GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, cooler. There may be some lingering clouds this morning from a cold front that came through last night, but they’ll disappear as the air dries out aloft. Temps will be markedly lower than yesterday, with highs in the upper 60s or low 70s.
Drought update. It’s not good news. Much of Grafton County remains in extreme drought, with the swath of red now extending into Sullivan County and eastwards across NH into ME. Meanwhile, easternmost VT from WRJ north into Orange County up to Newbury has also fallen into extreme drought.
Summer fades, but its colors are still with us. At least, the flowers seem to be holding their own.
Here’s a vibrant stretch of asters (yellow false sunflower and purple New York ironweed) at Hartford’s Maxfield pickleball courts, from Tad Montgomery;
An eye-catching vision of dahlias, almost like a painting, at the Norwich Farmers Market, from Janice Fischel;
And a single, diva dahlia from Doris LaMontagne in N. Thetford, who writes, “In my 30 years of growing dahlias, 2025 has been one of the most challenging growing years I've experienced. First, excessive rainfall occurred at planting time. Then, there was the mid-summer heat followed by a drought. At last, along comes September, and my dahlias are strutting their stuff…”
Did you catch Dear Daybreak yesterday? If not, you missed Kathy Smith’s lovely photo of a young farmer napping among her cows at the Tunbridge Fair; Emma Templeton and Jason Hirschhorn’s inventive Upper Valley-themed wedding last month, Matt Cardillo’s encounter with some unexpected ring-necked pheasants; and John Stadler’s filmed-sung-and-animated alternative to the usual birthday song. And got a good story or anecdote about life in these parts? Dear Daybreak needs them! Here's where to send them in.
Traffic heads up: I-91 southbound on-ramp in Norwich to close today. In a press release yesterday afternoon, VTrans announced that the shutdown will start today at noon and last until October 3. In the agency’s careful words, it’s “to facilitate the ongoing bridge maintenance to the bridges on Interstate 91 north and south at Exit 13.” Put another way: It’s to avoid a repeat of the recent accident when a driver getting on the highway failed to stop and sideswiped a bus traveling in the single southbound lane that passes by the Exit 13 on-ramp. Traffic trying to get on I-91 South from Hanover/Norwich will be sent down Route 5 to Exit 12. No link.
Windsor County sheriff forgets key piece of paperwork for several deputies. At first glance, Mike Donoghue’s story in the VT Standard seems like nitpicking: In at least seven cases, he reports, Sheriff Ryan Palmer neglected to have the appointments of law enforcement employees notarized and filed with the county clerk. The problem: Under Vermont law, “A deputy shall not perform an official act” until that’s done. Palmer, who tells Donoghue, “It’s on me. I dropped the ball,” is filing the paperwork. But as Donoghue writes, it opens the question “what impact the non-recorded appointments would have on all the criminal and motor vehicle arrests” made by those deputies.
Bethel’s Kevin Balfe: From “sickest patient in New England” to “a miracle every single day.” Back in June, Balfe, who’s self-employed, was hauling a load of logging equipment when his tractor-trailer got stuck. He hopped out of the cab, writes Maryellen Apelquist in The Herald—and the truck rolled back onto him, severing a major artery and crushing his leg and half his pelvis. Emergency crews kept him alive in the ambulance, at Gifford, and in the DHART copter to DHMC. He’s had at least 20 operations since then. This weekend, his family, friends, and an expected crowd of 400-500 will show up for a pig roast and fundraiser to help out. Apelquist tells the story.
SPONSORED: One Night. One Dance Floor. One Unforgettable Lip Sync Battle. It’s the Positive Tracks Sweat For Good Games on Saturday, Sept. 27, 6–10 PM at Whaleback Mountain. Don't wait—get your tickets to a night packed with live DJ beats, dancing, drinks, appetizers, and a legendary lip sync competition. Sign up to rock the mic (totally optional!) or just come to laugh, cheer, and dance. All proceeds benefit Positive Tracks, an Upper Valley nonprofit helping young people change the world through the power of sport. Tix at the burgundy link or here. 21 and older only. Sponsored by Positive Tracks.
