GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly to mostly sunny; get ready for some heat. High pressure is taking over and we're at the start of a warming trend that today will bring us highs around 80—but will feel cool in a couple of days—with light winds from the south. Tonight's mostly clear to start but will eventually begin clouding over; temps drop into the upper or mid 50s.So many hot-air balloon pics! The annual Post Mills Balloon Festival filled the skies around Thetford this weekend, as balloonists showed up from all over with their homemade balloons to honor the late Brian Boland, experimental ballooning pioneer and guiding spirit behind the Post Mills Airport. Thanks to all of you who sent in multiple photos. Here's a taste:
From Diahann Tanke, balloons ready for takeoff, and a face soaring over the Congregational church;
Balloons fill the sky above Thetford, from Laura Pulaski;
The warm glow of a happy balloon, from Jim Burnet;
Skimming Lake Fairlee, from Kirsten Detrick.
. Kexin Cai, 26, was last seen in the area of Drake Lane in West Leb Wednesday, May 15, and was reported missing to the Lebanon PD on Friday. A grad student in the college's psychological and brain sciences department, she "may have left her residence on an E-bike and headed in an unknown direction," the department says in a press release. "The bike is described as silver and white, with 'fatboy' tires, a thick frame, and heavy-duty black metal racks on the front and back." The Lebanon PD is asking anyone with information to call 603-448-1212.
"He was our pillar of strength. So... we miss that." Some 1,500 people gathered at Dartmouth's Memorial Field Saturday—including some big NFL names—for a celebration of the life of football coach Buddy Teevens, who died last September following a Florida crash six months before. WMUR's Troy Lynch was there, with interviews and video footage of the event (burgundy link). And here's Charlotte Albright's report for Dartmouth News.Longtime Upper Valley developer wants to turn former Brookside Nursing Home into apartments. Mike Davidson, whose Lebanon-based firm Ledgeworks has converted everything from the former College Cleaners plant in WRJ to the old Leb junior high into apartments, bought the shuttered nursing home on Christian Street in Wilder last year. Now, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News, he's proposing 29 studio and nine one-bedroom apartments for the facility, which shut its doors in 2017. Hartford's planning commission will hold a public hearing on the proposal this evening at Town Hall.Seventy sheep, 16 goats, four cows "and a surplus of feathered and other four-legged friends." That's what you'll find—along with owners Missy and Steve Gilbert—at the Little Red Barn Farm Sanctuary in Tunbridge. The Gilberts created the sanctuary for animals in need of a second chance, as Camryn Brauns puts it for UVM's Community News Service, in 2017 in Washington, NH; they moved to Tunbridge two years later. Brauns profiles the Gilberts' work—which began with a goat with a cleft palate—and its impact on the animals they care for and the visitors who spend time with them.DHMC nurses say unionizing effort gaining steam. In all, the VN's Christina Dolan reported over the weekend, organizers say they've collected signatures from 30 percent of the hospital's roughly 2,500 nurses—enough to hold an election under National Labor Relations Board regs, though they plan to continue collecting signatures. Dolan checks in on the effort, the hospital's effort to combat it—it's hired a California firm to help steer its approach—and the debate within the nursing staff between those who see a union as crucial to raising standards and those who believe it would lower them.Two nickels + a dime = the summer weight of a Blackpoll Warbler. They're back from South America, writes Rachel McKimmy in the VT Center for Ecostudies' "Field Guide to May", and breeding season starts in a few weeks. And there's plenty more to pay attention to out there now: May turns out to be blueberry season for bees, who are ace blueberry pollinators, Spencer Hardy writes. Kent McFarland looks at the intriguing research into how green algae found inside salamander eggs may help them grow—and also describes the forest-inhabiting West Virginia White butterfly. Plus: Lake sturgeon!In NH, tensions flare between farmers and the state Ag Department. "I felt like someone was trying to kick me when I was down,” a Concord farmer tells NHPR's Kate Dario of officials' decision to end the state organic certification program. The move came as a surprise to many farmers; Ag Commissioner Shawn Jasper defends it as financially necessary after an effort to fund the program for an extra year failed in the legislature. Farmers are also upset by the red tape that's gone along with the state's decision to use $8 million of leftover federal Covid relief for farmers hit last year by crop loss.After three-hour debate, NH Senate takes an unprecedented step: It approves cannabis legalization. The Senate has always been where the House's efforts to legalize cannabis have gone to die, but even with Thursday night's approval, Steven Porter writes in the Globe's Morning Report newsletter (no paywall), "the bill’s path to becoming law remains long and uncertain." That's because the Senate version, crafted specifically with Gov. Chris Sununu in mind, is different from the House-passed version; it still needs final Senate approval, then goes back to the House. Porter gets into the weeds (his pun).Controversial VT wildlife bill dies at end of legislative session. The measure, which would have made changes to the state Fish & Wildlife Board, shifted rule-making authority to the Fish & Wildlife Department, and banned coyote hunting with dogs, had aroused passionate arguments across the state between people who saw it as an attack on Vermont traditions and those who wanted more protections for wildlife. It passed the Senate but in the end, reports VTDigger's Emma Cotton, too many House members believed a vote either way would alienate half their constituency. It remained in committee.Sixty-one years after hitching home to Woodstock from college, historian Howard Coffin gets his degree. Most of the worldwide attention to VT State University's honorary degrees this weekend has gone to Max the cat, who got a “Doctor in Litter-ature” degree from VSU-Castleton. But in the VN, Jim Kenyon writes about a recipient on a different campus: Howard Coffin, the leading expert on Vermont in the Civil War, left Lyndon State Teachers College his junior year after he veered off-script on Abraham Lincoln. Kenyon traces his path to four books and a thousand Civil War talks—and to yesterday's degree.Speaking of history, the Monday jigsaw. This week, the Norwich Historical Society's Sarah Rooker breaks apart a color photo: "During World War II, volunteers at the top of three hills in Norwich, including Gile Mountain, watched for enemy planes. Two people watched at a time for three or four hours. This photograph is of one of Norwich’s observation posts," she writes. And here's more on the history of Gile Mountain itself, by Kevin Hybels.
Heads Up
The group, a string ensemble made up of middle and high school students from around the region, will be accompanied by a read-aloud and projected illustrations in what UVMC describes as a "wiggle-friendly" performance. They'll be joined by Sinfonia, UVMC's youth orchestra. At the Kilton Library in West Leb.
The Brooklyn-based theater company Molière in the Park will do a staged reading in English of scenes from France’s most famous playwright’s most controversial work, followed by a conversation with the director and three actors. It's free, sponsored by the Alexandra Simpson’22 Enrichment Fund and the Leslie Center for the Humanities, in 105 Dartmouth Hall.
And to take us into the week...
Robyn Adele Anderson, who's both a stage actress and a high-profile member of Postmodern Jukebox,
Anderson writes, "
Name a more iconic song from the '90s than this one, I'll wait..."See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Associate writer: Jonea Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Michael
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