GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, definitely warmer. High pressure moving in, cold air moving out, it's going to be a lovely day out there—once the fog clears, anyway. Tomorrow, too. Highs today in the upper 70s, calm winds, clear skies tonight with lows in the lower 50s.A deer sounds the alarm, a bobcat scurries off. You'll want your sound up for Erin Donahue's trail cam video from E. Thetford. Ted Levin writes, "When deer snort—an explosive sound, nostrils bursting with air—bobcats wear an invisible 'scarlet letter.' Alarm calls, an interspecies common language far older than human speech, invite ambush predators to keep moving and hunt elsewhere. Songbirds harry owls. Squirrels pester rattlesnakes. Crows mob hawks. Blackbirds mob crows. Eventually, as daylight drains away, the tables turn. It's a jungle out there."Killington, Pico to shift to local hands. In an announcement yesterday morning, Killington Resort said that the two ski mountains will be sold this fall by the Powdr Corporation—which bought them in 2007—to a group of investors that includes Phill Gross, a board member of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, and Michael Ferri, a longtime Killington resident and Killington Mountain School trustee. "For our families, Killington is more than just a business or asset to own; it is our home,” the two said in the announcement. Mountain Times publisher Polly Lynn has the details.VT hands security duties for Orange County courthouse to Windsor County sheriff. In yet another sign of the travails besetting Orange County Sheriff George Contois and his office, reports the Herald's Darren Marcy, the state court administrator has given the $221,540 security contract for the Chelsea courthouse to Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer and his deputies. Despite staffing shortages, Contois had maintained deputies at the courthouse—but "allegations shared with The Herald by a source close to the situation" claim they'd made court staff uncomfortable. State officials wouldn't comment.With Plainfield down to one police officer, things get tense at meeting. The Valley News's John Lippman was there Wednesday evening as residents took town officials to task for the resignation of police chief Tony Swett earlier this month, as well as the departure of former part-time police officer Roland Daniels and his wife, Wanda, the part-time police administrative assistant. At the meeting, Daniels said they were pushed out—and questioned whether the remaining officer, Rob DePietro, should become chief. Meanwhile, Lippman reports, former chair Eric Brann, who'd resigned in June then re-upped, resigned again Aug. 14, citing “defamatory attacks” and "toxicity" in town.SPONSORED: It’s a three-fer! Hartford Dismas House's 10th Birthday party includes music by the Tricksters, fab food by Big Fatty’s/Maple Street Catering and support for people successfully leaving incarceration. ALSO, a silent auction, “red carpet” photo op, and honoring Dismas Founder Rita McCaffrey and the community that has donated almost 12,000 hours in support of second chances. Tickets only $50, at the link above. They're going fast!! September 7, 5:30 to 9:00, Cornerstone Community Center in Hartford. Sponsored by Hartford Dismas House.Hartland Planning Commission reverses course, wants to challenge court ruling on farm outlet store by interstate. You may remember that back in July, a superior court judge ruled that the Sunnymede farm store proposed by a Florida developer for near Exit 9 could go ahead over the planning board's objections. The board initially voted not to appeal, but now, reports Tom Ayres in the VT Standard, has rescinded that decision. The issue's complicated, Ayres writes, because that vote came the same day as the deadline for an appeal, which was filed the next day. The farm store's attorney has objected. More vandalism besets Bradford athletic facilities. This time it's not Oxbow High's tormented playing fields, but the Bradford Youth Sports softball dugouts at Memorial Field, reports Alex Nuti-de Biasi in the Journal Opinion newsletter. In addition to graffiti in a photo he runs, there were also "red hand prints and a blue phallus...painted onto one exterior end of this dugout," Alex writes. "In the interior of the other dugout, the phrase 'No gay sex' was spray-painted twice in red paint." Police say this incident is "similar" to another in the past year that hit the boys' baseball dugouts on the other side of Memorial Field.After 157 years in the same family, dairy farm straddling Royalton/Sharon line goes on the market. Peggy Ainsworth, who inherited Westlands Farm from her late husband, former state Rep. David Ainsworth, sold off her herd earlier this month, reports Tim Calabro in the Herald. Now just the 400-acre farm remains—and there's still work to do: there's a field full of silage corn, four pigs and a steer, and Ainsworth runs a produce farmstand, which she intends to keep going. "I’m going with the flow,” she tells Calabro. There’s a potential sale, she says, and “if it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t, I’m going to be okay.”Tonight at Whaleback, “a homecoming for a lot of us, and an opportunity to play in this landscape that inspired