Now through November: Free or reduced-price arts events around the Upper Valley. The Upper Valley Arts Alliance yesterday announced a joint collaboration among its 30+ members (a Who’s Who of the visual and performing arts groups in the region) to boost arts access with “UV Arts For All”, “a rich tapestry of cultural experiences in dance, theater, music, media arts, and more.” You’ll find a full listing at the burgundy link.
Hiking Close to Home is back! With the Fall Foliage Hiking Guide. Fall colors are starting, notes the Upper Valley Trails Alliance, which makes this a fine time to plan for ways to see the season's spectacular (we hope) foliage from the trails. The guide is a curated collection of local hikes that include everything from elevated vistas to peaceful forest walks, along with links to details. One thing to remember: Dress in blaze orange during hunting season.
Were you paying attention this week? Here are the Friday news quizzes. At the link, you’ll find this week’s Daybreak quiz on the Upper Valley, NHPR’s New Hampshire quiz, and Seven Days’ Vermont quiz.
VT issues order allowing anyone 5 or older to get Covid vaccine. As Seven Days’ Derek Brouwer writes, “Confusion around vaccine eligibility has loomed” since the feds last month approved new versions of the shots but limited eligibility to people who are 65 years and older or have an elevated risk for becoming seriously ill. Vermont’s move yesterday is essentially a prescription — one that was a “necessary step to make sure those who want a vaccine, can get one,” said Gov. Phil Scott in a press release. VTDigger’s Olivia Gieger reports that both the state’s private insurers, BCBS and MVP, say they’ll continue covering Covid vaccines “at no cost and with no prior approval.”
“Not enough yet”: Hundreds of millions in pandemic-era spending have brought new affordable housing to VT—but it’s still far short of its needs. In a sweeping look at the state’s spending on housing in the first half of this decade, VT Public/VTDigger’s Carly Berlin and Digger data analyst Erin Petenko find that the state put $789 million of public funds (much of it federal) into new apartments and houses and rehabbing old ones. The result: 2,249 new homes and another 1,156 units rehabbed. Overall, the pair write, “it’s clear that the state has still yet to see the full impact” of its spending. They dive into why that’s the case.
Shelburne Farms: How a Gilded Age estate became “a treasure to the Vermont community around it and a resource for educators across the globe.” It’s been a journey “as winding as the property’s dirt roads,” writes Melissa Pasanen in a full-on Seven Days profile of the renowned farm, inn, gardens, and sustainability educators. She traces how the heirs of William Seward Webb and railroad heiress Lila Vanderbilt Webb navigated the transition from estate to down-at-the-heels working farm to its rebirth in the early ‘70s as a nonprofit to its “touch and go” first dozen years to its current place on the global map. With plenty of photos.
And hey, bear with me. You know who never gets recognized when big, complicated pieces like this—in Seven Days or at VTDigger or in the Valley News or the Standard or The Herald or any other news organization—come out? The editors who, as Seven Days publisher Paula Routly writes in a “Love Letter to the Editors”, shepherd “every step of the reporter’s pursuit of journalism, from vetting story ideas to writing the headlines and other packaging elements that ‘sell’ them to readers in print and on the web.” Not to mention all the work—structuring, decluttering, fact-verifying, rewording—on the piece itself. A glimpse behind the curtain.
Boom! Sometimes you just have to watch an explosion. In this case, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s drone’s-eye-views of yesterday’s implosion of the old 540’ nuclear cooling tower in Hartsville, TN, which has been inactive since it was built in the ‘70s.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
Opening reception for “Connections…A Celebration of Creativity, Communication and Community” at the Kilton Library. An exhibition of paintings created by Kendal residents with Alzheimer’s or dementia, in conjunction with the Upper Valley Walk to End Alzheimer's. 3-5 pm this afternoon.
Classicopia opens its season with “Four Hand Rhapsody”. Pianists Dan Weiser and Philip Liston-Kraft join forces on a single piano for works by Chabrier, Debussy, Liszt, and Moszkowski, along with a virtuoso arrangement of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." This evening at 6 in Contoocook, tomorrow at 2 pm in WRJ, and Sunday at noon in Lebanon. Link for details.
