GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Enjoy this while it lasts... Cold front coming through tomorrow, but today we get a calm day, though cloudier than yesterday. Still, temps into the mid-70s and we should see some sky out there, especially later in the day. Winds from the south, low 60s tonight."Can't you two find something constructive to do?" That's an exasperated Henry talking to Eddie and Auk, so you know the answer. It's Lost Woods, Week 42, and as he does every Friday in this spot, author and illustrator DB Johnson (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg and other classics) chronicles the doings in his favorite patch of woods.Scroll right to move on to the next panel or left to catch up on previous weeks. Norwich Selectboard offers interim town manager job to...someone. But it's not identifying its candidate, reports Tim Camerato in the Valley News. Its members voted Tuesday night to "make an offer of employment" until it can permanently fill the job left vacant by its decision not to rehire Herb Durfee; town planner Rod Francis has been filling in since Durfee left a few weeks ago. The town's offer, Selectboard Chair Roger Arnold says, is contingent on reference and background checks and the board "hopes to share more details about the candidate and their background at the earliest practical moment."Montshire, Family Place land $170K grant to help young parents and their kids with STEM learning. The money, which comes from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, will help the two organizations create a monthly STEM learning program for families that receive services from The Family Place, turn the Montshire into an official training worksite for science communication and customer service, and help staff at both organizations develop their own, family- and child-oriented professional skills.SPONSORED: Solar will provide 50 percent of electricity by 2050. That's up from 3 percent today, according to the latest forecast from the U.S. Department of Energy. Combined with batteries, smart inverters, microgrids and artificial intelligence, solar is leading the energy marketplace into a fossil-free future. Are you ready to get on board? For more on the new DOE report—and how you can decarbonize your own household—check out the maroon link. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.Time for flu shots! The Valley News has pulled together a helpful guide to what's out there. DHMC is offering both drive-thru and on-site clinics, all of which require an appointment. The Public Health Council is hosting walk-in clinics in Meriden, Enfield, Bradford, and elsewhere. Visiting Nurse and Hospice of VT/NH will hold a clinic in October in Woodstock, while the Lake Sunapee Region VNA & Hospice will hold clinics starting next week all over the region. Details at the link.If you're in the mood for a little lunch road trip... When its last operators announced in July that they were stepping down, the community-run Peacham Café found its new team 28 minutes after the call was put out, writes Jordan Barry in Seven Days. Leveraging built-in ties to the area's farms, pasture-raised meats, and a bakery, the cafe’s new operators “really love its community nature.” And last week, they lured guests back in with sandwiches on wood-fired bread, chicken and dumplings, fresh pastries, and more.Hiking Close to Home: French's Ledges. This week, the Upper Valley Trails Alliance checks in with a fun network of trails in Plainfield, NH that offer beautiful 360-degree views atop the ledges. The network includes 8 miles of trails connected to Plainfield Elementary and the remains of the old Plainfield ski school. You'll find old ski cabins and lifts on your way to the top—a perfect fall foliage hike for families—and in winter, a 10K groomed cross-country ski network is maintained by the Plainfield Trailblazers. NH Executive Council nixes contracts for reproductive health providers that offer abortions. The 4-1 party-line vote came on Wednesday as GOP members voiced concern that state funds would be used for abortion services, despite testimony from state officials that no public funds were being used for that purpose. Planned Parenthood clinics around the state were among those affected, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman.In NH, Big Salad moves in. lēf Farms, the Loudon-based grower of greenhouse salad greens, was bought this summer by the multistate indoor farm giant Brightfarms, which operates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, and North Carolina, reports David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog. Brightfarms, which in August was