GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, a tad warmer during the day. But still cooler than normal at this time of year (things get decidedly warmer on Sunday). What clouds there are will diminish over the course of the day, while temps will get into the mid or upper 60s. Winds from the northwest, lows tonight again in the lower 40s.And yes, we're still in drought. Yesterday's reports from the US Drought Monitor show that:
Sullivan County and the stretch of Grafton County along the river remain in moderate drought, while severe drought is spreading in the southern reaches of NH;
While over on the Vermont side most of Windsor and all of Orange counties are in moderate drought, which is also spreading north and west in the state.
Now, this takes some iPhone moxie! Peter Bloch is a New London-based woodturner and videographer who's spent years filming drone footage of the region. Recently, he began heading the other direction: underwater. Using an iPhone. "The images I got from these experiments instantly blew me away," he writes on his Vimeo channel. "I could not believe how beautiful and surreal it is in these wetlands." Though he warns: "be advised that Apple does not suggest that you do what I am doing." (Thanks, CH!)"I always forget my mantra." Lydia's into meditating, Henry's a little dubious. As he does every week in this spot, Lebanon writer and illustrator DB Johnson chronicles the doings in Lost Woods—and on his blog he reveals that at the annual gathering of the Thoreau Society this summer, he was given its distinguished service award for his "many contributions to Thoreau's legacy" through his books (and, may we say, comic strip). Nice plaque, DB!Uh-oh: Stay away from the stretch of 12A under I-89 starting next week. If you're on 12A it's nigh impossible, of course, but in a press release, NHDOT has announced that because it will be closing the Exit 19 North off-ramp starting Monday night for eight to ten weeks, northbound exiters will be detoured to Exit 20 and directed to turn left on 12A then back onto 89 South to that Exit 19 ramp. The closure comes as workers rehab the highway bridge over the Mascoma River, and could be delayed by weather or logistics.“I look at this place as being filled with neighbors of mine." Judith Falk and Dave Paganelli own the 200-acre Clover Hill Tree Farm in Strafford, and last weekend led a tour to talk about how to balance habitat, agriculture, and timber forest, writes Tim Calabro in the Herald. They got deep into the habits of pollinators—monarch caterpillars seem to favor younger milkweed; helping to foster native trees—beech, which are crucial to black bears' fall diet, are under threat from beech leaf disease; and dealing with invasives. Pull buckthorn and hang it above ground so the roots can't reestablish, Paganelli advises.SPONSORED: Hey, take a pop quiz on lessons from California's record-breaking heat wave! Last week's appalling heat wave in California posed the biggest threat to our nation’s electrical grid since the 2020 deep freeze that shut down the Texas grid. Disaster was averted, but it was a fresh reminder of just how vulnerable our aging grid has become to climate change—and how residential solar is emerging as a vital part of the solution. Click on the maroon link for a pop quiz to learn more. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.Proposed Enfield gravel pit "back to square one." So reports the Valley News's Liz Sauchelli after the town's planning board said landowner Art Conkey's controversial application to reopen a Bog Road gravel pit was incomplete and needs to be resubmitted. Grantham and Enfield residents, many of them in Eastman, are concerned that the pit will affect an aquifer that runs beneath it and supplies drinking water to up to 1,000 households, Sauchelli writes. Among other things, board members told Conkey that he hadn't adequately addressed the aquifer issue.Murals sprout in Old West Leb. Back at the start of this year, some fence scrim around the construction area at River Park was vandalized. At the time, Lyme Properties' Chet Clem said, "I think my response to the vandalism is going to be art." And here it is! Over last weekend, muralist Sam Paolini—who did the murals at Lalo’s Taqueria, Lucky’s Coffee Garage, and the Kilton Library—and visiting Ecuadorian artists Pino Supay and Fiorella Briz went to work, and the highly colorful results are now on display. "There will be more murals coming from Sam Pao to Bridge Street Park," Clem writes in an email.“I decided to trust my instincts and see where that led.” Hanover native Julian Higgins' new feature film, God's Country, opens in theaters around the country and at the Nugget (details below in Heads Up) today. Made as a small independent film, it set off a bidding war after it screened at Sundance "thanks to its mix of lyricism, realism and topicality, and an extraordinary performance by Thandiwe Newton," writes Alex Hanson in the VN. Hanson talked to Higgins about the complex story and the making of a film that "embodies...national tensions" while looking straight-on at real, nuanced characters.Hiking Close to Home: the Erwin Clifford Park Trail in Hartford. This is an easy, l7-mile loop around the park, on the west side of the White River in W. Hartford, the Upper Valley Trails Alliance says. The trail leaves from the lot at the park entrance and passes picnic areas on the bank of the White River, travels through a field, weaves around the horseshoe pits, then turns onto a smaller trail. Its route is fairly clear due to heavy use, and both the start and finish are marked with signs. The park is open from sunrise to 9 pm, with restrooms and athletic facilities available. Been paying attention this week? Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, what's the Red Clover Café's Janet Call like for lunch? And what's CATV's new name? And why do turkey vultures like the skies above West Leb? You'll find those and other questions at the maroon link.But wait! How closely were you following Vermont and New Hampshire news this week? Because Seven Days this morning is unveiling its statewide news quiz, joining Daybreak and NHPR in the whole regional news games family.
