GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Heads up: No Daybreak Monday. Back as usual on Tuesday.Cold air damming. Apparently it's a bit unusual for this time of year (it being July and all), but that bit of atmospheric alignment is why temps east of the Greens today will remain on the cool side—mid-60s at best. Meanwhile, things will also be showery, and while the weather folks call that forecast "drab," here's guessing the soil and greenery don't agree. Cloudy, showers at least into the afternoon with a chance this evening; temps into the mid-50s tonight."I have a photogenic memory." It's Lost Woods, Week 31, and Henry and Lydia talk swamp painting while Henry makes use of a portable bug zapper. As he does every week in this spot, writer and illustrator DB Johnson chronicles the Lost Woods crew's doings: Scroll right to move on to the next panel 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. Dark whisperings on Bow Lake. You remember the video of the eaglet and little red-tailed hawk? There's a back-story! Turns out reader PW's got a friend, Steve, whose family has had a home on the lake for 50 years. "That nest went through a big change last year," Steve writes. "A young male showed up, killed the old male (as young eagle males do) and took over the old female and her nest. Now, he’s all woke adopting a hawk baby, but on the lake we all know he’s a killer." (Thanks, PW!)And speaking of baby raptors... Liz Blanchfield and Bridge McDowell built a kestrel nesting box in the spring after watching a Zoom program from VINS. Recently, Liz writes, they checked inside...to find three newly hatched kestrelings. SPONSORED: It's hot now...and it's only getting hotter. Will your home stand up to global warming? Two early-season heat waves here—and a record-smashing one out West—are the start of a “new normal,” with heat waves becoming more frequent, widespread, and severe. If Portland, OR can record a higher all-time temperature than Dallas or New Orleans, might we be next? By going solar and installing highly efficient heat pumps, you’ll be helping to fight global warming—and stay cool doing it! Check out the maroon link for more ideas on how to beat the heat. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy. Winds in Quechee reached 70-80 mph. That's hurricane-strength, which would explain why some 100 trees in the woods around Marsh Family Road and Davenport Lane came down in Wednesday afternoon's thunderstorm. The Weather Service called that part of Hartford "ground zero" for the storm, reports the Valley News's Anna Merriman. Other areas suffered, too: downed trees and power lines in Hartland, trees down on houses around Trues Brook Road in Lebanon. Most—but not all—power outages, Merriman writes, had been resolved by yesterday afternoon.“Everyone’s trying to understand how to interpret this thing." That's Lebanon City Manager Shaun Mulholland, talking about the so-called "divisive concepts" measure enacted as part of the NH state budget. A legal review commissioned by the city has raised questions about whether discussions that would be part of the city's proposed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission could conflict with the law, reports the VN's Tim Camerato. In a statement, NH AG John Formella said the law doesn’t block the creation of the commission or bar members from carrying out its duties and responsibilities.$33K gender pay gap for professors at Dartmouth "one of the largest" among peer institutions. At Harvard, reports The Dartmouth's Andrew Sasser, the difference between what male and female professors earn on average is $13K; at Yale it's $16K. In response, college spokesperson Diana Lawrence writes that a recent study for the college found the gap stems from differences in “experience, rank and field of study” for both tenured and non-tenure-eligible faculty. Issues like age, longevity in the field, tenure, and field of study all come into play, say history Prof. Jennifer Miller and sociology Prof. Kristin Smith."We are up against staggering odds." That's the Strafford Historical Society's Kate Siepmann describing the work—and fundraising—it faces to turn the town's former Masons' hall into a permanent home for its collection. On Saturday and Sunday, the society is holding an exhibition and sale of the last works of Strafford painter Harlow Lent, a WPA artist whose paintings hang in the Met, MOMA, the National Gallery, and elsewhere—and, because his art couldn't support his family, who also helped construct the Wilder Dam, the interstates, the Hopkins Center, and other projects. More on all of it at the link.Strafford listers' eye from the sky boosts property taxes. Well, strictly speaking it's not the listers' aerial photography, it's the state of Vermont's. But as Tim Matson writes on his Pondology blog, the listers relied on those photos to find ponds they hadn't seen before and tax them at an average of about $200. As