RABBIT RABBIT, UPPER VALLEY!
Heads up: No Daybreak Monday. Back on Tuesday with CoffeeBreak.Well, that was a day, huh? So's today, only warmer. And also, at least at first, foggier in the river valleys. Things will clear up, though, and we get a quiet, clear day with calm winds from the northwest and temps getting into the mid or upper 70s. Down into the low 50s tonight. By the way, things start to warm up a lot starting this weekend as the heat dome the rest of the country's been contending with drifts our way.That was one super blue moon! Or, more officially, Super Blue Moon —"super" because it was close to Earth on Wednesday night/yesterday morning, and "blue" because it was the second full moon of August. And luckily for us, Cynthia Crawford had more than a cellphone on hand, along with patience and a functioning alarm clock.
Here's what things looked like while the clouds were still around;
And here's the moon in a clear patch of sky around 4:30 am yesterday.
Suspected wild boar killed in Tunbridge. Though officials are calling it a "feral swine" until genetic tests come back, its "long, sloping snout, the hairy ridgeback, shoulder structure and tusks leaves little doubt in most minds" that it was a wild boar, reports Darren Marcy in the Herald. Mostly likely, he writes, it escaped from the huge private game preserve known as Corbin Park that touches on Croydon, Cornish, and other towns on the NH side of the river. Both the USDA and VT Fish & Wildlife are on the alert for more. “Feral swine are not something we want to have established,” says Fish & Wildlife's David Sausville.After break-ins at Norwich, Thetford farmstands, farmers ponder what comes next. The burglaries occurred at the end of July and in early August, hitting self-serve pay boxes at Cedar Circle Farm and Honey Field Farm, and the back office at the Crossroad Farm store in Norwich. The incidents have left farm owners feeling vulnerable, though police say they don't appear to be part of a larger pattern. “It’s just ugly," says interim Norwich police chief Matthew Romei in a Daybreak story. "These folks are making their way in a very tough business and they trust the community and it worked well for them for so long."Woodstock Farmers Market owner decides against last-minute bid to relocate bakery. You probably remember that offer by Peace Field Farm to let the WFM bakery use its kitchen—and the consternation caused by a state official's reluctance to okay it. This week, reports Tom Ayres in the Standard, Gov. Phil Scott's office got in touch with the town to support an emergency effort to allow the move—only, before the selectboard could approve it, WFM owner Patrick Crowl rejected the idea. The state's delay had convinced him just to rebuild. "We’re in a position where time is money,” he explains to Ayres.SPONSORED: Mind-expanding learning opportunities await! Osher at Dartmouth’s fall term is now open, and there are plenty of courses available for registration. You can delve into issues of faith and mindfulness; analyze works by Dickens, Forster, and Homer; examine what it means to be gay in today’s America; seek insight into current affairs involving Israel, Ukraine, and Spain; tickle your funny-bone with a look at stand-up comedy and sitcoms; immerse yourself in the “teenager in love” music and movies of the 1950s and 60s. There’s so much to experience! Sponsored by Osher at Dartmouth.Marsh Brothers Deli is officially the best cheap place to eat in New Hampshire. At least, that's according to Yelp, which pulled together all the places with its lowest price rating ("$") and then ranked them "using a number of factors including the total volume and ratings of reviews." Writes one user from CT about the go-to lunch spot in downtown Lebanon, "Their sandwiches are mouthwatering, their cooked meats are specially made there and their sauces are amazing and unique. The employees are really kind and hard working!" For VT, it's Pho Hong up in Burlington.Telluride at Dartmouth lineup set. The Hop's annual film extravaganza will see two firsts this year: a film by a Dartmouth alum and multiple showings of each film at the Loew Auditorium, while the Hop itself is under renovation. This year's lineup kicks off Sept. 14 with Matthew Heineman ('05)'s American Symphony, about a year in the life of musician Jon Batiste, and is followed by a new comedy by Alexander Payne (Sideways), Yorgos Lanthimos' feminist take on the Frankenstein story with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, and films from Denmark, Finland, and France. Details at the link.“Reversing a 1954 decision on the security clearance of a scientist who died in 1967 was more nettlesome than it looked at first.” In Seven Days, Ken Picard digs into how Tim Rieser, an aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy for 37 years, managed at long last to persuade the government to right the wrong done to J. Robert Oppenheimer some 70 years ago. Rieser, a Norwich native, wanted to do more than look backwards. He “also wanted to affirm the ongoing importance of protecting scientists who express their political views from becoming targets of government retribution.”Windsor gets a new space for art. Today, reports Alex Hanson in the VN, artist Angie Follensbee-Hall, Richmond School music teacher Josh Hall, and one of their daughters, cartoonist Isabella Hall, are opening Jai Studios Gallery and Gifts in the Windsor House on Main Street. They define "art" broadly and are including locally written poetry and novels in the gallery, as