GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly cloudy, chance of showers. Light rain is lifting northeastward ahead of low pressure off to our west, and there's a slight chance of showers all day (rising to a chance overnight). Highs today will be in the upper 60s, but the good news is that we should see some moderate winds from the south by this afternoon, which will clear out Canadian wildfire smoke, at least for now. Lows tonight in the low 50s.And speaking of wildfire smoke... There were hazardous air alerts in place over the weekend, and though conditions have eased a bit, they're still not good. The US EPA has two useful sites that pull in relevant monitoring data:
AirNow.gov gives you current overall air quality by zip, town, or state;
And AirNow's Fire & Smoke Map focuses on just what it says, using monitoring sensors all over the region. At the moment, they're mostly showing "unhealthy for sensitive groups."
Delicately unperturbed. A white-spotted sable moth on Katrina Wagner's window in S. Royalton. One more night on I-89 Exit 17. Just a reminder that crews from Pike Industries were scheduled to begin two nights of paving work on the on- and off-ramps last night, with alternating closures again scheduled for tonight between 7 pm and 7 am. It's weather-dependent.“It’s relatable! It’s ironic! It’s hilarious!" What is? That Lisa Robar, one of the farmers behind Barnard's popular Kiss the Cow Farm's ice cream, is lactose-intolerant. But that doesn't stop her from reaching for Dark Chocolate Daydream when the mood strikes. Meanwhile, across the valley, Strafford Organic Creamery is equally in the high-fat, "super-premium" sweet spot. "We think really highly of the cows' cream,” co-owner Amy Huyffer tells The Herald's Maryellen Apelquist. “So that’s the main lead singer and everything else just sings back up." Apelquist profiles both—and how they make ice cream.VT PUC decision keeps proposed Post Mills solar array "on life support" —but with no realistic prospects. In Sidenote, Stuart Blood lays out the twin problems plaguing the solar project atop a closed landfill. It's been a years-long goal of the town's energy committee, but because there's no living owner of the landfill, responsibility for expensive ongoing monitoring of chemicals it contains—notably, PFAS—lies with whoever takes ownership. Last week, the Public Utilities Commission extended the deadline to bring the project into being by 10 months. But as Blood writes, it "increasingly appears to be a zombie project."The Norwich Inn: a "research rabbit hole." At least, that's how Norwich Historical Society director Sarah Rooker describes the never-ending challenge of piecing together what's happened on that site since Jasper Murdock set up there in the late 1700s. There was its use as a sheep-auction site in 1814. And to hear claims by Revolutionary War pensioners. And to host President James Monroe. And—maybe, or maybe it was just down the road—as a performance venue for the famous African-American magician Richard Potter, to the joy of cadets and the chagrin of a Norwich Military Academy official. In Concord, three budgets walk into a bar... Okay, no, it was actually the State House. But as William Skipworth lays out in NH Bulletin, the last few months have been all about differences among Gov. Kelly Ayotte, the House, and the Senate when it comes to the state's two-year spending plan. Now, a conference committee must begin reconciling the chambers' conflicting views on the state arts council, Office of the Child Advocate, Medicaid reimbursement rates, and lots more. And then Ayotte gets to weigh in. Skipworth details how we got here, and what's on the conference committee's plate.VT DMV warns of scam texts. If you got one, you no doubt did the right thing and trashed it, but just in case: Saturday, the agency put out an alert that there's been a rise in the number of false texts, emails, and phone calls warning drivers that their license could be suspended if they do not pay outstanding tolls or resolve alleged violations. "The Vermont DMV does not send unsolicited messages demanding immediate payment or threatening suspension of a driver's license," it says. "Official DMV notices come via mail or direct communication from verified sources.""Historically, most of our food was local—and there was nothing bougie about it." VT's local food scene has taken on a certain twee overtone in recent years, but there's another way to look at it, writes the Christian Science Monitor's Stephanie Hanes: the state's farmers, customers, and food-focused nonprofits "are intentionally moving away from a global supply chain" with a system "in which farmers are able to make a living and residents can eat healthy food grown nearby." And it's bipartisan, says GOP pol John Klar: “If there’s one thing that should bring Americans together, it is local, healthy food.”Ancient roads: Why they matter and what you can learn from them. "They're almost a time capsule, like a window into the past," West Brattleboro lawyer Spencer Crispe, a ninth-generation Vermonter, tells Erica Houskeeper on her latest Happy Vermont podcast. Erica recently spent time with Crispe and with Granville's Norm Arsenault, tramping roads built in the 1700s or not long after, talking about what they reveal—and why the two are so passionate about exploring them. "Other than the tree growth, it's almost as if time has stood still," Crispe says—a glimpse of what life was like 200 years ago.And not quite as far back, but close: The Monday jigsaw. It's of a Hanover Boat Association outing in 1889, photographed from the Norwich side, right by "the stalwart Ledyard Free Bridge, built 30 years before," writes the Norwich Historical Society's Cam Cross. "By 1913, it carried more traffic than any other one of the twenty-nine bridges on the Connecticut River north of Massachusetts." He notes the details, including "women in long dresses with hats and parasols, men in a mix of three-piece suits and more relaxed outfits—many with straw 'boater hats." Here's the original photo.Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.
To start the week, let's go all the way back to day before yesterday...And Liverpool, England, where Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, on tour, bring out Sir Paul McCartney for "Can't Buy Me Love"—with a very happy audience singing along—and "Kansas City".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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