GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Daybreak is brought to you this week with help from YWCA Vermont. Although South Hero may seem like a hike, girls+ from the Upper Valley have been spending joyful summers at Camp Hochelaga for 100+ years. Check us out if you’re seeking an inclusive, screen-free, nature-based experience for kiddos in your life!
Partly sunny, slight chance of snow showers this morning. Despite that slight chance (there’s low pressure overhead) we’re also likely to see sun this morning, with more clouds this afternoon. Temps will once again get into the mid or upper teens, winds (out of the northwest) will be a bit more noticeable, and with a renewed shot of cold air moving in, overnight lows will get down solidly below zero.
Snow. You’d think it almost has a sense of humor.
For starters, here’s what Kelly Hawes calls a “snow grimace.” “Kind of says it all,” she writes from Etna;
From Norwich, Din Seaver writes, “Not sure I’ve ever seen this peeled-back snow behavior before”;
Or there’s this hydrangea “bloom” in Thetford Center, from Dan Meerson;
And finally, there’s Barbara Mason in N. Thetford, who labels her photo simply, “Garden Party.”
No Dear Daybreak this week. It’s been a slow start to the year, and rather than try to cram Dear Daybreak into a weekly schedule when items aren’t coming in, I’m going to pull back for a bit and publish it when there’s enough material to support it. Which is another way of saying, if you’ve got a good anecdote about life in the Upper Valley, or an entertaining local story, or a slightly off-kilter bit of local history, please use this form to pass it along, or email me at [email protected].
Norwich Farmers Market plan takes a big step forward. As you know, the market—under the auspices of the Upper Valley Agricultural Association—has been readying site plans, getting town board approvals, and raising money, all so it can move across Route 5 to what is now a large empty field. Now, the actual land is in hand. On Tuesday, UVAA president Peg Allen closed on the $750K sale of 35 acres (only 10 of which are visible from Route 5) with the Dyke family of four siblings. “Our hope is to be shovel ready by June 1,” Allen says. The group must still raise about $4.5 million of the $5.7 million needed for land prep, parking, a building, and more. Plans and general info at the link.
Mysterious no more. You know how here and there around the Upper Valley you see buildings that give no sign of what goes on in there? Well, Sarah Copps got curious about one of them, the low-slung building right at the corner of Route 120 and the entrance to Centerra, in Lebanon. It turns out that the building itself is mostly used as storage space by Centerra’s owners. But it has a history that goes back to when Route 120 was brand new and Upper Valley boosters were feeling their oats. For Daybreak, Sarah tells the story of how she learned the story of the building’s history.
SPONSORED: The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College presents organist Tim Pyper. Next Friday, Feb. 6 at 7 pm, Pyper—the former director of music at Church of the Holy Apostles in NYC—will play a concert of works spanning four centuries. A first-prize winner in regional and national competitions, he teaches at Williams College. CCDC is located in Hanover at the white-steepled church at 40 College St., just off the Dartmouth green. Learn more about Tim and hear him at timpyper.com. The concert is free! Sponsored by CCDC.
At Shaker Bridge Theatre, “testing whether love is possible.” The performances in SBT’s new production of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love “crackle with tension,” writes Alex Brown in her Seven Days review of the play, which opened last week. Protagonists May (Sarah Killough) and Eddie (Jacob A. Ware) “pitch words like daggers and tear at each other with movement that is on the brink of exploding but always held back. The deliberate pace allows us to see their thoughts form and to recoil as they try each surprising choice”—and, Brown writes, “deliver theater worth knowing.” With Mark S. Cartier as the Old Man, Nick Sweetland as Martin.
On the streets of Hanover, testing whether a good English Breakfast tea is possible. “There is nothing more enjoyable than drinking a fine cup of tea,” Ishan Prasad writes in The Dartmouth, and he knows what he likes: a “robust, full-bodied cup, with moderate bitterness that is precisely tempered with milk.” So he headed out to Umpleby’s, The Works, and the Dirt Cowboy to see what they could come up with. His overall verdict: “I believe there are better places to acquire English Breakfast tea.” But along the way, he had a “truly fantastic” Aussie pie at Umpleby’s, a light-bodied cup of tea at The Works, and his best cup (6/10) at the Dirt Cowboy, with a scone to match.
SPONSORED: Register now for summer camps at Upper Valley Music Center! Kids can sing, dance, and play instruments in Rhythm Kids Camp (ages 5-10) or learn the fundamentals of musical theater in Singing for the Stage Camp (grades 5-8). Piano students ages 6-16 can find inspiration in Piano Practice Camp or Diving into Classical Composers. Coming soon: concert/jazz band for middle & high school, and All-State prep for string students! Tuition assistance is available for all UMVC programs: learn more and register at the burgundy link or at uvmusic.org/summer. Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.
Windsor County sheriff pleads not guilty to sexual misconduct charges. More details about the incidents that led to Ryan Palmer’s arrest by the VT State Police emerged after his arraignment in Rutland yesterday (where he’s being tried to avoid a conflict with the Windsor States Attorney’s office). “At least three women have come forward saying Palmer paid them to watch him perform sex acts, either in person or over video chat,” report WCAX’s Adam Sullivan and Connor Ullathorne; two of them allege that after they stopped communicating with him, “Palmer showed up at their work or drove by their home in his cruiser.” His attorney says the allegations concern “private consensual behavior between consenting adults.”