one lister told him, "We do a lot of listing in the winter, and you can miss a bunch of ponds when they're under a foot of snow." Matson says the pond owners he's talked to feel the added tax is a small price to pay—"but keep the 'overseers' in mind," he writes, "when you go skinny-dipping." "Who do you think has the best coffee in Hanover?" The bickering's going to be fun, eh? That's one of the questions in this week's news quiz from Hanover-based The News Quiz—you'll remember that's the new name for local quizmeisters We The People. There are others, like this week's "Big Question": "Would you be OK with a modest property tax increase if it were to improve the quality of education at your local schools?" Meanwhile, respondents split evenly last week on whether vaccinated restaurant employees should continue to wear masks."I say 'mall' in air-quotes because it's not at all a mall—but it is for us." That's how Cordelia Durand, a rising ninth-grader at Hartford High, describes the Tip Top Building in WRJ. She got turned on to it when she was in Northern Stage's "Stories of White River Junction" and ever since, has been doing small films about the village. In her latest, Small Town Charm | A White River Junction Guide, she wanders downtown, takes in First Friday, tastes an empañada for the first time, browses the Tip Top, turns you on to the best french fries in town, and delivers a teen's-eye view of this "small, quirky city" and its spell.Hiking Close to Home: Happy Hill/AT/Cossingham trails in Norwich. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance checks in with this 2.3-mile loop hike along the AT and side trails. To get there from Main Street in Norwich, turn on Beaver Meadow Road, then left onto Bragg Hill Road. After 1.4 miles, turn left onto Cossingham Road and park in the trailhead parking area—or turn left onto Happy Hill Road and park at the road's end. The trail follows a variety of old woods roads, the Appalachian Trail, and open conserved open fields. Be on the lookout for cellar holes as well.NH's tight rental market isn't new—but it's causing real pain. NHPR's airing a "housing crunch" series, and on Wednesday Housing Action NH's Elissa Margolin outlined what's brought the state to this point: families giving up homeownership in tight times, Millennials waiting to buy, retirees preferring to rent, small landlords taking units off the market during the pandemic, second-home owners doing likewise. Then yesterday, Casey McDermott told three stories of people in the Conway area caught in the crunch. The short version: It's brutal out there. The long version: It's really brutal out there.Something there is that doesn't love a wall/That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it... You don't usually find Robert Frost leading off a press release about a scientific study, but it's apt. Researchers at UNH have landed a $1.2 million grant to study frost heaves—or, more precisely, "seasonal soil freezing." It's "an important disturbance that can have negative consequences to our infrastructure and our ecosystems"—to say nothing of our suspensions—says Prof. Alexandra Contosta, whose team will use in-ground sensors and ground-penetrating radar to study how changing winters are affecting the phenomenon.Well, it's official: VPR and VT PBS are one and the same. The merger, announced last September took effect yesterday. “This past year has really demonstrated how much the community relies on us to share the arts, news, education, culture, local storytelling, and create connections,” says Nicole Junas Ravlin, who chairs the new board of directors. “It’s never been more important to strengthen public media.” Though no staff positions have been cut, John Van Hoesen, VPR's chief content officer, announced last week that he's retiring this month; he gave no explanation.The Eye of the Sahara. You probably knew all about the Richat Structure in Mauritania, but I find it mind-blowing: a 45km-wide geological anomaly that has been drawing the attention of astronauts almost since NASA sent them into orbit. It's only really visible from space, writes Kristine De Abreu on ExplorersWeb; "Once you’re on the ground, you see nothing but sand, rocks, and more sand." Some people like to believe it's the remains of Atlantis—and archeologists have, in fact, found ancient anchors made of quartzite—but its origins seem to stem from hydrothermal activity.
Last numbers for the week.
NH reported 27 new cases yesterday, bringing it to an official total of 99,527. There were no new deaths, remain at 1,372, while 15 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (no change). The current active caseload is at 169 (up 7). The state reports 7 active cases in Grafton County (no change), 9 in Sullivan (down 1), and 13 in Merrimack (no change). In town-by-town numbers reported by the state, Claremont has 8 active cases (down 1), while Rumney, Lebanon, and Cornish have 1-4 each.
