GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, a bit cooler. A calm day ahead of whatever weather reaches us tomorrow, with winds from the west and temps getting into the lower 30s. Brightest sun during the morning and maybe the early afternoon, then clouds begin moving in, with a chance of snow starting after midnight.That sunrise. It was spectacular yesterday morning, and judging from the photos that came in from all around the Upper Valley yesterday, lots of people were up early to see it. One of them was Ian Clark in West Newbury, VT, who had to travel all the way to his deck to get this view across to the mountains.Driver winds up in tree after Canaan crash. On Tuesday morning, a 29-year-old driver failed to negotiate a curve on Route 4, lost control, skidded across both lanes, hit a snowbank and rolled his Ford Ranger several times; he was ejected and, the Canaan PD reports in a press release, "was briefly lodged in a tree approximately 7 feet off the ground." He was helicoptered to DHMC with what appeared to be life-threatening injuries. "The case is still under investigation but speed and alcohol appear to be factors in the crash," the police add.Tinsley goes national, owner charged with DUI. Tinsley's the German Shepherd who alerted police to the rollover accident involving her owner, Cameron Laundry, and a passenger, Justin Connors. Both men were thrown from Laundry's F350 in the Monday-night accident. As the Valley News notes, the incident's gotten national play as a "feel-good" story, but Connors was hospitalized with serious injuries, his own dog—a bulldog—died in the accident, and Laundry has been cited into court for driving while intoxicated. VT State Police say other charges are pending.The Balloonist. You never want to call an article "definitive," but it's a fair bet that it'll be a long time before a better write-up about Post Mills Airport owner Brian Boland and the remarkable life he led comes along. In a deeply reported, engagingly written piece for Yankee, Ian Aldrich weaves together a richly detailed account of what happened that day last summer with how Boland went from shy kid to becoming "arguably the world's leading hot-air balloonist" as well as "the showman, the obsessive, the frugal inventor, the artist, the adventurer" the Upper Valley came to know. (Thanks, SW!)SPONSORED: Looking for your ideal weekend getaway? Look no further than Highland Lodge in Greensboro, VT! Situated on over 100km of groomed trail network maintained by Craftsbury Outdoor Center, you'll enjoy some of the best Nordic skiing our region has to offer. With four winterized cabins and ten rooms in the Farmhouse Lodge, enjoy a full day of skiing (or snowshoeing or fat biking) followed by a relaxing evening of dinner and drinks by the fireplace. Call or email to book your winter staycation today! Sponsored by Highland Lodge.UV's holiday-period vandalism woes continue, this time in Hanover. Police there are investigating over 20 incidents of graffiti, reports Liz Sauchelli in the VN. “Some of it’s a pretty good size, taking up an entire wall space," Lt. Michael Schibuola tells her. The time frame coincides with the graffiti that led to the temporary closure of River Park in W. Leb, and police are looking at whether they're connected. “It seems like a kind of old-school thing, but it seems to be making a comeback and causing a lot of damage to properties," Schibuola says—enough that charges might rise to a felony level.But there's also street art of a more inspiring kind. Some of it right here, and some around the world. In her latest Artful post, Susan Apel writes about the street art website put together by Norwich's Susan Brink, exploring street art as “a way into people and culture.” The site is "democratic and accessible, able to be viewed by anyone and everyone, outside of the confines (and often steep admission charges) of traditional museums," Apel writes. She also stops by the back wall of Revolution in WRJ to highlight the longstanding works there.Emmy-winning Dartmouth prof helped make your smartphone camera possible. Thayer's Eric Fossum brought home a statuette in November for his breakthrough research on pixel image sensors, a technology that was originally intended for spacecraft. In a Q&A with Chloe Terestchenko of The Dartmouth, Fossum says his early work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab eventually led him to see its earthly potential. Why does the sensor matter to TV science? Fossum says, “The Emmy recognizes the contribution of this technology to making cameras a lot smaller…and making citizen journalism possible.”"What a privilege to have him in our backyard, willing to offer...his love and passion to these students." Jennifer Chambers is Hanover High's choral director, and she's talking about world-renowned conductor (and Dartmouth prof) Filippo Ciabatti and his work with students—which began as vocal coaching and turned into a full-blown immersion in opera. Ciabatti's great-grandfather, a plumber, was an opera baritone "by passion," he says in Norwich filmmaker Nora Jacobson's new film about the project, which premieres at HHS later this month. The film teaser's out, at the link.“We’re losing the cold, snowy winter which defines this place culturally, economically, in terms of tourism.” That's Dartmouth climate scientist Erich Osterberg talking with NH Bulletin's Amanda Gokee about a recent report confirming that New Hampshire winters are warming even more dramatically than the rest of the seasons. In all, the study found, the state's annual average temp since 1900 has risen 1.73 degrees Celsius (higher than the 1.5-degree cap established in the Paris Climate Accord, Gokee notes); average winter temperature has soared 2.5 degrees C. Gokee explores the implications.Amid test-kit shortage, VT distributes only half of kits set aside for students. In part the issue was timing, VTDigger's Peter Auria writes. The state announced its effort to get 87,000 kits into parents' hands in time for pre-return-to-school testing on Dec. 29, and distributed them Dec. 30 and 31—at the end of a week when a lot of parents weren't checking email. In addition, some parents couldn't navigate the online appointment signup, while others were only able to find appointments early in the morning miles away. The state plans to give the remaining 40,000 kits to school districts to hand out."Then, halfway up Bethel Mountain Road...I found that the road had been unceremoniously closed. I had zero cell service." Which was a problem, Seven Days food writer Jordan Barry explains, because she was late to hang out with 2.4 million mealworms. In an annual tradition at the paper, Barry and her colleagues detail the stories behind their stories—what it's like waiting for sources to show up at 2 am on a freezing January night, or to make a goal of finding a story in each of VT's 251 towns, or to face weeks of gun enthusiasts' ire for using the words "assault rifle" in a story. Lots more at the link.The view from Khumbu Glacier. You mostly know Jim Block for his detailed and striking photos of the landscape, birds, and wildlife around the Upper Valley. But he's also taken four treks through Nepal, and in his latest blog post he collects his photographs from those trips (part of a larger portfolio recounting and documenting them). The scenery, of course, is breathtaking, but even more intriguing are the villages and people and sheer adventure he encountered.Float like a butterfly, sting like a…shrimp? The peacock mantis shrimp, that is, magnificently colorful as well as one of the most pugnacious creatures in the sea. MIT Press shares an enticing excerpt of a new book, Atlas of Poetic Zoology, by Emmanuelle Pouydebat, that zooms in close on a handful of animals with some marvelous characteristics. Take that shrimp, whose tiny club-like appendages can batter its prey with 100 km/hr force—”as if the little beast were firing bullets…so rapidly, it’s invisible to the human eye.” Or the chimpanzee, which knows the medicinal properties of everything it eats.
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Let's just stride upbeat into the day. Pomplamoose joins with the band Lawrence
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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