GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly sunny and a chance of showers north. One of those fine, keep-you-guessing northern New England days. Yesterday’s cold front slid into the region, set up just north of the border, and then overnight began working its way south. This is good news on the temperature front: We’ll see a mix of sun and clouds today, but highs will only be in the low 80s and the air should be less humid. Overnight lows in the upper 50s. And pretty much the same deal for the weekend (though heads up for heat on Monday).
One thing to note: Today is July 10, a date that saw major flooding last year and the two previous years. It’s New England so you never want to drop your guard, but maybe the spell’s been broken? On the other hand, last night a strong thunderstorm did knock down trees and powerlines around Lyndon and Burke, and caused a few hours of minor street flooding in Barre.
Loons slow and still. In both NH and VT.
“Being around loons is magical,” writes Peter Bloch about his latest video from somewhere in west-central NH, “and slowing things down seems to be a current theme for me.”
Meanwhile, up toward Newbury, photographer Ian Clark’s been checking in not just with the loons and herons he’s been following, but a pretty majestic bull moose.
On from strawberries to broccoli, zucchini, and more. “Did we in fact harvest three plantings of broccoli in fear of it bolting and turning soft and mushy due to high temps?” writes Edgewater Farm’s Jenny Sprague about last week’s harvesting frenzy. Apparently so, because the farm’s moved on from strawberries (though it’s “suddenly rich in raspberries”) to green things. This week, home chef Mitchell Davis checks in with recipes for Chilled Green Garden Soup (zucchini, cucumbers, basil or other herbs…) and for Chopped Broccoli Salad, which has the added bonus of a tablespoon of maple syrup. While you’re there, you can also check out last week’s recipes.
Tunbridge fire chief on new forest fire law: “I was not asked to volunteer for this. I was told I would be volunteering for this.” The problem, Chief Simon Bradford tells Sofia Langlois in the Valley News, is that a VT law that went into effect July 1 automatically makes every town’s fire chief a forest fire warden, with responsibility for issuing burn permits and handling related administrative tasks. "I’m just at my limit of the amount of time I have to donate,” Bradford—who runs a small business—says. He’s circulating a petition among fire chiefs to overturn the law. It’s less of an issue in larger towns, with full-time chiefs who may already have that role.
SPONSORED: Join the Hood Museum’s Docent Educator Team! Are you passionate about art and eager to inspire others? Join the Hood Museum of Art’s volunteer docent program. Lead engaging, interactive tours for K–12 students, adults, and community groups. No prior art experience needed—just your enthusiasm! As a docent, you’ll learn about diverse art forms, create meaningful learning experiences for visitors, connect with the community, and inspire others. Hit the burgundy link to learn more about our docent programs and to sign up for one of the free information sessions. Sponsored by the Hood Museum of Art.
In the works this summer: an all-Upper Valley feature film. That film is Valley Transit, written and directed by JAM’s Samantha Davidson Green and produced by Wei Dai. It’s a step in the evolution of the organization’s summer camps, with participants, staff, and others all focused on a single project: bringing to life Green’s script about “two strangers whose chance encounter on a local bus sparks an unlikely friendship,” as Emma Stanton writes in the Standard. The goal, in the end, is to create a film using local actors and locations that can make it to the festival circuit and theatrical/streaming release. Green and Dai talk about what’s involved, including the risks.
The Junction Dance Festival aims to fill “a little bit of a void for learning to dance in the Upper Valley.” The festival starts up today and runs through next Sunday, and will have performances, to be sure. But it will also have a lot of workshops, writes Marion Umpleby in the VN, in part as a reaction to the closing of several of the region’s dance schools. There’ll be workshops for kids, including breakdancing, and for adults in reggaeton and the Indian classical dance tradition bharatanatyam and the street dance known as waacking. Umpleby lays out what’s ahead, and talks to new TJDF director Calvin Walker, a Barre breakdancer who took over from founder Elizabeth Kurylo.
