GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Heads up: No Daybreak Monday. But back as usual on Tuesday.Warmer, but cloudier. As the high pressure of the last few days moves off, moisture will flow into the region. So, tonight, will "the decaying remnants" of a storm system off to our west. The result: clouds moving in over the course of the day, and if we see rain at all it won't be until tonight. Highs today in the low or mid 80s, winds from the southwest. Down tonight only to about 60.Seeing things in a different light. If it's been a while since you checked out the "Daybreak Where You Are" album, it's worth a visit. Of course, we're stretching the definition of "daybreak" to include sunset, because it's just as colorful and what's the point of writing a newsletter if you don't get to take the occasional liberty with words. You'll find recent photos of Lake Fairlee, Wilson's Landing, Lake Champlain, and elsewhere.Auk. Eddie. Giant slingshot. What could go wrong? Also, Wally and Lydia get an idea of how Impressionism came about. It's Lost Woods, Week 29, and writer and illustrator DB Johnson chronicles a week of the Lost Woods crew's doings: Scroll right to see what happens next or left to catch up on previous weeks. If you've missed a week (or more), check out the archive and synopsis behind the three little parallel lines at the top right.That message-in-a-bottle kid? He's from Royalton. In fact, Sean Smith, along with his sibs and cousins, threw eight different bottles into the ocean in Rhode Island at Thanksgiving three years ago. But he'd lost the password to the email he included, reports Jasmine Taudvin in the Valley News, and so didn't learn it had been found by a boy roughly his age in the Azores until he saw it in his news feed. “I was like, ‘Wait, what?’” he tells Taudvin. “I was pretty shocked because I had completely forgotten that we had done it.”SPONSORED: See local artists at work at Long River Gallery. It's Open Studio Weekend, and on Saturday from 10-6 and Sunday 10-4, Long River Gallery will feature live demonstrations by local artists: Betsy Derrick will be demonstrating painting with pastels, Sharin Luti will be showing us two beadwork techniques, and Tracy Gillespie will be presenting a block printing demo. For specific times and details, visit the maroon link above. Long River Gallery is at 49 S. Main Street in WRJ. Masks not required if vaccinated.Dartmouth extends property-value protection program for houses affected by Rennie Farm contamination. The program, originally put in place in 2017, offers payment to property owners whose groundwater was tainted by runoff from the farm used by the college from the mid-'60s to 1978 for disposing of animal remains used in medical research. The college has been cleaning up and monitoring the water over the last few years, and under the "Value Assurance Program" either buys an affected property or pays the difference between an offer and fair market value. It will now last to 2027."We're starting to see a return to roots and a return to that cultural wisdom." Wangene Hall is the director of marketing at Global Village Foods in Windsor and the daughter of founders Mel and Damaris Hall. She's also involved with the Vermont Releaf Collective, a BIPOC collective of farmers, entrepreneurs, and others connected to food who offer resources to people who are starting out. She talks to VPR's Mary Engisch about that effort, why it's needed, and why starting small—"that homegrown, that grassroots way of gardening, of farming, of building businesses," as she puts it—matters."I call it 'body Tetris.' My brain works in shapes..." Which is a good thing, because Nancy Heyl has to call on that skill a lot at Nancy the Girl, the vintage clothing and fashion shop she's opened in the Tip Top Building in WRJ. In Junction mag, Courtney Cook talks to her about costume design, her stint tailoring and styling members of NYC's drag scene, what she learned working at Revolution, and discovering personal style. "If you don’t feel comfortable to try things—to experiment—to stand in front of a mirror and talk over a look with someone—you can’t figure out what you like," Heyl says.
