GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Heads up: No Daybreak Monday. Back in your inbox as usual Tuesday morning.Sunny, warm—but not as warm. With cooler air making its way into the region today, everything's falling: temperatures and dew points (ie, it's going to be less muggy). So while there'll be plenty of sun today, highs will be around 80. Temps will then drop back into good-sleeping-weather territory, in the mid 40s overnight. Winds today from the west, could get gusty in the afternoon.Time to be on the water. You'll feel it even more strongly after seeing this: Peter Bloch was out on Grafton Pond one evening a couple of weeks ago and created this languid, drifting tour of the golden hour there.After E. Randolph dog-shooting, neighbor cited for animal cruelty, owner to get warning. You'll remember that a few weeks ago, John Brown shot a husky named Halo for attacking his chickens. Following up, the Herald's Darren Marcy reports that Brown has been cited by VT Fish & Wildlife and the case forwarded to the Orange County state’s attorney’s office. Halo's owner, Janice Lyman, may get a town-issued warning for having a dog run loose. “I have a right to protect my damn chickens,” Brown tells Marcy. Lyman says a warning would add "insult to injury.” Halo's ashes now sit on her nightstand.“The release of a healed bird into the wild offers a kind of hope..." That's the new executive director of VINS, Alden Smith, talking to the Standard's Tom Ayres. In a profile, Ayres writes that Smith, who headed the Mountain School for two decades, has spent a good bit of his first two months talking to staff, working with former director Charlie Rattigan, and learning about the grueling work Rattigan and his team undertook to bring VINS back from financial straits a decade ago. As for the future, he's embraced a plan for an exhibit for infants and toddlers, offering "exposure to the natural world at the earliest stages."VT shuts down Fairlee-Orford July 4 parade. As you know, I-91 between Bradford and Fairlee is closed for the summer, with traffic detoured along Route 5, and closing Fairlee's Main Street for the annual parade, writes Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, is a step too far for VTrans. Given his experience after a truck accident shut things down the first day of the detour, Fairlee Police Chief Wayne Briggs says, he can see the state's point: “Shutting down Route 5 on a holiday for a half hour, 45 minutes, with a parade, I estimate we would have traffic backed up to Bradford easily." Fairlee's fireworks will still go on.SPONSORED: Don’t miss out on incredible savings! Pompanoosuc Mills' Memorial Day Sale is ending soon—just one week left! Save up to 30% on all new orders and up to 50% off in-stock pieces. This is your last chance to upgrade to timeless, sustainable, forever furniture while enjoying our biggest sale of the year. Join us in fighting the 66 million pounds of furniture discarded daily in America. Visit our Upper Valley showrooms in Hanover and Thetford before May 31st. Celebrate over 50 years of investing in Fewer, Better things this Memorial Day! Sponsored by Pompanoosuc Mills.Strafford man who burned down cabin pleads guilty, released from prison. Edward Gallagher was arrested last September after showing up at Coburn's Store after he'd set the cabin where he was living on fire. He'd called police more than two dozen times the night before, saying he intended to torchi his home as a “distress signal.” In the VN, John Lippman reports that prosecutors designed a suspended sentence with an eye on his mental health issues. "I didn’t think a two-year minimum on a probated sentence would have served anybody’s interest in justice," says the Orange County state's attorney.Construction begins in mid-June on Dartmouth geo-exchange system. That's the heating and cooling system aimed at shifting the college off fossil fuels, part of its big decarbonization initiative. The communications office explains the technology—it's extremely slick, but there's not enough room here—and what's ahead: installing piping and conduits beneath specific roads, sidewalks, and pathways; digging holes for underground vaults that will contain valves for the hot water system; and more. They outline the street-by-street plans and a rough schedule. Work starts June 17, updates will be here.As "Hometown Heroes" backers get impatient, Hartford Selectboard puts off banner policy decision. The board had hoped to put a policy in place last week setting general rules for banners that would be hung around town, following a request by a citizens group to put up a dozen vinyl banners honoring veterans and first responders from Hartford. But the VN's Patrick Adrian reports that some board members are concerned about potential litigation and controversy by allowing banners in the first place. The Hometown Heroes group had hoped for banners by Memorial Day; the board now hopes to finalize a policy at a June 4 meeting.You’re invited to “a very fancy summer resort.” At its peak, the Lake Tarleton Club in East Piermont (aka Pike), was “one of the grandest resorts of its time,” writes Susan Apel in Artful. The Jacobs family bought the former tavern and stagecoach stop in 1937 and spun it into a “lazyman’s paradise,” complete with golf course, bridle paths, and an airplane landing field. The town’s historical society will celebrate the resort, which closed in 1969, over the next two weekends with self-guided tours and stories from former staff who catered to the stars, entertainers, and politicians who summered there.At the Briggs, snappy punchlines, laugh-rousing pranks turn to "emotional potency." This is the final weekend of Shaker Bridge Theatre's production of Ripcord, and in a VN review, Marion Umpleby writes that David Lindsay-Abaire's play and Peggy Cosgrave and Marina Re as roommates in an assisted living facility spark "waves of laughter"—at least, in the first half. Their characters, angling for better space, devise a competition that starts out light-heartedly but morpshs as they "start to probe each other’s pasts for the pressure point that will lead to victory" and explore the lengths they will go.