Saturday
“Eyes on Ash” walk in Pomfret. Forester Neil Lamson leads this Upper Valley Land Trust walk to teach participants to identify black and white ash and talk about his work to retain and recruit ash trees in response to Emerald Ash Borer on the UVLT’s Old Town Farm property. 10 am, 2395 Wild Apple Rd, Pomfret.
LebFest at Colburn Park in downtown Lebanon. The family-centered free event features 90 booths of activities, games, crafts, raffles, local vendors, music, food vendors, and a raging Mac & Cheese competition among local restaurants. 11am-3pm.
A two-day exhibition of Suzanne Opton’s Vermont photos at Towle Hill, Corinth. Opton’s work hangs in several major museums; this collection of black and white photographs, curated by Dian Parker and Andy Kolovos of Vermont Folklife, features Chelsea residents from the early ‘70s in their homes and on their land, and images created 20 years later with reenactments of the originals. Noon-6 tomorrow, noon-3 Sunday, reception tomorrow at 4 pm.
Fermentation celebration at Root 5 Farm in Fairlee. It’s an afternoon-long gathering of fermentation enthusiasts as local producers, bakers, and brewers join with anyone who’s interested to talk kraut, kombucha, sourdough, mead, hard cider, and more, with samples, demos, a starter swap, and music by Route 5 Jive. 1-5 pm.
At the Norwich Bookstore, poets Joe Elliot, Duncan Nichols, Kate Magill. Elliot, from Brooklyn, will be reading from his new collection, An Everything, and has asked NH poet Magill and Thetford playwright and poet Nichols to join in. 2 pm tomorrow.
Upper Valley Baroque presents Handel’s Messiah. Two performances of the rarely heard complete masterwork, with arias performed by over a dozen vocal soloists, virtuosic and choruses, and musicians from throughout the Northeast on baroque instruments, all under the baton of Filippo Ciabatti. 3 pm tomorrow at the Chandler Arts in Randolph, Sunday at 3 pm at Lebanon Opera House.
African percussion workshop with Mamadou Diabate. The Burkina Faso-born musician, an adjunct prof at Dartmouth, will introduce rhythms through the balafon, a traditional African wooden xylophone, as well as tension drums, barrel drums, cowbells, and shakers. No charge, 3:30 pm at the Kilton Library in W. Leb.
Pianist Annemieke McLane and bassist Nicholas Browne at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College. They’ll perform three unusual works—for bass and piano—by Fuchs, Schubert and Anderson. 7-8 pm, 40 College Street in Hanover. No link.
Sunday
Upper Valley Sun Day in Norwich. The local version of a national solar/wind celebration, organized by the energy committees of Norwich, Thetford, Lyme, Lebanon, and Hanover, it starts with a parade across the Ledyard Bridge, and winds up at the green with displays, exhibitions, and more from Fogg’s, a range of churches and solar companies, the Norwich/Hanover/Lyme Window Dressers Build program, and lots more, including food trucks. 10:30 am to 1 pm.
Newmont Military Band in Claremont. The West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts presents the joint NH-VT group that performs on period instruments with an eye toward keeping the tradition and history of 19th Century town bands alive. Union Episcopal Church, 2 pm.
Violinist Liana Branscome and violist Tanner Menees at Woodstock’s North Chapel. It’s the first concert in the chapel’s fall chamber concert series, with the duo performing works for violin and viola by Mozart, three of the Two-Part Inventions by Bach, and Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola by Martinu. 2 pm Sunday, free.
Sara Grey and Kieron Means at Roots & Wings. Grey grew up in the Upper Valley but moved to the UK many years ago, where she collected and performed folk songs with variants in both the British Isles and the Americas, especially New England. She now lives in Middlebury and Means, her son, is carrying on the tradition. 4 pm, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich.
Hey, it’s the weekend!
Seems like the right time to go up-tempo: New Orleans traditional street band Tuba Skinny meets up with French traditional street band Ramene Ta Trompette on the streets of Toulouse for “By and By”.
See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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