GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Fog again, then sun again. High pressure's settling in for the weekend and early next week, so though we'll start out in the gloom again first thing, it should be gone by mid-morning—and after that we get a sparkling day with highs around or above 80. No real wind to speak of, lows tonight in the mid-50s.Oh, yeah, and in case you were wondering: The rain helped, but not enough. 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 over on the Vermont side the same holds for most of Windsor and all of Orange counties.
Possum playing. Or, well, scratching, on Erin Donahue's trail cam in E. Thetford. Ted Levin writes, "In the 17th century, opossums were a beast of the South. They reached NY in the 19th century, CT in the 1920s. By the 1940s, they appeared in RI, MA, NH, and VT. Now, they sort through trash in southern ME. Mild winters contribute to their range extension. When nine-banded armadillos—which along with porcupines are members of the Great American Interchange (mammals with South American pedigrees)—appear on the Dartmouth Green, climate deniers will face a stiff challenge."Chipmunk Positioning System. Henry gets lost in Lost Woods, but it turns out that help is at hand. As he does every week, Lebanon writer and illustrator DB Johnson chronicles the doings in Lost Woods—and on his blog he writes about turning an idea that's a conversation stopper into an idea you can run with.Hiker from Mississippi appears to have drowned in the Connecticut. Late yesterday morning, police in Norwich got a call about a missing hiker who had been staying at the hostel on Route 5. He was last seen Wednesday evening headed toward the river. Yesterday afternoon, crews from NH Fish & Game and the Hanover Fire Department found him in the water; he was pronounced dead at the scene. The NH Marine Patrol is investigating, and the NH State Police say at this time "the death is not considered suspicious."Opposition to Dollar General builds in S. Royalton. A loosely organized group of residents, writes Jo Levasseur in the Herald, is petitioning the selectboard to oppose the big box retailer. "We know it’s not a legally binding petition, it’s an opinion,” says organizer Hoyt Bingham. “But we just want to do something. We are the community and they’re just not listening.” Right now, it's unclear what might go into new retail space that Aubuchon Realty wants to build, but as the VN's Jim Kenyon reported over the weekend, Dollar General is interested. The proposed building is before the District 2 Act 250 Commission.SPONSORED: Telluride at Dartmouth tickets now on sale! Upper Valley film buffs will get a rare chance to see advance screenings of seven incredible films from the acclaimed Telluride Film Festival. As part of the annual Telluride at Dartmouth mini-festival, the curated selections will play at the Hop from September 23-30. Check out the full lineup of some of this year’s most anticipated Oscar hopefuls. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.Claremont hires new city manager. Octavian “Yoshi” Manale's job still rests on passing a background check, reports Patrick O'Grady in the Valley News, but assuming that goes through, he's expected to start in October. Manale, the former deputy mayor of Trenton, NJ, went on to serve five months as town manager of Brattleboro. He resigned after a decision to end a contract with Brattleboro's EMS provider sparked widespread controversy. At the time, he lamented the prominence his position brought him while living in a small community. Brattleboro has about 7,300 residents, Claremont close to 13,000.DHMC cuts ribbon on expanded ER. The $7 million addition has been in the works for the past 16 months, and will add decontamination areas in case of "high-threat" infections as well as 11 beds, most of them aimed at patients with emergency mental-health needs, reports NBC5's John Hawks. Unusually, those rooms have windows. "The ability to have natural light, the ability to look outside and not feel so confined is part of all of our mental health every day," says executive VP Susan Reeves.So how does a Randolph librarian come to own one of the internet's oldest social-media sites? Jessamyn West, who's an online mainstay in the library circles and works part-time at the Kimball Library in Randolph, was initially a community manager at MetaFilter, which easily predates Facebook and is "essentially an online community blog," as she puts it. West worked there for a while, quit but stayed involved, and—we're fast-forwarding here—has just become its CEO. She gets deep into the online-world weeds with UMass-Amherst's Ethan Zuckerman. (h/t to David Brooks for noticing it.)VLGS is "100 percent permanently committed to being in South Royalton." Vermont Law & Graduate School kicked off the school year last week with a convocation led by its new president, Rodney Smolla, and Herald publisher Tim Calabro took the opportunity to talk with Smolla about his and the school's plans. Its first online graduate program is fully subscribed, and Smolla says his first priorities are to build enrollment in both its law and graduate programs and to hire their permanent deans.Need some help making up your mind in next week's NH primaries? In-person balloting is on Tuesday and there are intriguing contests for the state's three federal offices, Executive Council, and the legislature. Citizens Count has a candidates' guide out, the Valley News has been covering local contests in Grafton and Sullivan counties—including, today, the six-candidate contest for four House seats in Hanover—and the Secretary of State's office has helpful basic information. A quick guide with links at the burgundy link.Hiking Close to Home: Grantham Town Forest. This week's suggestion from the Upper Valley Trails Alliance brings you to a trail network with over 13 miles of easy and moderate options and scenic views, historic ruins, lakes, and lovely streams. From Exit 13 off of I-89, head north on Old NH 10 for 2.6 miles, then left on Miller Pond Road, going 2.4 miles to the end. The road forks there; stay left to the large gravel parking area on the left. From there continue on foot through the gate and up the hill to the intersection of Mountain/Miller Pond Road and the Croydon Turnpike.Been paying attention this week? Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, why is Enfield considering moving its town beach? And what did those two guys do in Franconia Notch that got them fined by NH Fish & Game? And what does Lou's owner Jarett Berke like for breakfast there? You'll find those and other questions at the maroon link.And guess what! Now you can test your statewide news knowledge. NHPR has joined up with the Hanover-based News Games`team to create a statewide quiz (at the burgundy link) on the past week's news. For instance, what's starting to roll out in the state this week? And that state committee that just met in Keene is about to start writing a report on... what? Meanwhile, don't fret, Vermonters! Seven Days is joining the news games throng, and its quiz is slated to go live next week."It's not just you." Facing rising electricity prices, that is. But it turns out that prices imposed by different utilities vary dramatically—some NH ratepayers have seen bills jump $70, while in MA it's more like $11—and WBUR's Miriam Wasser and NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian pull apart the reasons. At heart, it's due to much of New England's reliance on natural gas, but the issue at the moment is the "supply rate" utilities procured at auction from power generators. An Eversource customer in NH may pay 22.57 cents per kilowatt hour vs. the 17.87 cents for an Eversource customer in MA and 12.05 cents for one in CT.
And Jay Peak goes to... Pacific Group Resorts. The Park City UT-based company offered $76 million for the ski resort at an auction on Wednesday, reports VTDigger's Alan J. Keays. Pacific Group owns resorts around the Mountain West, as well as Ragged Mountain in NH. A federal judge still has to approve the sale, but assuming he does, the transaction should close before the start of the upcoming ski/snowboard season.Goddard College opens its campus as it seeks new revenue. As a low-residency school, Goddard is, for long stretches of time, virtually empty. Recent downward trends in student enrollment have led its new president, Dan Hocoy, to find creative ways to use campus spaces to raise more money—and build stronger ties with the wider community. Among the new uses, writes Seven Days’ Anne Wallace Allen, every day the dining hall becomes Goddard Café, a tasty breakfast spot that community members have happily adopted. And area schools and learning programs are taking advantage of classrooms and dorms.Yeah, I'd have pulled over, too. Down in Brattleboro yesterday, a mom bear and three cubs perched in a tree had people along Western Avenue stopping to snap photos. Which made for some anxious moments for Nathan Greco, a VT state trooper who'd been filling his gas tank nearby, reports Bob Audette in the Brattleboro Reformer. “I’d rather not someone get attacked by a bear today,” Greco—who moved to VT from Brooklyn—said. Eventually, state bear biologist Jaclyn Comeau arrived; two of the cubs had descended, and she guessed the mom and third cub would wait until dusk. Video and pics at the link.Planning to travel for foliage season? It's not totally clear why you would, since foliage season comes to us, but in case you want to get a sense of when things will be at their best, for the last nine years a tourism site focused on the Smoky Mountains has put together a foliage map whose algorithm uses historical temperature and precipitation data, temperature forecasts, user reports, and past years’ leaf trends to forecast foliage colors. Looks like the sweet spot around here this year will be the first week of October—though its creators warn "no tool can be 100% accurate."The face of the earth is a canvas in these award-winning drone photos. The first known aerial photo was captured by a balloonist high above a small French village in 1858. Today, the photographer needn’t leave the ground. Drones have revolutionized aerial photography, and it’s easy to see why: They reach places and achieve perspectives that no other aircraft can. This year’s Drone Photo Awards demonstrate an incredible array of creativity in the artists’ use of the technology—from the overall winner’s dragon’s-eye view of a volcanic fissure to cityscapes and nature abstracts galore.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. If you'd like that, sign up here.
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At 5 pm today, Kishka Gallery in WRJ holds its postponed opening for "Effigies," an exhibit of drawings and paintings by the Queens, NY-based artist Julian Adon Alexander. His specialty, Kishka says: "candidly depict[ing] places and people that one might walk by on the way to a destination and otherwise not pay attention to."
Also at 5 pm, online, NH Humanities presents "Coming to America: Two Perspectives on Asylum." It's a conversation with Behishta Sadaat, a Dartmouth graduate student, who is originally from Afghanistan, and Clement Kigugu, executive director of Overcomers Refugee Services, originally from Rwanda. They'll be talking about their experiences escaping conflict, coming to the US, and, eventually, making a home in New Hampshire.