well as comics and more traditional media such as paintings and woodwork. The gallery, Hanson writes, "will fill a niche left open in the Upper Valley since the closing of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen gallery in Hanover in 2020."And also scheduled to open today: Bear Pond Books in Montpelier. The much-loved 50-year-old bookstore took it in the chin in Montpelier's flooding, and over the past couple of months, as Susan Apel writes in Artful, its staff and volunteers have worked painstakingly to "bring order to the chaos, which included removing much of the inventory and eventually replacing the walls and floor." She notes that other indies, including the Norwich Bookstore and Woodstock's Yankee Bookshop, helped raise funds for recovery.DHMC lands nearly $1.5 million for opioid initiatives. It's all the money coming to New Hampshire from the federal Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, reports NH Bulletin's Hadley Barndollar, and will go to two programs: interventions to prevent, treat, and care for opioid-exposed infants; and expanding treatment and overdose-prevention infrastructure aimed at young people living in rural areas. Hiking Close to Home: Warren Town Forest Trail Network, Warren, NH The Upper Valley Trails Alliance this week is spotlighting this nearly five-mile network of easy to moderate trails. Some get you to the Baker River for access for swimming, fishing and other uses; others wind pleasantly through the Mt. Moosilauke foothills. From Warren, continue on NH-118 N/NH-25 W for approximately .6 miles, turn right onto NH-118 N for 5 miles. Trailhead and parking on your right, look for the sign reading "McVetty Recreational Trail System." Also: The UVTA wants to correct its item last Friday on Mt. Kearsarge. Winslow State Park and Kearsarge Mtn. Rd are in Wilmot, not Warner.Oh, and by the way... Mt. Washington got its first snowflakes of the season yesterday morning. They melted quickly, but still.NH AG: Former state senator used fraudulently obtained pandemic aid on race cars. Two Porsche 987 Cayman S racers and a Ferrari F430 as a gift to his wife, to be precise. The allegations involve former State Sen. Andy Sanborn and his wife, current Rep. Laurie Sanborn, both of Bedford, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, and Attorney General John Formella has referred the case for possible criminal charges to the US Attorney's office. Andy Sanborn operates a casino in Concord, and could also lose his license to do so.Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because the Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, how did Tigertown Road in Norwich and W. Hartford get its name? And which chain with a popular local eating spot is shutting down its Boston operations? And where are the toys from the Vermont Toy Museum in Quechee headed? 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 what animals "rarely seen in Vermont" are appearing at the Champlain Valley Fair this year?
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, what industry are people worried about in the wake of a carbon sequestration firm's purchase of 146,000 acres in Pittsburg?
"It's just words, words, words, words. This is so, so tedious." You've gotta figure that when Peter Schumann, the 89-year-old founder and director of Bread and Puppet Theater, says that to troupe members rehearsing a new show, they wilt a little inside. In July, Seven Days' no-immersion-is-too-deep reporter Chelsea Edgar joined up with the legendary six-decade-old puppet, agitprop, and bread-making troupe at its home in Glover to report on life on the inside (recording her notes in the evening in an outhouse—"the only place you can really be alone at Bread and Puppet"). Her story, as usual, is filled with both entertaining details—Schumann flipping potato pancakes on a grill with a machete—and the big picture. Which is that Schumann, who continues to work nonstop, is nearing the end of his life and no one is sure what comes next.Someone's probably already writing the screenplay: Suspect flees Burlington police by foot, car, bicycle, paddleboard... and sailboat. Not a typo. It began Wednesday when police responded to a call about a man passed out in a car matching one used in an armed robbery last week. They woke the guy, who took off in the car and disappeared. That night they found the car, saw the guy, and gave chase. He fled on foot, then stole a bike, then got to Appletree Bay and used a paddleboard to steal a sailboat, but was intercepted by the Coast Guard and abandoned the boat at the foot of some cliffs. Police were still searching late yesterday, VTDigger's Alan J. Keays reports.But was he wearing a seatbelt? Even in Nebraska, it’s unlikely that the traffic code specifically prohibits driving down a highway with a 1,600-pound Watusi bull in the passenger seat and a cattle-pen guardrail welded to your vehicle. But can you blame the police for stopping the Crown Vic and “address[ing] some traffic violations that were occurring with that particular situation,” as a Norfolk captain puts it? Maybe the problem was the license plate, which reads “Boy & Dog.” Or the bull's name: Howdy Doody. The driver was sent home with a warning. The bull too. In fine NY Post fashion, there are plenty of photos.The Friday Vordle. If you're new to Vordle, you should know that fresh ones appear on weekends using words from the Friday Daybreak, and you can get a reminder email each weekend morning. On Labor Day, too! If you'd like that, sign up here.