bought by international conglomerate Cox Enterprises, says it plans to expand lēf's facility to “eventually become a 14-acre growing hub for the region, supplying 4 million pounds of locally grown lettuce to New England supermarkets.”NH "struggling" to keep accurate school Covid count. NHPR's Sarah Gibson reports that the state's school dashboard "is missing dozens of cases, including in districts with substantial clusters." In essence, keeping as accurate a count as possible is up to school nurses and district staff, Gibson reports; the state is only tracking "the clusters we know about," health commissioner Lori Shibinette said at a press conference Wednesday. The discrepancy can be big: The state says Bedford's schools have 4 cases; the district says it has 28.VT, NH prepare for Afghan refugees. Vermont has been approved to welcome up to 100 people evacuated from Afghanistan as the US military withdrew, reports Alison Novak in Seven Days. And New Hampshire will receive between 100 and 200 displaced Afghans, writes Amanda Gokee in NH Bulletin. In both states, actual arrivals will depend on the federal screening process, but resettlement agencies and state offices are preparing for the first to show up in the next few weeks.Yet another "Best of VT" list can still pack some surprises. It's gotta be fall if the Lonely Planet folks and their ilk are putting out roundups of must-see, must-do farmers’ markets and craft beer tours. Easy though it is to scoff at the predictable—but still delightful—favorites, this list pulls in a few things that even the born-and-bred may appreciate. Like, have you been to the VT Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe? How about the Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburg, showcasing VT’s role in the Underground Railroad? And do you know why those whale tails sprout up along I-89 in Randolph and Chittenden County?
"You live on a Vermont farm and you write and teach and have kids and you raise sheep and grow blueberries." And none of that, writer Joni Cole says to mystery writer Sarah Stewart Taylor, "suggests any affinity for the world of cops." So how, Cole wonders on her Author, Can I Ask You? podcast interview with Taylor, did she come up with the character of her detective, Maggie D'Arcy? It began, Taylor says, with a series of women disappearing while she was living and working in Ireland, and a question she asked herself: What would it be like to be the family member of someone who disappeared?Boy, I wish I could do this. Ben Ouaniche is a cinematographer based in Tel Aviv who specializes in... well, technically the magic of post-production, but actually, the magic of playing with our perceptions. Or in this case, "Playing with Time." It's just a minute, 33 seconds, but you'll see the world a little differently when you're done.
And the numbers...For the time being, Daybreak is reporting Covid numbers on Tuesdays and Fridays.
NH has been playing catchup, and has reported 1,577 cases since Sunday, bringing it to 113,903 for the pandemic. There have been 9 deaths since then, bringing the total to 1,452. The active caseload stands at 4,030 3,437 (+593) and hospitalizations at 126 (-28). The state reports 166 active cases in Grafton County (+52), 122 in Sullivan County (+34), and 475 in Merrimack County (+60). Town-by-town numbers reported by the state: Claremont: 56 (+14 since Sunday); Hanover 26 (+13); Lebanon 22 (no change); Newport 21 (+8); Charlestown 14 (+5); Haverhill 13 (+2); Wentworth 10 (+at least 6); New London 7 (-3); Sunapee 7 (+1); Newbury 6 (-3); Canaan 6 (no change); Warren, Orford, Lyme, Enfield, Plainfield, Grantham, Springfield, Cornish, and Croydon have 1-4 each. Orange is off the list.
VT reported 182 new cases on Tuesday, 136 Wednesday, and 314 yesterday. The state yesterday explained: "While this is technically the largest single day report...we had an outside vendor IT glitch that delayed the delivery of test results. At this time, we believe the issue has been resolved." It now stands at 30,922 for the pandemic. re were 6 new deaths during that time; they now number 294. As of yesterday, 42 people with confirmed cases were hospitalized (+4). Windsor County has seen 39 new cases since Monday, for a total of 1,967 for the pandemic, with 176 new cases over the past two weeks; Orange County gained 12 cases during the same time, with 56 over the past two weeks for a total of 993 for the pandemic.
Dartmouth reported yesterdaythat there are now 13 cases among undergrads (+1), 5 among grad and professional students (no change), and 4 among faculty and staff (+1). Nobody is in quarantine, 18 students and 8 faculty/staff are in isolation.
