GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Okay, now we're getting there. A cold front came through in the early hours this morning, and with surface high pressure nudging in from Canada, we're looking at a mostly sunny day, highs into the lower 80s, humidity comfortable, and down into the upper 50s overnight. Winds today from the north."We're on the shore of a great cosmic ocean..." It's Week 39 of Lost Woods, in which Henry practices writing by night and Lydia wonders if it helps. Every week in this spot, Lebanon author and illustrator DB Johnson (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg and other classics) chronicles the doings in Lost Woods. Scroll right to move on to the next panel or left to catch up on previous weeks. DHMC returns to restrictive visitor policy. In a press release yesterday, the hospital system announced the change went into effect Wednesday: adult inpatients are allowed one visitor a day, pediatric inpatients can have two caregivers, and outpatient adults and children may have one caregiver. All patients being admitted to DHMC in Lebanon will be tested for Covid.Developer Mike Davidson inks agreement to buy former Lebanon Village Marketplace. Tim Sidore, the managing agent for Davidson's company, Execusuite, told the Lebanon Economic Development Commission this week that downtown Leb needs a market—and that the company is also looking into building affordable housing units at the rear of the lot next to the Lebanon Fire Station, reports Tim Camerato in the Valley News. Sidore added that other businesses on the property—Sunrise Buffet, Black Moon Games, Baan Muay Thai and The Laundry Spa—will be invited to remain.Hiking Close to Home: Black Bear Loop. This is a relatively new trail, built in 2020 in the Britton Forest on Moose Mountain in Hanover by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance's high school corps and Hypertherm volunteers. The UVTA says it's a lovely, 1-mile forest path with easy to moderate hiking that starts out on a Class VI road before crossing a stream and making a right turn onto the loop. You'll find an impressive glacial erratic as well as the marks of human history in the form of stone walls and a 19th-century barn foundation. There's a small parking area at the end of Ibey Road in Hanover.Tom Dodds inducted into American Ski Jump Hall of Fame. Dodds, an anesthesiologist who grew up in Hanover, competed for Hanover High and Williams College, but is perhaps best known around here as a tireless ski jumping coach, first for Ford Sayre and then in two stints at Hanover High. “Tom’s an amazing coach who knows what to say, when, and doesn’t give you too much information at once," former HHS ski jumper Mason Winter tells the VN's Seth Tow. Dodds and his family—including his ski-jumping photographer son, Cooper—made the drive to Red Wing, MN for the induction.So, let's see... Is that azureobacteria or cyanobacteria that's troubling scientists about Lake Morey? And just what was the surprise gift that Canterbury NH's "River Dave" received? And when a guy shot off a gun by a Leb ice cream shop, which one was it? Yep, time for this week's News Quiz!Claremont, Newport grapple with low vaccination rates, masking policy. In the VN, Nora Doyle-Burr reports that the two towns, which have among the lowest vaccination rates in the Upper Valley, are now among the top three communities in New Hampshire for the most new infections—67 in Claremont over the past two weeks, 32 in Newport. The Newport School Board has made masks optional in the face of strong resistance to masking; Claremont's supports a masking plan. "We can’t really say anymore that kids are not vectors of this virus,” says Claremont School Board Chair Frank Sprague.Sununu signs municipal net metering expansion. The measure raises the limit on how much municipally built solar arrays in NH can be reimbursed by utilities when they produce more electricity than they use—a limit that cities and towns have cited as keeping them from launching their own solar initiatives. “This is one of those times where you feel like you can put your shoulder to the plow with lots of other communities and I think maybe move the needle,” Hanover town manager Julia Griffin tells NHPR's Annie Ropeik. The measure raises the cap for municipally owned solar from 1 to 5 megawatts.Vast majority of NH hospitalizations and deaths among the unvaccinated. Since the first NH residents were fully vaccinated in January, reports WMUR's Monica Hernandez, there have been 44,101 known Covid cases. Of those, 1,040 were in people who were fully