Hiking close to home: the Montshire trails. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance points out that the Montshire Museum not only has its hands-on learning exhibits, but also a network of trails made for all ages and abilities. There are views of the Connecticut along the river loop, a three-mile round-trip hike from Sun to the Kuiper Belt on the Planet Walk, and a variety of short adventures all around. One note: admission to the museum required for use. A step at a time leads to one road at a time. For the last 15 years, Paulette Staats and her husband, Paul Shriver, have been walking Vermont's dirt roads. Using the DeLorme Atlas, the Braintree couple scopes out a route—they've strolled roads in Sharon, Randolph, Goshen, Pomfret, Barnard, and beyond, writes Erica Houskeeper on her Happy Vermont blog—and set off. “Sometimes on these walks you get the feeling when you look around and listen and hear what it must have been like 100 or 150 years ago,” Paul says. “You don’t hear any sounds of machinery, and you don’t see a whole lot of traffic."Should your school system offer summer classes to help students catch up? That's the "big question" in this week's We The People news quiz—though there are plenty of others, like what kind of outbreak is infesting the Twin States this summer and why are there going to be traffic delays on 12A. Meanwhile, interestingly, nearly 60 percent of the 500 respondents last week think Upper Valley restaurants should require their patrons to be vaccinated if eating indoors. Only 26 percent reject the idea.Liberty Utilities says it's the effort that counts, to the tune of $7.5 million. Over the years, the company spent $9.1 million pushing the Granite Bridge pipeline project, only to withdraw it in the face of steadfast opposition. Now, reports NH Bulletin's Amanda Gokee, it's asking the Public Utilities Commission to allow it to recoup $7.5 million of that because it got better rates from an alternative deal as a result of its due diligence. State consumer advocate Don Kreis says state law is clear: If a project isn't completed, consumers don't have to pay for it. "You can’t put it into rates, period,” he says.Sununu signals he supports budget. “There’s a lot of good stuff in there,” NH's governor told a press conference yesterday, pointing to business tax cuts and spending on local aid, NHPR reports. He reiterated that he wouldn't veto the budget over a ban on abortions without exception after 24 weeks or a requirement that women seeking an abortion get an ultrasound. And he said that he expects the state Education Dept. to provide guidance to teachers on the budget's "divisive concepts" language. Small clinics helped VT reach 80 percent. In its bid to make Covid vaccination as easy as possible, the state offered no-appointment clinics at unusual locations, including racetracks, farmers’ markets, and transfer stations, reports the AP's Wilson Ring. “They and the people staffing them were critical to our ability to meet people where they are,” Ben Truman, a spokesman for the Vermont Health Department, tells him. And they're still around: As mass vaccination sites wind down, walk-in clinics at pharmacies and physicians' offices will carry on.Three words, Free Press: Main. Street. Museum. In the Burlington Free Press, Ella Ruehsen has a quick guide to "Five of Vermont's strangest museums for your next road trip." Why she didn't think to send people to WRJ's North Star of idiosyncrasy is inexplicable, but still, there are some good ideas in there: the Museum of Everyday Life, of course, but also Dog Mountain, the Snowflake Bentley Museum in Jericho, the Estey Organ Museum, and the Dollhouse and Toy Museum in Bennington.What was the point of a woman her age? That's a question that a middle-aged Rosie Monroe, the protagonist of Melanie Finn's much-lauded latest novel, The Hare, asks herself in front of a mirror. In the most recent episode of her podcast, Author, Can I Ask You?, writer Joni Cole asks Finn, who lives in northern VT, about that scene and how it came about. "As I careened into my own menopause, where everything changes in your body in a way that society tells you isn't good," Finn responds, "what do you do with that?" Her answer is Rosie, and her "trajectory away from being captive to that idea of womanhood."So, just how fast could you roller skate with a jet engine on your back? Let's say you've got some engineering chops and for some misbegotten reason are taken with the idea of strapping a jet engine to your back and skates to your feet... but you're not that great a skater. What do you do? First, try it yourself. Then enlist some local roller derby players, of course! By day, Ian Charnas directs the Sears think[box], the large "Makerspace and Innovation Center" at Case Western Reserve. But he also does stuff like this. Can we just agree that any stunt requiring fireproof underwear is better watched than attempted?
Last numbers for the week.
NH reported 30 new cases yesterday, bringing it to an official total of 99,225. There were 2 new deaths, which stand at 1,366, while 17 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 1). The current active caseload is at 265 (down 4). The state reports 6 active cases in Grafton County (up 1), 19 in Sullivan (down 2), and 22 in Merrimack (down 2). In town-by-town numbers reported by the state, Claremont has 6 (down 1) and Unity has 5 (no change). Canaan, Lebanon, Cornish, Croydon, Newport, and Charlestown have 1-4 each. Sunapee and Newbury, are off the list.