Hiking Close to Home: the Bear Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, Hebron, NH. The 1.6-mile out-and-back Bear Mountain Trail is on an expansive 73-acre property on the north side of Bear Mountain in Hebron, says the Upper Valley Trails Alliance in this week's recommendation. The trail leads to the highest point in the sanctuary, with views of Newfound Lake through the treetops one way and of Mt. Cardigan the other; on the way, it passes through mixed hardwood forest and a variety of terrain. Parking is on Cross Road, just north of the trailhead on West Shore Road in Hebron.Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, how many bridges has Royalton had to close this spring? And in which NH town did the state's Cold Case Unit search a property this week in connection with decades-old murders? 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 what a new state regulation limits to just 30 Vermont lakes and ponds.
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, what kind of near-statewide advisories did NH officials issue earlier this week?
Under new NH state law, a ballot may no longer be secret. It's only in rare circumstances and it's happened just twice, but NHPR's Todd Bookman reports that in two cases this year, 18-year-olds who ran afoul of the state's new provisional ballot law—they didn't bring legal ID to the polling place, and then didn't provide it to officials within seven days—could not only be identified, but so could their voting choices. The law's in court—advocates opposed it for this very reason—but a bill in the legislature may make it obsolete by requiring a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers to register to vote.Hot tempers on NH House floor after lawmakers revive background check bill. And that was just among Republicans. The bill, which would add some mental health records to gun background checks, had been thought dead after the Senate tabled it last week. But yesterday, a coalition of Democrats and about three dozen Republicans attached it to a bill to help fund a new prison and sent it back to the Senate. Afterward, reports NH Bulletin's Annmarie Timmins, the bill's sponsor challenged a fellow Republican for calling him a liar; that's when things got stormy, and the House took a recess.A veto and a signature from Phil Scott.
Yesterday's veto had been expected: Vermont's governor rejected a move to update the state’s renewable energy law by requiring utilities to sell electricity from only renewable sources by 2035. Though the bill had the support of utilities, many businesses, and advocacy groups, reports Seven Days' Kevin McCallum, Scott contended the measure would boost utility bills by “hundreds of millions of dollars." McCallum notes that that amount would be spread over a decade: "The total cost for a typical household by 2035 would be between $3.50 and $13.50 per month," he writes. Advocates are urging the legislature to override the veto.
Meanwhile, Scott yesterday signed the state's $8.6 billion budget into law.VTDigger's Sarah Mearhoff writes, "State budget writers largely stayed within the confines of the budget that Scott proposed to lawmakers in January, only exceeding his bottom line by roughly a quarter of a percentage point."
Hair-raising footage from the top of the world. The first time Daybreak ran an item not from around here, it was a photo of an insanely long line of climbers waiting to summit Mt. Everest. Now there's footage from Tuesday, when the weight of an insanely long line of climbers caused a cornice just shy of the summit to collapse: six people plunged downward, though four were roped in and were able to climb back; two disappeared and haven't been found. Nepali guide Vinayak Malla has posted footage of the moments just before and just after, though not the collapse itself. Use the right and left arrows to navigate.
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At 5:30 pm today (and again tomorrow, same time), the ensemble—which includes students, faculty, and staff—will premiere a set of new works, including by tap choreographer Jessica Volan Trout-Haney, set to music by a variety of contemporary artists. In the Irving Institute atrium. Today's performance followed by a Q&A.
