WELCOME TO THE WEEK, UPPER VALLEY!
Yup. Chance of showers. Which is pretty much the forecast for the week, thanks to low pressure on high. Add in the colder air that arrived over the weekend, and we're looking at cooler-than-normal temps, often—though not always—cloudy skies, and occasional rain. Even so, mid or upper 60s today, highest chance of rain is this afternoon and then overnight. Upper 40s tonight.Hey, welcome home! That could have been the sign over the Upper Valley greeting Corinne Alfeld as she headed northwest on I-89 Saturday evening."Cold for the season." Yes indeed, that was May... 1873. As you may remember, the VT Historical Society's Alan Berolzheimer has been keeping a weather journal alongside that of Norwich farmer Ebenezer Brown's from 150 years ago—and on the Norwich Historical Society's latest side-by-side page, it looks like Farmer Brown had a lot of cool days back then, too—and a couple of overnight frosts. You can see the whole series here.137. That's the number of black bear yearlings Lyme's Kilham Bear Center will be sending back into the wild this season, reports John Lippman in the Valley News—well over the previous record of 79 three years ago, Ben Kilham tells him. Typically, the center sees more young cubs brought in by wildlife agencies in low nut or berry years, which drive bears to look for food around humans—and off-years have been occurring more frequently with climate change, Kilham says. This year, he hopes to have the current crop of 18-month-olds released by the end of June. Photographer Jennifer Hauck's photos at the link, too."Some days we have more cheese than we know what to do with." Peter Griggs's day as a volunteer delivery-truck driver for Willing Hands may start at the organization's warehouse in Norwich, but pretty quickly he's all over the Upper Valley: dropping off a couple of hundred pounds of food at the Haven, picking up from area farms, headed to food shelves in Thetford, Fairlee, Orford, and Lyme, then to LISTEN, and winding up with pickups from the Co-op stores. On Demo Sofronas's About Norwich blog, Peter details "A Day in the Life..."—and notes that drivers never know what they'll be delivering "until we see it."By far the greatest technological advance of the 20th century for dairy and livestock farmers. Former NH Ag Commissioner and local historian Steve Taylor's talking about the hay baler, and in the VN he pens what amounts to an ode for the square baler (supplanted on most dairy and livestock farms these days by the round baler) and the way of life that grew up around it: "Memories have never been lost of those sweat-soaked stints gathering bales, hoisting them onto a truck bed and then wrestling them away as a clattering conveyor brought them deep into the hayloft to be boosted into ever-taller stacks."SPONSORED: Partners in Global Change is conducting a raffle to benefit Tysea Orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti. The raffle is for a beautiful print entitled ‘Jacmel Morning’ by the well known Haitian artist Jennifer Markes. You can see a picture here. Tickets for this beauty are just ten dollars each. To purchase, just click on the donate button at the burgundy link and note “raffle” on your donation. For each ten dollars donated a ticket will be entered in your name. If you prefer other methods of purchasing, email [email protected]. Drawing at the end of June. Sponsored by Partners in Global Change.Jug-o-rum! Yes, sure, those male bullfrogs these days are out to attract a mate, writes Mary Holland on her Naturally Curious blog, but first and foremost, they're establishing territory—anywhere from six to 20 feet in diameter. "Should another male challenge a resident Bullfrog," she writes, "there can be physical altercations in the form of wrestling matches in which males hold each other and attempt to gouge each other with their thumbs."When it comes to rain and snow, don't rely on the past to predict the future. That's the takeaway from a new study by a team at Dartmouth that predicts an increase in the number—and to a lesser extent, the severity—of extreme rain and snow events in the Northeast, especially during the winter. As you know, warmer air holds more water vapor, which then falls in "extreme precipitation" events. Reports NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian, the study finds events yielding 1.5 inches or more of heavy rainfall or melted snowfall in one day could increase 52 percent by the end of the century.Speaking of weather events... Friday evening's thunderstorm took out the power to about 4,600 GMP and Washington Electric Coop customers Friday night—and in this morning's Journal Opinion newsletter, editor Alex Nuti-de Biasi runs a photo from Pat Crowley, "who snapped this gnarly mess of fallen limbs and downed power lines on Taplin Hill Road in Corinth."And speaking of electric power, Sununu vetoes bill to expand net metering in NH over legislative drafting error. The bill was intended to allow industrial-scale businesses to generate up to five megawatts of renewable power annually, writes Hadley Barndollar in NH Bulletin. But a drafting error—which no one caught until it got to the governor's desk—"eliminated the current one-megawatt cap in place for all customer generators, residents included," Barndollar reports. "This change would completely upend the state’s net metering structure and makes this bill unacceptable,” Sununu wrote Thursday.And speaking of Corinth... Well, actually, no one's talking in Corinth. At least, not about Beetlejuice 2. Mostly it's being filmed in England, but like Tim Burton's original, some sequences are being shot in E. Corinth, and production work has already begun; filming's due this summer. So VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein went to see what he could learn—and ran smack into Warner Brothers' non-disclosure agreements with locals. "No amount of shoe-leather reporting in 90-degree weather seemed enough to overcome the Hollywood gag order," he writes. But he has a grand time detailing what it was like to try.The Monday Vordle. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.
And to take us into the week...
You may have encountered pianist and composer Elizabeth Borowsky at a concert or other Classicopia event. What you might not have encountered is a song cycle she wrote in 2021, when she was the "New Hampshire Commissioned Composer" for the national association that supports and nurtures music teachers. The result was "The Music of Life," which took its inspiration from the poetry and scenery of New England—and, specifically, the Upper Valley—and its title from a poem written by Leb's Thomas Dubuque, though it also sets to music the words of Robert Frost and other regional poets. It premiered that fall in Maine, followed by a couple of concerts in Lebanon and Hanover. Well, it just had its European premiere, thanks to a Scottish singer named Christopher Josey and pianist Robin Versteeg, and though they didn't get a workable film of the performance itself, they did capture a run-through.
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer: Jonea Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Michael
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