us.” That’s Will Sheff, who grew up in Meriden, went to KUA, and, with a couple of his buddies from there, founded the band Okkervil River. That was 25 years ago. Sheff now lives in LA, but as Alex Hanson writes in the VN, he still thinks of the Upper Valley as home, and tonight “he’s bringing a bunch of his high school friends and former bandmates back together.” It’s a benefit concert (details in Heads Up). Hanson goes into how a “clutch” of high school friends are looking to recapture the energy.Films, plays, exhibitions: Some “second chances” you might want to know about. In Artful, Susan Apel offers a glance ahead at a set of events near and far: an Orford screening next week hosted by Sunnyside Coffee Co. of Join or Die, the film adaptation of Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone; a Woodstock performance next month of Rob Mermin's Act 39, his down-to-earth and magical realist play about helping a friend die through VT's medical-aid-in-dying law; the 24-hour-play festival coming up at the Briggs Sept. 7; and more.Hiking close to home: Knight's Hill Nature Park, New London. The park, says the Upper Valley Trails Alliance, has five interconnected trails totaling three miles, plus a connector link to the Lyon Brook Trail. Consisting of 74 conserved acres owned by the New London Outing Club, there are maps at the entrance kiosk as well as markers along the way to identify plants and other points of interest. A field house is open during the summer, staffed by a naturalist who offers programs such as nature walks, bird watching, and night sky watches. The trails are open to foot traffic only, including snowshoeing.Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, what's the name of that new Indian restaurant on the Miracle Mile? And that new store going in on S. Main in Hanover--what's it going to sell? 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 which social media site, according to a new study, improves civic engagement.
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, what just happened with the telecom company involved in sending "deepfake" calls to NH voters?
72-year-old hiker found dead near Mt. Washington summit. Yesterday morning, a hiker found the man's body along the Gulfside Trail, about a half-mile below the summit, NH Fish & Game says in a press release. Officials believe he died of exposure, writing that he "was not prepared" for the cold, wet, and windy conditions the higher summits of the White Mountains are currently experiencing. "It is likely that he took a train ride up to the summit in the morning or early afternoon on Wednesday and then decided to try and hike down," they write. His driver's license identifies him as from Virginia.NH lays out its argument challenging court decisions on school funding system. In a filing with the state Supreme Court earlier this week, NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt reports, the AG's office appealed a November lower court ruling that the state's yearly per-pupil spending is too low; last week, the state and a group of property-wealthy towns challenged the same court's ruling in a different case, holding that the statewide education property tax is unconstitutional. These two cases will be going on for a while, and DeWitt offers a useful primer on the original lawsuits, the rulings, and the challenges.Timber framers converge on Lyndon, VT to help it dismantle and move iconic covered bridge. The town had hoped to refurbish the Sanborn Covered Bridge, but at the end of July, a study recommended removing it in order to avoid flooding damage. So after the remnants of Hurricane Debby came through recently, timber framer Miles Jenness and his crew "took the wooden bridge apart by hand and crane," writes Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days. "Everyone was excited at the prospect of helping to save a cool landmark," says one framer. Allen details the work and sentiment that went into the project.“Up until I had access to typing, I felt lost, deserted, in an inaccessible sea.” Mark Utter was born with a form of autism that prevents him from speaking. For three decades, the Colchester resident couldn't communicate with language. At 30, he started using supported typing, which gave him a voice, but, he says, diminished his “vantage point on human communication.” Utter now has cancer and is in hospice; on Rumble Strip, Erica Heilman reruns their poignant conversation a few years ago. “I think we miss peace by talking,” Utter said. “Joy abounds completely when we hold back our declarations of it.”The moon, two ways. One from above, one from below.
Well, not technically above. But earlier this month, Matthew Dominick, a NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station, captured a timelapse of streams of red and green aurora, the moon setting into them, and then rising sunlight hitting the Soyuz spacecraft docked at the ISS. Unreal.
Meanwhile, down here on Earth, Colorado photographer Aaron Watson captured a rare double “moonbow" on Sunday. “I’ve seen three moonbows in my entire life, all in the last year,” he tells PetaPixel. “I have been searching for them for at least a decade, but they had eluded me up until recently.” Scroll down for those near-magical shots.