. At Still North Books & Bar, lifestyle blogger Dzafic and her husband and gardener, Anel, will talk about their new book of vegetable-forward recipes—which also offers tips for growing and using each type of produce that goes into them.
The recent film by Greg Kwedar features Colman Domingo (Bayard Rustin in
Rustin
) and an ensemble cast of professional actors and alumni of Sing Sing prison's Rehabilitation Through the Arts program as it follows a prison theater group, its two leaders, the struggles of new recruit Divine Eye (played by himself), and others. 7 pm at the Loew.
No, not a salon lovefest, but a 7:30 pm concert sponsored by the Barbershop Harmony Society and Pentangle Arts, featuring the North Country Chordsmen, the VoxStars a cappella group, and several barbershop quartets. At Woodstock Town Hall Theater.
Also at 7:30, Parish Players launches its weekend of staged readings of Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic.
Kaminsky is a Ukrainian-American poet, and his
Deaf Republic
cycle of poems "shows what happens when the town of Vasenka suffers a military occupation and its citizens defy the authorities with ruse and resolve." Directed by Ulrike von Moltke, produced by Jim Schley, with set and puppets designed by Ria Blaas. Also at 7:30 tomorrow, and at 3 pm Sunday.
JAM presents WRJOLLYWOOD ("pronounce the J like it's Spanish," they say) in Ratcliffe Park this evening starting at 8:15. That's the park off Latham Works Lane. Films by Chico Eastridge, Kai Hamalainen, Jordyn Fitch, Cedar O'Dowd, and others. At JAM if it rains.
The four-piece funk band from Albany—brothers Stephen & Reid Perry, and their friends Aris Nieuwkerk and Dave Klang—sold out Sawtooth last October. Now they're back for more.
Saturday
It runs from 10 am to 5 pm both tomorrow and Sunday, Fiber arts demonstrations, border collie herding demonstrations, sheep education, classes on making sheep's milk ricotta, plus sheep's milk cheese samples, Woodstock Pizza Chef slices, ice cream, and more. Oh, and Story Time with a Sheep at 10:30 each morning.
It's at both 4 pm and 8 pm tomorrow in the Hanover Inn Ballroom. Led by Taylor Ho Bynum, it highlights solos by members of the classes of '23 and '24, with works by Sammy Fain, John McLaughlin, Horace Silver, and several students.
Sunday
Things start off at 10 Sunday morning at the park's Forest Center, where VINS will offer first-hand encounter with falcons, hawks, and owls. Then national park staff lead a hike focused on learning birding skills. No cost but you'll need to sign up.
. "With sixteen wonderful years in White River Junction, it’s time to close our doors and step onto the stage one last time," they write, with excerpts from
Carnival of the Animals
and
Paquita
at the Lebanon Opera House, 2:30 pm and 6:30 pm on Sunday.
Memorial Day events
Things get started at 10:30 am on Saturday with Woodstock's Memorial Day parade, led by the Ora E. Paul American Legion Post 24. It starts on South Street at the elementary school and winds up at the Woodstock Courthouse.
Then at noon on Sunday, Norwich holds its parade, with American Legion Post 8 leading veterans and other groups in a parade, honors at the flagpole by Tracy Hall, and then a picnic on the green.
Most observances will be Monday morning, including parades in Randolph, Tunbridge, Claremont, Enfield, and Lebanon. Hartford's new WWI/WWII monument in Veterans Park (on Railroad Row) will get its dedication ceremony Monday at 1 pm. And there's also the annual Muster Day ceremony at the Hanover Center Parade Ground (includes an address by keynote speaker Bill Hammond and a musical performance by the Lyme Town Band) at 3 pm. The Valley News has pulled together a mostly comprehensive list of area observances.
Also Monday, though this isn't directly Memorial Day-related, the Piermont Historical Society holds the first of two events on the old Lake Tarleton Club (see above): a memorabilia exhibit opening at 1 pm and then, at 2 pm, a roundtable with former employees telling tales. On June 1, you can explore the property.
We're going to take things down a few notches as we head into the long weekend.
, by the Scandinavian trio Dreamers' Circus: Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, from Denmark's Faroe Islands; Ale Carr, from Sweden; and Nikolaj Busk from Denmark, on the picturesque shore of Denmark's largest limestone quarry.
Have a wonderful long weekend, whatever you do. 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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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