So... Do you know what VT has just begun licensing? And what's been happening with at least one Indiana bat colony in the state? And what's that guy from Australia helping Amish farmers with? Check it out here!
Meanwhile, in NH... Who's expressing openness to climate action? And students doing what in the state have doubled over the past year? And advocates want to link which two communities by passenger rail? You'll find that one here.
SPONSORED: Blockbuster annual book sale tomorrow and Sunday in Plainfield. Thousands of books at inflation-buster prices (most are hardcovers and trade paperbacks for $3 and regular paperbacks for 50 cents on Saturday, half price Sunday). This has been a top book sale for over 40 years. At Plainfield Town Hall (home of the Maxfield Parrish Stage Set, a national treasure), 1079 Route 12A (across from William Smith Auction). Cash or personal check. Masks recommended. Sponsored by Friends of Philip Read Memorial Library, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.UVM prez pushes back on anti-semitism allegations. In a statement yesterday, Suresh Garimella said a complaint that's led to a federal civil rights investigation “painted our community in a patently false light,” reports VTDigger's Peter D'Auria. An investigation of rocks being thrown at a Hillel building found it was to get the attention of a friend, while after a teaching assistant mused about lowering the grades of students who believe in Zionism, the university found no actual instance of discrimination. And groups that barred pro-Israel students were not formally affiliated with the university.Cautious but optimistic, VT’s 2023 performing arts calendar takes shape. Stage performers and their audiences have had a long two and a half years. Now that things (fingers crossed) are trending towards normal, shows of all stripes are returning, though the landscape has changed. Seven Days rounds up some of what we can look forward to around the state, from plays and ballet to concerts and comedians. The Hop is highlighted for this weekend’s performances of The Ritual of Breath is the Rite to Resist, an immersive, stirring multimedia chamber opera co-created by two Dartmouth profs."Almost everyone was grinning with joy": Why you want to get up off the couch for live performance. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the people who present live performances, Seven Days publisher Paula Routly writes in her intro to the performing arts package above, is "getting people back in the habit of consuming culture. That is, gathering together to take a chance on someone else's art, with nary a TV remote in sight." She focuses on a couple of Burlington-area outdoor shows produced by the Flynn, but wherever the art, her essay sparks a thrill of recognition, of elation long neglected.Pastrami tacos, tandoori spaghetti, and the rise of “chaos cuisine.” In the 1980s, “fusion” restaurants began to populate the culinary scene—loosening French and Italian cooking’s monopoly on taste. Chefs today are pushing boundaries even further, with a “Frankenstein’s monster mash of cuisines,” writes Eater’s Jaya Saxena, that would offend the haughtiest gourmand…if the food weren’t so delicious. Saxena’s zesty article explores a trend that treads the “vast gray space between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange” and asks, “Why limit yourself to what’s been done? Why not try?”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. If you'd like that, sign up here.
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T-shirts, tank tops, and, of course, coffee/tea/cocoa mugs. It's all available thanks to Strong Rabbit Designs in Sharon. Check out what's available and wear it or drink from it proudly! Email me ([email protected]) if you've got questions.