vaccinated, or about 2.3 percent. Of the 514 people hospitalized, 25—or 4.8 percent—were vaccinated. "I think that we would see the numbers become better...once there [are] a lot more people immune and there's less spread of infection in the community," DHMC epidemiologist Jose Mercado tells her.With 13 deaths so far in August, VT exceeds predictions. At a press conference August 3, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko, a modeling presentation forecast between 0 and 6 deaths for the month. The difference, Petenko writes, may come down to different models the state used—one of which, from Johns Hopkins, more accurately predicted the August case rate than a CDC model; it's uncertain which the state relied upon. Even so, Petenko notes, the deadliness of the current surge falls far short of the winter, when 79 people died in December alone.VT Health Department employees ask brass to step it up. In a letter to the department's leadership, reports Seven Days' Kevin McCallum, 91 rank-and-file employees took their bosses to task for inadequately addressing the Delta variant. “It is our belief that our current public guidance, which encourages only unvaccinated individuals to wear a mask and makes no mention of the risk of COVID-19 among unmasked vaccinated individuals, is not based on our best understanding of the way the Delta variant is spreading,” they wrote. They urge universal indoor masking and testing for anyone with close Covid contacts."My stomach was clenched for about a month pre-pub day..." Last summer, retired management consultant and newly minted memoirist Gretchen Cherington published Poetic License, her clear-eyed, no-holds-barred recounting of growing up in Hanover, the daughter of famed poet Richard Eberhart. Last week, she talked to writer Joni Cole for Cole's Author, Can I Ask You? podcast about her father's charisma, personal and family betrayals, her impressions of Robert Frost ("grumpy") and Ann Sexton (a "combination of femininity, sexuality and clear intellect"), writers' totems, consulting, and more.Want to sightsee far away? No, I mean really far away. Like the fold mountains—kind of like the Appalachians—on Venus. Or the 1800-mile long Valles Marineris canyon on Mars. Or a four-mile-high cliff on Uranus's moon, Miranda (twelve minutes to hit bottom, should you slip). Or the spectacular, methane-drained coastline of the Ligeia Mare on Saturn's moon, Titan. On The Conversation ("Academic rigor, journalistic flair"), Open University planetary geoscientist David Rothery describes the five geological structures not on Earth that impress him the most.
And the numbers...Just a reminder that for the time being, Daybreak is reporting the Covid numbers on Tuesdays and Fridays.
NH reported 290 cases Tuesday, 329 Wednesday, and 357 yesterday, bringing it to a total of 106,205 and a seven-day average of 300 cases per day (compared to 281 on Monday). There were 7 deaths over the past three days, bringing the total to 1,410. The active caseload stands at 2,736 (up 412 over the past three days), and hospitalizations at 113 (up 6). The state reports 158 active cases in Grafton County (up 20), 72 in Sullivan County (up 1), and 202 in Merrimack County (up 17). In town-by-town numbers reported by the state, Claremont has 39 cases (down 2 since Monday), Hanover has 38 (up 7), Newport has 20 (up 4), Lebanon has 6 (down 3), Wentworth and Charlestown have 5 apiece (up at least 1), and Haverhill, Orford, Rumney, Lyme, Canaan, Enfield, Grafton, Grantham, Cornish, Sunapee, New London, Newbury, and Charlestown have 1-4 each. Plainfield and Springfield are off the list.
VT reported 106 new cases Tuesday, 128 Wednesday, and 141 yesterday, bringing it to a total of 27,504 for the pandemic. There were 3 new deaths during that time; they now number 273. As of yesterday, 33 people with confirmed cases were hospitalized (no change). Windsor County has seen 32 new cases over the past three days, for a total of 1,707 for the pandemic, with 107 new cases over the past two weeks; Orange County gained 6 cases over the last three days, adding 27 over the past two weeks for a total of 895 for the pandemic.
Dartmouth yesterday reported 31 cases among students (up 2 since Monday) and 3 among faculty and staff (no change). Nobody is in quarantine, 36 people are in isolation.
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There's
a lot
going on this weekend...
At noon today, Upper Valley Music Center cello instructor Ben Kulp and viola teacher Jennifer Turbes will perform duets on the back lawn of the Kilton Library in West Leb. Bring a blanket!