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Well. The Hop is back. At 4 pm, it launches Telluride at Dartmouth with Olivia Colman in Maggie Gyllenhaal's debut as a director, The Lost Daughter, her adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel. Second showing at 7. And at 7:30 this evening in the Moore Theater, Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, the mother-daughter dancers, choreographers, and creative duo behind the Minneapolis-based Ragamala Dance Company, present Fires of Varanasi, their theatrical reimagining of the birth-death-rebirth continuum in Hindu thought, honoring immigrant experiences of life and death in the diaspora.
This evening at 6, VINS hosts biologist Jonathan Slaght for an online talk, "Owls of the Eastern Ice," about his years of research in far eastern Russia on the Blakiston's fish owl. From the description: "Slaght takes us to the Primorye region of Eastern Russia, where we join a small team for late-night monitoring missions, on mad dashes across thawing rivers, drink vodka with mystics, hermits, and scientists, and listen to fireside tales of Amur tigers. Most captivating of all are the fish owls themselves: careful hunters, devoted parents, singers of eerie duets, and irrepressible survivors in a harsh and shrinking habitat."
At 7:30, the Lebanon Opera House brings in guitar maestro Johnny A. (his last name is Antonopoulos). He's got a Gibson signature guitar named after him, is in the Boston Music Hall of Fame, has played with a bunch of rock musicians, joined the Yardbirds in 2015, and has put together, LOH says, "an intimate solo performance that celebrates some of the most influential guitar work in history — with an emphasis on the British songbook of the ‘60s." Masks required (the vaccine/negative-test requirement doesn't go into effect until Oct. 1).
That Russian owls talk is the kickoff event for VINS's 2021 Owl Festival, taking place from 9-5 on Saturday. Crafts, photography, art, falconry, owl lectures, raptors up close... Here's the schedule. It goes along with VINS admission.
Also on Saturday, from 10-3, it's the Norwich Historical Society's annual antique show, with dealers from all over New England bringing in antique furniture, rugs, art, and collectibles—each in their own socially-distanced tent. Music, Antiques Roadshow (11-1), Raffle. Masks required.
At 4 pm on Saturday, the Lebanon Congregational Church hosts "Virtuoso in Every Way"—internationally renowned cellist Cecylia Barczyk and her daughter, Lebanon-based pianist and teacher Elizabeth Borowsky. The diverse program includes music of François Francoeur, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ernest Bloch, and Francis Poulenc. Admission by donation. Masks reqd.
Also at 4 and 7 pm, it's the second Telluride film at the Hop, Benedict Cumberbatch on horseback in 1920s Montana, in Jane Campion's adaptation of Thomas Savage's 1967 cult novel, The Power of the Dog.
Sunday at 2 pm, the Morrill Homestead kicks off its final presentation in its three-part series on the Abenaki experience with father and son storytellers and musicians Joseph and Jesse Bruchac of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation sharing Abenaki stories for the whole family. Then, at 4 pm, the Bruchacs take up the contemporary Abenaki experience and vibrant cultural heritage, with special emphasis on the years of the Vermont Eugenics project and the struggle for government recognition.
Also at 4 on Sunday, the Lebanon Congregational Church hosts a benefit concert by Cameo Baroque. Ernie Drown, Beth Hilgartner, Leslie Stroud, and Laurie Rabut share their considerable collective musicianship in a program of French Baroque chamber music. Benefits go to Hearts You Hold, the Thetford-based organization that works to meet the needs of immigrant and refugee families in the Upper Valley.
Finally, at 4 and 7 on Sunday, it's the third Telluride film at the Hop, Iranian Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi's A Hero, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in June.
Sixto Rodriguez may once have been forgotten in the US, but after Searching for Sugar Man resurrected his story (and highlighted his fame in South Africa), that ended. Now Black Pumas—the Austin-based "psychedelic soul band" led by Eric Burton and Adrian Quesada (if you watched the Biden inauguration, you saw them perform)—have covered one of Rodriguez' early hits, "Sugar Man" in a version that's both right now and very much late '60s/early '70s.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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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