GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, maybe a shower this afternoon. Sure doesn't feel like there's anything headed our way, but apparently there's a "subtle increase in mid-level moisture" that could produce a shower in the early afternoon. Otherwise, we're looking at sunny skies, into the low 80s, winds from the southeast. Mid-50s or cooler tonight.Look! Up in the sky! As the moon was rising over Barnard, VT late last week, Lorraine Fairmont, visiting from Colorado, captured a skyful of altocumulus clouds lit from below—a near-perfect example of why it's sometimes called a "mackerel sky." (Thanks, KL!)Proposed gravel pit spurs Enfield, Grantham residents' opposition. Many of them, writes Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, live in Eastman, and they're alarmed by its potential impact on an aquifer feeding Eastman's water supply that runs beneath the 95-acre property—which contains a shuttered gravel operation—bought by Art Conkey in June. Conkey is proposing to take 500 cubic yards of sand and grit from the pit this year. The Enfield Planning Board on Wednesday put off a decision until September.Woodstock subsidizing homeowners to rent to local workers. It's now got two streams of money aimed at improving its shortage of workforce housing, writes Fred Thys in VTDigger: one encourages landlords to turn short-term rentals into long-term rentals, the other underwrites up to $10K for a new "accessory dwelling unit." The funds, which come from the town's sales tax on rooms, meals, and alcohol, are modest—in all, writes Thys, they could produce four new short-term rentals and as few as three new ADUs—but the pilot program is being watched by other resort towns facing similar problems.Coming up: Mining music. Ever since 2002, Thetford's Duncan Nichols has been writing what Li Shen in Sidenote calls "unconventional" plays—"the characters don’t develop, they are representations that exist to fulfill a function, for showing something, not to tell the story of their lives." After traversing the globe in his earlier works, he returns to the US for his latest, Myth Makers, which runs for one night only at the Briggs on Aug. 28. It may be set here, but not now: it's America underground, 1,000 years in the future...but with a contemporary soundtrack mined from rock.Also coming up: Klezmer, jazz, and a community quilt at Saint-Gaudens. It stems from an incident last fall, in which a monument at the national park in Cornish was defaced with paint, swastikas in black marker, and antisemitic language. In response, writes the VN's Liz Sauchelli, the Park Service is throwing a klezmer and jazz concert Aug. 21 and inviting community members to create 8-by-8-inch squares "representing community and tolerance" to be woven into a quilt. “We would mend the fabric of our community by creating a quilt together,” says the Park Service's Rainey McKenna.NH health care leaders fret about declining maternity services in state. The latest cause for alarm came last week, when Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester announced it's closing its birthing center. That's prompted a review by the state AG's office, since the hospital promised to keep it open for at least five years after it was merged with HCA Healthcare two years ago. But, writes Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, many birthing centers in the state are struggling financially; a legislative move led by Lebanon state Sen. Sue Prentiss to boost Medicaid reimbursements is sitting on the governor's desk.Also seeing a shortage in NH: school bus drivers. It's not actually new, reports NHPR's Bol Nakdimo, but it's not getting better. The owner of one school bus company tells Nakdimo she started seeing labor shortages a decade ago, and still fills in on routes herself. The result is that districts have had to modify routes, cancel some activities, and—in a bow to reality—adopt an app that lets families keep track of changes and delays.“Nobody wants to talk about this. It’s not comfortable to talk about." But the VT State Police want to talk about active shooter situations anyway. In a series of forums around the state this month—there'll be one at the Westminster Barracks Aug. 24 and another in St. J Aug. 30—they're providing training for the public on how to respond appropriately if they're confronted by an active shooter or mass threat. “The goal is to empower you. To have knowledge. So if an incident occurs, you have some choices," said VSP Lt. Hugh O’Donnell at a forum covered by VT Public's Howard Weiss-Tisman."An excellent pollinator." That would be the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, writes Mary Holland on her Naturally Curious blog. You may have seen Jim Block's photos last week, and Mary has a highly detailed one, as well. "Because its tongue, or proboscis, is so long, the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth can reach nectar located at the base of tubular-shaped flowers," she writes. They carry the proboscis rolled up under their heads, and unfurl it as they approach a flower.Wails, yodels, tremolos, and hoots. If you spend any time around a northern lake in summer or fall, you've probably heard them all: They're the four types of loon vocalizations described by ornithologists, writes Laurie D. Morrissey for Northern Woodlands' latest "Outside Story." Wails are basically, "Hey! I'm here!" Yodels are made by male loons when disturbed: "It’s possible that it communicates three types of information: not only about identity, but about how big and bad he is, and how motivated he is to escalate a conflict," says one loon yodel specialist. Tremolos respond to a perceived threat, and the rarely heard hoot is between partners or parents and chicks.The Monday Vordle. Back after the weekend...
And music to start the week... ... with something that's both old and new: a never-released (until now) tune by Mark Knopfler, channeling his inner gravel-voiced, jazzy, seen-it-all bluesman on "Back in the Day," which is one of the bonus tracks on his forthcoming set of non-Dire-Straits work, "The Studio Albums 2009 – 2018."See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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