This evening at 6, Pentangle's Music By the River at East End Park in Woodstock welcomes Boston-raised, Burlington-based singer-songwriter Ali McGuirk. Winner of numerous Boston Music Awards, including four for blues artist, she says of her influences, “In high school, it was Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. In college, it was jazz [e.g., Dinah Washington, Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, and Abbey Lincoln]. And all along it’s been soul. My go-to is still turning on Donny Hathaway to chill.”
At 7 pm, if you feel like a little drive, Stage 33 in Bellows Falls (a volunteer-run listening room—"Not a bar, not a club, not a restaurant. Honor the stage") brings in acoustic festival-jammers Spike Dogtooth—bluegrass, Irish, cowgirl-swing, folk, acoustic rock, country blues—and multi-instrumental roots musician Sam Duffy. There will, they say, be room for dancing.
And at 7:30 this evening, Mystic Bowie and his Talking Dreads take the stage at the Lebanon Opera House. Two decades after he got to know Talking Heads founding members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth as part of Tom Tom Club, the Jamaican-born Bowie ran the Talking Heads catalog through the roots reggae, ska and lover’s rock (aka “romantic reggae”) mixer of his native island. “Talking Dreads is much more than a cover band,” he says. “I am very much drawing on my own musical culture and history to make these amazing songs my own, while at the same time preserving the integrity of the Talking Heads songs. I’ve always felt that reggae’s dance-inspiring, feel good vibe is universal, as are many of the band’s songs." To honor that groove, LOH has two types of tickets: general admission down in the orchestra if you want to move a lot, or assigned seating up in the balcony.
Tomorrow morning at 9, Friends of the Morrill Homestead and the Center for Justice Reform at VT Law & Grad School kick off a morning-long symposium on the impact that the Morrill Act, which established the nation's system of land-grant colleges starting in the 1860s, had on tribal lands. Which, in a word, wasn't good: It took millions of acres from tribal nations. Speakers include Grist editor Tristan Ahtone, Cambridge history prof Robert Lee, Hillary Hoffman of the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition, Elnu Abenaki spokesman Rich Hoschuh, and others. Here's Liz Sauchelli's article and interview with Lee in the VN.
Starting at 11 am tomorrow, the Enfield Shaker Museum sets its annual Harvest Festival rolling. Traditional crafts (which you can try for yourself), music by Cardigan Mountain Tradition, goat's-milk gelato by Sweet Doe Dairy, horse-drawn wagon rides by Streeter Farm, the Let’s Get Loaded food truck, museum tours, and more.
Also starting at 11 tomorrow and Sunday, the East Barnard Community Hall will host a linen fair organized by several locals. As Jo Levasseur writes in the Herald, the event "will celebrate and demonstrate traditional harvesting and retting of flax, from crops grown this season in the Broad Brook valley, and spinning and weaving demonstrations in the making of linen." ("Retting," she explains, is soaking the stalks so that the fiber separates from the core; once the flax is then dried, it can last for years.)
Tomorrow at 1 pm, Thetford's summer-long Front Porch Music Series moves to the bandstand on the South Royalton green for the remainder of its run. Free-form jazz musicians Bill Cole on non-western, double-reeded wind instruments (including didgeridoo); Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet, trumpet, and, maybe, plastic funnel; Ras Moshe on various flutes, alto and baritone saxophones, and percussion; and Joseph Daley on tuba and baritone horn pick up their ongoing musical conversation. (No link)
And tomorrow at 7:30 pm, the Tracy Hall contra dances return to Norwich. Music by the New England-based contra trio Stomp Rocket and calling by "veteran"-doesn't-even-begin-to-describe-it caller David Millstone. All dances taught, beginners welcome, and masks and vax proof will be required.
The Upper Valley Trails Alliance's annual Tour de Taste gets going at 10 am on Sunday, but you need to pre-register by this evening. It's a leisurely bike tour along both sides of the Connecticut River or around Lake Morey, starting and ending in Fairlee, with food stops along the way featuring fine foods from area restaurants and farms, including Carpenter & Main, Ariana's, Trail Break, Gladstone Creamery, Riverview Farm, Poverty Lane, and plenty of others.
And at 7:30 pm on Sunday, country music singer Lorrie Morgan (formally Loretta Lynn Morgan) takes the stage at the Lebanon Opera House. She got her start when she was 13 pretty much right up at the top: performing on the Grand Ole Opry with her dad, country star George Morgan. Eventually, she began topping the country charts herself. No one sums up her life better than she does: "I have been a daughter, a bride, a mother, a divorcée, a widow, a single mother, a breadwinner, and a survivor. In many ways, I am a living, breathing country song.” There are still tickets left, but not if you want to sit up close.
And music for a Friday...
Oh, gosh,
so
many choices! But look, there's good music all over the Upper Valley this weekend and why not get a taste of some of it? Like,
off her just-released new album. Or if you're in an in-your-face-from-a-woman-wronged country mood—"Wednesday, I feel better, just for spite"—
And then
One
of those will set you up right for the weekend. Or heck, maybe all three.
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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