This morning at 9 am over at Killington, the US Open of Mountain Biking returns to that mountain for the first time since 2018. Events actually began yesterday, but the competition is today through Sunday. Lots of demos, poster-signing, beer, and other hoopla surrounding the actual races. No charge to be a spectator, bike park open to anyone throughout the weekend.
Today at 1:30 pm (and again at 4:10 and 6:50, and on subsequent days), Hanover's Nugget Theater joins the national opening run of Hanover High grad Julian Higgins' feature film, God's Country. Executive produced by fellow Hanover grad Anthony Ciardelli, the film stars Thandiwe Newton in Higgins' "slow-burn drama" (Hollywood Reporter) based on a James Lee Burke short story about an escalating dispute between a college professor and two hunters in a small Montana town. Trailer here.
At 7:30 (and again tomorrow night at the same time), the Hopkins Center-commissioned opera in seven movements, The Ritual of Breath is the Rite to Resist, gets its long-awaited premiere in Spaulding. It will be preceded at 6:45 by a ritual on the Hop plaza, and followed by a conversation with its creators. Co-commissioned with Stanford Live, the work has its roots in a collaboration between painter and Dartmouth studio arts prof Enrico Riley and Jonathan Berger, a composer and music prof at Stanford, following the murder of Eric Garner in 2014. The two worked with poet and Dartmouth English professor Vievee Francis to craft the libretto. Scored for soprano, tenor saxophone, and chamber ensemble, it features dance, immersive projections, a community chorus, and onstage cameras controlled by the performers.
Also at 7:30, the Anonymous Coffeehouse is back at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon for the fall, starting tonight at 7:30 with oddball folk musician Dylan Patrick Ward, followed at 8:15 by progressive folk band Amber Wilds.
And if you feel like a little bit of a drive, also at 7:30 Next Stage Arts in Putney brings in the Yamma Ensemble, an Israeli world music group focused on the traditional and contemporary music of Israel and Jewish communities from Yemen, the Sephardic world, Hasidic communities, and elsewhere.
Tomorrow is Smithsonian magazine's national Museum Day, in which participating museums all over the country offer free general admission (you'll need to download a ticket). The American Precision Museum in Windsor, the Millyard Museum in Manchester, the New Hampshire Telephone Museum in Warner, and others (at the link) are participating.
At 2 pm tomorrow, Valley Improv is doing its final outdoor show of the season on Passumpsic Ave. in Wilder. The show features the group's ten new performers. There's no charge, but registration is required.
Tomorrow at 5 pm, Artistree in S. Pomfret hosts Vermont resident and Detroit-born pianist and composer Christopher Bakriges and his quartet—guitarist Peter Trias, bassist James Daggs, and percussionist Billy Arnold—playing jazz "inspired by songs and spirit from around the world in celebration of the global humanitarian efforts and achievements of people and agencies working for peace through the universal language of music."
And at 7 pm tomorrow, the Chandler in Randolph brings in Swedish and world music duo Symbio: Johannes Geworkian Hellman on hurdy-gurdy and LarsEmil Öjeberget on accordion and kickbox.
The next "Dayhike & Dine" organized by Jared Pendak for Bradford Rec will take off from the Bradford VT Park & Ride on Sunday and head to Mt. Pisgah, on the shores of Lake Willoughby—a 4-miler with 1,600 feet of elevation gain, "steep in certain sections," Jared writes, "but the payoff is marvelous!" The "Dine" part is at the Robert Frost Tavern, in the Willoughvale Inn at the northern end of the lake. Meet at the park & ride (848 Waits River Rd.) at 10 am to carpool up. (No link)
At 11:30 on Sunday, registration opens for the annual charity golf tournament at Montague Country Club in Randolph put on by WRJ's American Legion Post 84. The entry fee includes 18 holes of golf, food, and prizes. No link, but for more info email Scott Holmes at [email protected].
And to take us into the weekend...
"What's better than a French soul singer killing it on an Otis Redding cover?" writes a reader. What, indeed?
(Thanks, AFG!)
Have a wonderful weekend. 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.
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