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From 4:30 to 6 today, there's a family dance outdoors (hopefully) behind the Kilton Library in West Lebanon, co-sponsored by the Lebanon Libraries and Upper Valley Music Center. Traditional New-England style barn dances taught and called by veteran caller David Millstone, with live music provided by Amy Cann and Sue Hunt. No experience necessary. Indoors if by any chance it rains.
It's First Friday in WRJ and there's a whole pile of things happening there starting at 5. The weather's looking great, which means that Revolution's Parking Lot Party stands an excellent chance of not being rained out: DJ Skar, Jamaican jerk chicken from the Fulla Flava crew, the Bread & Puppet Parking Lot Dance Company, indy merch tables from Digital Toni, Jinxies, and Duncan Holley, rePlay Arts with an upcycling art project to check out. Meanwhile, JAM is opening a monthlong interactive exhibit by the Vermont Workers Center, “Healthcare is a Human Right”, with a "speakout" open to all comers; Open Door has free Zumba; Kishka's opening an exhibit of charcoal and pastel drawings by Alina Perez & Arel Lisette; Scavenger's got wine tasting; Long River's got work by artists from all over New England; the Main Street Museum's got piano, COVER's got a book sale...
Tonight at 9, Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover gets fall rolling with singer-songwriter Rory Loughran and his trio, which includes Steve Ferraris on percussion and Marc Cantlin on bass.
It's Sept. 1, and the start of fall hunting season in both New Hampshire and Vermont. Here are NH's dates for the various game and firearms/archery categories; and here are Vermont's. You know what this means: start looking for that blaze orange, people!
Saturday
From 10 to 3 tomorrow, the Chelsea Arts Collective is hosting its fourth annual Arts on the Green Market & Festival on the North Common in Chelsea, VT. Works by 40 artists and artisans, plus a full day of music—guitar virtuoso Doug Perkins, jazz quartet Sunday Table, the Cape Breton-inspired Footworks—and lots of food: The Box with a Baja-themed menu, Sustainable Eats with locally-sourced meals and snacks, Chicken Wiggle Farm with grilled classics, Aunt Mandy's Baked Goods, and Will's Store cremees. Plus workshops, the Art Bus, a live auction, and a whole lot more.
And from 10 to 5 tomorrow, VINS is putting on Sport of Kings Day, a celebration of falconry. A falconer and raptor, of course, but also live trebuchet and archery demonstrations, a self-guided medicinal herb tour, a troubadour hour with As The Crow Flies, and more.
At noon tomorrow, a little drive away, the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation hosts Shakespeare Alive! A Bard-Based Variety Show by NYC's Stand Up Shakespeare. Skits, songs, play excerpts, no charge. In Plymouth, VT.
Sunday
Starting at noon on Sunday and running until 11 pm, the Chandler in Randolph throws its 31st annual New World Festival, with an afternoon and night of music on five stages by a stunning array of Celtic and French Canadian bands: Quebec's Le Vent du Nord, Cantrip, Triton, Genticorum, Irish fiddler Frankie Gavin, and plenty more. There's traditional dancing, music and dance workshops, open playing sessions, food and drink, crafts, marionettes...
At 2 pm on Sunday, St. Gaudens National Historic Park closes out its summer concert series with Lebanese-born violinist and composer Layale Chaker and her band, Sarafand—music she describes as "at the intersection of classical contemporary music, jazz, Arabic music, and improvisation." If you can't make it Sunday, they'll also be at the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts at Union Church the night before, starting at 6:30 pm.
And Sunday at 5 pm in Bellows Falls, Next Stage Arts presents The Slambovian Circus of Dreams—the acoustic/electric, folk-pop/Americana sextet based in Sleepy Hollow, NY—"a mix of Washington Irving, Woodstock, and British Invasion" that, over a couple of decades of performing, has built up a large and extremely loyal following. With bbq from the HAngry Traveler and sweet stuff from Vermont Gelato. At SVG Multipurpose Field, 14 Mill Street.
And to take us into the weekend...
We'll turn to the retro-soul band led by
Eric Burton and Adrian Quesada, better known as Black Pumas. Who did not get off to an especially auspicious start in 2017, when Quesada, who grew up in Laredo and by then had become a well-known Grammy-winning guitarist and producer in Austin, needed a vocalist. On a friend's recommendation, he left a message for Burton—who didn't bother to call back until someone told him about Quesada's reputation. Several Grammy nominations, appearances on late-night, and sold-out tours later, he's probably glad he did. They've got a new album coming out next month. Here's a preview with "More Than a Love Song."
Have a great Labor Day weekend! See you Tuesday 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.
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