VT reported 2 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 24,412. There was 1 new death (the first in three weeks); the total now stands at 257, while 5 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 2). Windsor County saw no new cases and remains at 1,521 for the pandemic, with 12 over the previous 14 days, while Orange County also had no new cases and remains at 822 cumulatively, with none over the previous two weeks.
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As if you needed reminding, today is First Friday, and in downtown WRJ it's Light River Junction time. Things get going at 5 with a cameraless filmmaking workshop led by Quinn Tomashow and a glam rack & photo shoot at Nancy The Girl. From 7-10 there's a music, burlesque, drag, and film show in the Coolidge parking lot with a wide variety of performers and films—and you'll find other films being shown around town as well. From 5-8 there's also an opening reception for the show by NYC-based artist Glenn Goldberg at Kishka Gallery.
Today at 6 pm, Pentangle Arts launches its 47th annual summer concert series. Music By the River kicks off eight Fridays of concerts at East End Park in Woodstock with the Paul Asbell Quintet—Asbell's equally at home in jazz, blues, and Americana, and his band, Seven Days once wrote, "evokes the feel of friends having a conversation — a couple thousand weeknight gigs past merely 'tight.'" No need to reserve and no charge, but Pentangle wouldn't turn away a donation.
And if you feel like a road trip, at 6:30 pm the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro offers the Vermont Symphony Orchestra's woodwind quartet, with 120 years of American music, from Tin Pan Alley to through 120 years of American music–from Tin Pan Alley to Alyssa Morris’s “Motion,” Amy Beach’s “Carnival,” and more. No cost but you'll need to reserve, and there's plenty of al fresco dining.
Tomorrow at 3:30 pm it's "Pocket Songs in a Pavilion," an actual in-person gathering for the "pocket singers" who gathered online throughout the pandemic, led by Patricia Norton. People who've never done it before are also welcome to come sing or listen—they'll be doing songs that "are easy to learn, yet build in complexity as layers are added," in Norton's words. At the CCBA Pavilion in Lebanon, and two things to know: You need to be fully vaccinated to participate, and you'll need to sign up before 3:30 today (Friday) to participate.
Also tomorrow, it's Vershire Day, with a chicken bbq dinner starting at 3, music starting at 3:30, fireworks at dusk—and if you live in Vershire, West Fairlee, or any of the surrounding towns, there's a pop-up Covid vaccine mini-clinic from 3 to 5 pm in the Vershire Town Center just off Route 113. It's walk-in, no appointment needed, and, of course, no charge.
At 7 pm tomorrow, the Chandler presents up-and-coming Nashville-based singer-songwriter Morgan Myles at Farr's Hill in Randolph. She's been catching the industry's eye—“I was influenced by any woman that had a big voice because I wanted to be just like them. You name it–any diva–I was trying to imitate,” she says, and sings like it.
And starting tomorrow and running through August, the Saint-Gaudens Memorial in Cornish presents “Preserving Creative Spaces: Photographs of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios," an exhibition of photographs of the places where 48 American artists spanning 150 years created their work—from photographer Alice Austen and sculptor Daniel Chester French to Georgia O'Keefe and furniture designer Sam Maloof.
Finally, there's a pile of Fourth of July celebrations around the Upper Valley, in some places starting today. The Valley News's Liz Sauchelli rounds them up, with a listing of fireworks and then town-by-town details. And WMUR has a full, town-by-town fireworks listing for all of NH.
We could go all Sousa in this space today, but nah, that wouldn't be the Daybreak way. Instead, we're going with a Brit: Sam Robson, son of classical-violinist parents—his dad's in the London Symphony Orchestra—who's a multi-instrumentalist himself but has mostly come to attention for his crazily complex solo a cappella versions of, among other things, Disney songs. Here he is doing "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" from The Aristocats.Have an excellent long weekend, get out and watch some fireworks, and we'll see one another 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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