Somewhat amazingly, given past years' sellouts, there are still tickets for Lebanon's Food Truck Festival in Colburn Park tonight from 5 to 9 and tomorrow from 11 to 3. Food trucks from around the region (list at the link) will be on hand to feed you, with music tonight from The Tricksters Band and tomorrow from the Chad Hollister Quartet.
This evening in Woodstock's East End Park, Pentangle Arts is throwing its final outdoor concert of the season, a Community Heroes Concert featuring the Eames Brothers at 5 and then Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band at 6.
Tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday at 8 pm, JAG Productions continues its "Theater on a Hill" run of Next to Normal out in back of King Arthur Baking in Norwich. Directed by JAG founder Jarvis Green, this is an all-Black production of the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical about a suburban family struggling to deal with a mother's mental illness.
Tonight at 8, and running through Sept. 12, Northern Stage continues its run of Million Dollar Quartet outdoors, in its Courtyard Theater. "Drop a quarter in the jukebox that is Million Dollar Quartet, and nearly two hours of foot-stomping, hip-swinging rock and roll pours off the stage," Seven Days' Alex Brown wrote in admiration when the musical—about the night in 1956 when Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley met up to jam together at Sun Records in Memphis—opened earlier this month.
Tomorrow and Sunday from 10-5, Billings Farm highlights bees, butterflies, birds, and moths at its Pollinator Celebration, with beekeepers, tours and a talk about the Sunflower House, and other activities.
If you feel like going a bit afield tomorrow, the Best of Vermont Summer Festival opens at noon at Okemo Field in Ludlow and runs through Sunday. Hot air balloons and excursions, an antique car showcase, Wunderle's Big Top Adventures, a "river bug zoo" from Springfield's Black River Action team, a lineup of bands both days, craft and food vendors from all around Vermont. For vendors, activities, and music, scroll down to the separate blog entries here.
Tomorrow from 1 to 4:30 pm in Woodstock, Charlet and Peter Davenport's remarkable SculptureFest is unveiling a new set of installations they've added along its Prosper Brook Trail and in the field beside the trail, and at 3:30 on the plateau it's celebrating with bookseller, jazz pianist and composer Sonny Saul and jazz singer Grace Crummer.
And at 3 pm tomorrow, it's the reopening celebration for the Root Schoolhouse in Norwich, with games, fiddle music by Lorrie Wilkes and then by Brian Cook and Friends, and various remarks in appreciation of the work that's gone into restoring the building for community use.
Also at 3, a beautiful but winding drive away, the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester is holding an opening reception for a new exhibit, "Our Tangled Choices: Art and the Environment." It brings together Manchester's well-known mixed-media artist Pat Musick (whose late husband, Gerald Carr, was an astronaut, commander of Skylab 4, and frequent collaborator on her work), and Boston-based fiber artist, sculptor, and ceramist Michelle Lougee, along with 11 community contributors.
And at 7 tomorrow evening, outdoors on Farr Hill in Randolph, the Chandler presents singer, songwriter, rocker, blues musician, and bojotar inventor Bow Thayer, along with rock and blues guitarist and drummer Krishna Guthrie, Arlo's grandson.
On Sunday at noon on Chelsea's North Common, the Six on Sundays art and music series comes to an end with six local artists sharing their work, music by the Jazz Tweed trio, Sweet Doe Gelato offering something cool and sweet, and local artist Carrie Caouette-DeLallo selling signed copies of her drawing “Will’s Store” as a fundraiser for the Orange County Parent Child Center. No link, but call Carrie at 802-685-4866 for information.
At 1 pm on Sunday, free-form jazz is back on the porch at 1590 Tucker Hill Road in Thetford. In Sidenote, Li Shen has an appreciation of what the players—Althea Sully-Cole, Bill Cole, Joseph Daley, Ras Moshe—have been doing as they've evolved over the course of the summer.
And finally, at 7:30 pm on Sunday Court Street Arts is bringing Québecois traditional music supergroup Le Vent du Nord to Alumni Hall in Haverhill. Fiddles, guitar, hurdy gurdy, foot percussion, serious harmonizing, jokes, jigs, reels, Celtic, Bretagne, Quebecois... they've been doing it all for years in rousing style.
Oh, yeah, sure, what the heck. Let's see out the week with Le Vent du Nord,
See you Monday.
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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