Federal judge says NH car inspections must continue, at least for now. Tuesday’s ruling by US District Judge Landya McCafferty bars the state from ending its inspection program, which was due to close down on Saturday, reports Rick Green in the Keene Sentinel. In her decision, McCafferty noted that both the state and the emissions-testing company that sued it agree the state would violate the federal Clean Air Act by abolishing the program without an okay by the US EPA—which hasn’t acted yet. In NH Bulletin, Molly Rains covers the uncertainty—in the legislature, in the AG’s office, and in repair shops—about what’s ahead for motorists.
Canterbury, NH’s country store to close. It first opened by the town green in 1945, but recently its owners for the last three years, Jane and Dave Balshaw, announced they’re shutting down. NHPR’s Rick Ganley visited to talk to them about why. “We loved this country store and we loved the community,” Jane tells him, and they tried to compete with the big boxes, bringing in more “bespoke” goods and niche items and holding community events. But big suppliers charged too much, little ones mostly carried specialty items, and tourists, who became a big part of revenues, dried up this past summer. The Balshaws haven’t found anyone to take over yet.
Meanwhile, however, other stores are hanging on. NHPR’s Jackie Harris checks in with three of them—Moultonborough’s Old Country Store and Museum, the Harrisville General Store, and a new bid by a pair of sisters to revive the Gilsum Village Store. Moltonborough’s depends heavily on tourists; Harrisville’s is owned and overseen by a nonprofit, Historic Harrisville; and as for the Gilsum store, Damaris Graham and her sister want to do it the old-fashioned way. “I was checking my mail and I saw the ‘for rent’ sign in the window, and I just had a feeling in my body of this is what I’m meant to do,” she tells Harris.
In VT, what it takes to keep people alive on really cold nights. As high homelessness persists in the state, reports Carly Berlin in VTDigger, the state is now funding emergency pop-up shelters in Burlington, Rutland, Bennington, Brattleboro, Montpelier, and Newport. And opening and then operating “these ephemeral shelters requires a herculean amount of effort each night they run,” she writes. It can be tough to get volunteers willing to staff overnight shifts, state regs on bed limits are different on nights when it’s below -10 wind chill vs. a few degrees warmer, and getting word out on whether or not a shelter is open is a job in itself. Berlin dives into the details.
Does Mt. Washington look like a killer to you? At 6,288 feet, it’s a pipsqueak compared with the Rockies, Sierras, and mammoths of Alaska. It’s not even as tall as some ski resorts out West, and there’s a cute cog railway running up to the top. But the weather is “meteorological chaos,” says the Fatally Curious YouTube channel in its new video. It explains, and recounts hurricane-force winds at the summit, temps that plunge to -40 F, and annual snowfall that tops 280 inches. Hikes start in balmy temps and sunshine and end in blizzards, one reason that Mt. Washington has the most fatalities—including four stories recounted here—per vertical foot of any mountain on Earth.
The Thursday Crossword. Today, it’s ace puzzle constructor Laura Braunstein’s “midi” — slightly longer and harder than her Tuesday minis, but nothing that’ll eat up your morning. And if you’d like to catch up on past puzzles, you can do that here.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
World Record Challenge at the Abbott Library in Sunapee. The competition’s going to be fierce! Starting at 3 pm, kids and teens (from Sunapee and elsewhere) will go for the glory: assembling an anatomically correct Mr. Potato Head while blindfolded as fast as possible, throwing 10 stuffed animals into a bin as fast as possible, eating as many M&Ms as they can while using chopsticks in one minute, and sticking as many sticky notes to their face as they can in 30 seconds, and more.
At the Orford Social Library, “The Survival Story of Moose in New Hampshire”. A state Fish & Game steward will talk about natural history, where moose like to hang out in the state, and how the changing climate is affecting their survival. 6:30 pm.
Hanover High’s Footlighters open their run of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. As they put it, Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation is “a thrilling, timeless look at whistleblowing, corruption, and the fight for truth against a manipulative majority. Exploring how personal integrity clashes with community pressure, media spin, and economic interests, this production is stunningly relevant to today's debates.” Amanda Rafuse and HHS senior Martin Mosdal direct. 7 pm this evening for previews, then runs Friday and Saturday at 7 pm and Sunday at 2 pm in the HHS cafeteria.
Hop Film screens It Was Just An Accident. Programmed together with the White River Indie Fest, Jafar Panahi’s 2025 film brings Vahid, an unassuming mechanic, suddenly face to face with the man he believes to be his jailhouse tormentor; Vahid rounds up fellow ex-prisoners for a drive around Tehran as they to try to confirm the man’s identity and grapple with revenge vs. mercy. 7 pm in Spaulding.
And anytime, you can check out JAM’s highlights for the week: a look at Light River Junction—an outdoor art show projected on historic WRJ buildings—back during the pandemic (it’s being revived for WRIF this year); last weekend’s HopStop animation event bringing the Gruffalo to life; and author Sasha Wol-Soon Hom and Afrosurreal/futurist storyteller Shingai Njeri Kagunda at the Norwich Bookstore recently.
And for today...
We’re going to groove right into the day with Philadelphia Orchestra tuba principal Carol Jantsch and her arrangement of Vulfpeck’s “New Beastly” for tuba, drums, and keyboard. You’ll never look at the tuba the same way again.
See you tomorrow.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editors: Jonea Gurwitt, Sam Gurwitt
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