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In the dawn chorus, an early-morning parade. It actually starts at the birdfeeder, which naturalist Ted Levin had just refilled after a month in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Red-eyed vireos, tufted titmice, and robins hit the feeder at 4:59 am. Then, out in the woods and fields of WRJ’s Hurricane Hill, veeries, indigo buntings, song sparrows, “and the inventive, nonstop song of the grey catbird.” Eventually, he sights a broad-winged hawk, a pileated woodpecker, mourning doves, a common raven, red-bellied woodpeckers… 37 species in all. Plus, a bonus section on banana slugs, which don’t live around here but abound in the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
Hiking Close to Home: Shrewsbury Peak Trail, Shrewsbury, VT. This trail in Coolidge State Forest links the CCC Road with the summit of Shrewsbury Peak and the Long Trail, says the UVTA. Beginning at the Russell Hill/Pavilion parking area, it climbs Russell Hill, passes the shelter, dips into a gap, and then ascends first gradually and then steeply to the summit. Remnants of Civilian Conservation Corps-era construction are visible, including the pavilion chimney, wishing well, and Russell Hill lean-to. At the summit, views to the south and east from the peak include Plymsbury wetlands and Saltash Mountain. Continue along the ridge for access to the Long Trail.
Daybreak’s Upper Valley News Quiz. Were you paying attention this week? Because we’ve got questions! Like, which air carrier did respondents to a Lebanon survey prefer for a new contract at Leb Airport? And where, exactly, did that dove (exceedingly rare in these parts) show up last week? You’ll find those and more at the link. Meanwhile, here’s NHPR’s New Hampshire quiz, while Seven Days’ Vermont quiz is here.
NH Exec Council rejects proposed $100 million Bitcoin bond. The proposed municipal bond, which would have used Bitcoin as collateral, had been touted by Gov. Kelly Ayotte and the state’s Business Finance Authority as a “groundbreaking” move “that would help give [NH] an edge in attracting digital finance innovators,” writes the Globe’s Steven Porter (no paywall). But in a 3-2 vote Wednesday—with Democrat Karen Liot Hill and Republicans Janet Stevens and David Wheeler voting against it—the idea went down, largely based on their concern about the risks of an untried state-backed financing mechanism.
In VT, Phil Scott issues executive order aimed at pruning health insurance regulation. The move comes in the wake of his veto of a legislative effort to cut healthcare costs that had been aimed at public school employees and people buying insurance through the exchange. Scott argued it was too narrowly focused. On Wednesday, reports VTDigger’s Olivia Gieger, he rolled out a package of reforms aimed at helping young people and small businesses. One provision would let insurers price premiums partially based on age—and on a person’s tobacco use; another would make it easier for small businesses to form group insurance pools.
New Sweden: “the smallest, least-populated and shortest-lived European colony in the US.” The Dutch might get all the attention when it comes to the history of the Mid-Atlantic, but that’s not the whole story, reports the BBC’s Eliot Stein. An “under-the-radar” American colony called New Sweden had a short but notable run when, in the 1630s, a bitter, fired Dutch governor snuck a small band of Swedes into the Delaware Valley, where they set up a colony. Short indeed—just 1638 to 1655. But notable: The Swedes introduced the log cabin and Lutheran Christianity to the New World, and were “the only European colony in the US that never went to war against the Native people.”
The sapphire blossoms of Andromeda. Sounds like the title of a sci-fi novel, but it’s actually a photo: a deep-field image of the Andromeda Galaxy and its stellar nurseries. It’s one of the finalists in the Greenwich Observatory’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest, which is filled with eye-stopping photos. The path of a supermoon across Paris’s sky. A comet above the Swiss Alps. An otherworldly Slovenian landscape under a luminescent Milky Way. An aurora over a Utah reservoir. And a bunch more you won’t want to miss.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
You’ll find the Weekend Heads Up right here, with information on everything from The Prouty to The Junction Dance Festival to film screenings to lots and lots of music.
And for today...
Ella Hohnen-Ford, who just goes by Hohnen Ford when she performs, grew up in North London, went to the Royal Academy of Music, got into jazz piano, then into songwriting, and then into breathtaking and intimate performing. Her voice is arresting, and she knows how to make other people’s songs very much her own. Here’s her take on Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” written for Glen Campbell—”the first existential country song,” The Independent quipped when it came out in 1968.
Have a fine weekend! See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.
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