VT reported 9 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 24,357. There were no new deaths, which remain at 256, while 4 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 2). Windsor County added 3 new cases and stands at 1,509 for the pandemic, with 30 over the previous 14 days, while Orange County added no cases and remains at 822 cumulatively, with 8 over the previous two weeks.
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Today at 11:45 am, Dartmouth's Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement launches a two-day, online public dialogue, "The Future of Humanity: Scientific and Humanistic Perspectives." Moderated by Marcelo Gleiser, it brings together a constellation of prominent speakers, including writer and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, philosopher John Haldane, New Yorker writers Sue Halpern and Elizabeth Kolbert, writer and climate activist Bill McKibben, writer Terry Tempest Williams, astronomer Martin Rees, ethicist Peter Singer, sci fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson...
And from 5 to 7 pm, it's the opening reception for AVA Gallery's new group exhibition, "all roads narrow at the border." A collection of work by artists around the region, from both sides of the river, on themes relating to fences, boundaries, barriers, migration, immigration, and freedom.
This evening at 7, Virtual Abenaki Heritage Weekend continues with an interview with Warner, NH basketmaker Sherry Gould, the first Native American basket maker juried into the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. She apprenticed with National Heritage fellow Newt Washburn, learning to identify, harvest, process, and weave brown ash into utilitarian baskets, and with fancy basket maker Jeanne Brink.
And if you feel like hitting the road, how could you turn down a chance to go see The Flyin' Hawaiian? Sara Kunz, acrobat, hula hooper, and contortionist will be at the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro, VT, starting at 6:30—both on the ground and, by the end, 15 feet in the air.
Starting at 11 am tomorrow, the Newport NH Nano Brewfest returns after a year's hiatus. Breweries include Croydon's Polyculture Brewing, Twin Barns Brewing, Swift Current, Hoptimystic, and others. Individual tix are $40, and you'll want to order online, because they're going fast.
Tomorrow from noon to 2 pm, AVA is hosting a Juneteenth celebration with spoken-word poet Zachary Price (who also works at Dartmouth's Thayer School); storyteller, poet, and former circus performer William Forchion; Goddard College storyteller, writer, and poet Gale Jackson; musical entertainment from The Original DJ Skar; and various visual artists. It will be both in-person at AVA and streamed.
Also at noon, Bethel will hold its first Juneteenth celebration at the bandstand. There'll be food for sale from Jenna's Side Street Grill, guest speakers, DJ Joseph Smith, and live performances.
And from 3:30 to 6 pm tomorrow it's Hartford's big Juneteenth celebration at Lyman Point Park (you can also find a livestream here), put on by the town's Committee on Racial Equity and Inclusion. There will be a host of speakers, including US Rep. Peter Welch; the Tuck School's assistant dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, Dia Draper; Maggi Ibrahim (Hartford School District's new Equity and Diversity Officer); state Rep. and school board chair Coach Kevin Christie; and Curtiss Reed of the VT Partnership for Fairness and Diversity. There will also be a dramatic reading from Northern Stage and a performance from Jag Productions. The celebration will go on rain or shine.
A bit farther afield, tomorrow at 6:30 pm (and again Sunday at 4 pm), the NH Master Chorale joins forces with the Pemigewasset Choral Society for a concert of largely river-focused music at Riverfront Park in Plymouth, NH. The centerpiece of the Master Chorale's performance will be the world premiere of Michael Bussewitz-Quarm's Windshear, commissioned last year and sung mostly in Abenaki.
Finally, in case you didn't make it over to Trails & Trucks at River Park in West Leb last week, the regular Sunday gathering of food trucks is back, starting at 10:30.
You don't to find repeats in this spot, and strictly speaking, this isn't. Still... A couple of weeks ago, Daybreak linked to Jon Batiste's new song, "Freedom," as he performed it on James Corden. Then, last week, he dropped this: same song, but on the streets of New Orleans with a crowd. Unstoppable, and with such a get-ready-for-the-weekend vibe it's just got to be here now.Have a terrific weekend! See you Tuesday.
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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