tomorrow, get out 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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