Oh heck, sure. One more. Not the moon, but red sprites in the midst of the Perseids, out in western Oklahoma. Photographer Paul Smith has made a practice of capturing sprites, which happen above powerful lightning strikes. "It’s an expensive and challenging obsession, involving lots of travel and sleepless nights," he says, "but when it works out the results can be incredible.”
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
Dartmouth College organist Henry Danaher will put the Rollins Chapel organ through its paces with
a program of music associated with weddings, from Mendelssohn's music for
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Pachelbel's Canon in D and Ralph Vaughan Williams' setting of the hymn tune
Rhosymedre
.
No tix needed, just show up.
As you read up above, it's the indie rock band's homecoming and first-ever public concert in the region that nurtured its members—and first show in two decades in their original lineup. The concert's a benefit for the nonprofit that oversees Whaleback and for the Upper Valley Land Trust. Doors at 5 pm.
Jazz under the Three Tomatoes tent. From 5:30 to 8 this evening, the Fred Haas Quartet will be keeping that end of the Lebanon Mall alive with music. Tomorrow, same hours, it's the Grace Wallace Quartet. As musician Billy Rosen writes, "There is no charge for listening. Bring a lawn chair and relax." No link.
The Old Church Theater's youth group kicks off two weekends of performances at 7 this evening at Bradford Academy. It's the year 1255. "We invite you to observe the issues youth faced at that time – every bit as relevant today: pressure to perform, being misunderstood, prejudice, feelings of love, loss, and being awkward, poverty and wealth, and gender roles."
It's the final weekend of the experiment that closed off Hanover's Allen Street to cars, and Sawtooth is bringing in the Burlington-based eight-piece ensemble led by singer Miriam Bernardo for a free concert of originals and "well-curated" covers. Brassy horns, "sultry vocals," guitar, bass, and drums, and rich melodies. 7 pm, no charge.
Made up of three illustrious Berklee College of Music alums—pianist-vocalist Tim Kelly; saxophonist and Berklee teacher Dino Govoni; and drummer Les Harris, Jr.—the trio will be playing their takes on classics by Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Charlie Parker, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and others. 7 pm at the Chosen Vale Performance Center.
Saturday
They've been going on in one form or another for 48 years, and get going tomorrow morning at 8:30 with piping and athletic competitions. There'll be concerts by fiddler Jamie Laval and guitarist
Eamon Sefton and by the Rebel Collective, sheepdog trials, a clan parade at noon, highland dancing, and lots more.It's the Barnard Street Dance tomorrow afternoon and evening. Things get going at 2 pm with a boat race at Silver Lake State Park (BYO
kayak, canoe, SUP, or paddle boat—or borrow one), then the scene shifts starting at 3 pm to Barnard Town Hall, with family activities, food trucks (including Moon & Stars' arepas and Panou's Haitian plates), music by Bow Thayer and the Choirs of Aether, a contra dance led by Blind Squirrel at 5, and Billy Wylder at 7.
They
sound
big:
Wicked Louder, BB Dozer, and Dutch Experts will take the MSM stage starting at 7 pm. "Starting with the solid mass, indie synth rock of Wicked Louder, then...the disintegrative electronic instrumentals of BB Dozer and culminating with the future-trad gothic darkwave of Dutch Experts, [they're] out to prove that they can harness the darkness and bring down the house with it."Sunday
Sunday from 10 am to 12:30 pm, National Park Service staff from Marsh-Billings Rockefeller will lead a workshop on their approach to invasive species management at the park. At Blow-Me-Down Farm in Cornish, no charge.
Court Street Arts' food, drink, and music extravaganza starts up at 1 pm Sunday. This year it features The Clements Brothers (George and Charles, formerly of The Lonely Heartstring Band); Ted Mortimer's new five-piece band, Yaya, which unites members of Dr. Burma, the Stone Cold Roosters, the Party Crashers, and other regional bands; and roots artists Dwight + Nicole.
It's Friday. Time to rock out.
The Wilderness may have Ontario roots, but they've got Vermont ties. Drummer Henry Lawrence grew up in Grafton. Keyboardist Liam Neale hails from Stowe. The band formed when they were all at Queen's University in Kingston—which is where they were back in April for an album-release concert.
Enjoy this fine weather! 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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
, or if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!