GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Some sun, still warm. That was a day yesterday, eh? And it's going to stick with us a few hours longer, until weather arrives. We'll see a bit of sun this morning, then a slight chance of rain this afternoon ahead of a cold front that's headed our way. Still, temps are due to get into the mid-60s, helped by winds from the south. Rain will likely move in overnight, lows in the lower 50s.Finding beauty in everyday things...
That was the subject line for a photo from Janice Fischel of the cheese cave at Robie Farm in Piermont, and while I wouldn't call dozens of wheels of cheese "everyday," there's definite beauty!
As there is in this photo of a wall in Hanover that you might pass by without even noticing, from Annemieke McLane.
And in this view of Moosilauke from West Newbury on Tuesday, after snow had dusted the summits. "Folklore says six weeks until winter hits the valley," writes Ian Clark. That’s the village of Haverhill you'll see down in the lower right.
And a correction. That may not have been a bumblebee atop Gile Mountain in yesterday's photo. Naturalist Ted Levin checks in (from an airport, no less), to write, "The insect on the Gile Mountain fire tower looks like a bot fly, not a bumblebee. They’re often on the railing; look like bumblebees; lay their eggs in the nasal lining of deer. Look for two wings, the second set is vestigial; bees have four functional wings." Here's more, though maybe not with breakfast.Arrival of apartments in mainstay mill building expected to boost Claremont. Part of the Monadnock Mills textile operation, it's "one of the most imposing structures in downtown Claremont and the last in a trio of historic properties" to be renovated, writes John Lippman in the Valley News. “There’s no vacancies down here for apartments and these will be filling critical housing needs of employers,” Claremont planning director Nancy Merrill tells him. After putting together a complex financing package with help from Mascoma Bank, the developer of the 83-unit complex expects them to be ready by spring.SPONSORED: Like everyone else, the Hop is hiring. Unlike everyone else, working at the Hop will put you at the heart of the Upper Valley’s hub for all things cultural and artistic. Highly creative, collaborative people: apply now for open positions in Production, Marketing, Box Office and other departments. Did we mention the great benefits? Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.The Valley News gets its day in court. As you may remember, the paper has been pursuing an independent investigator's report into a 2017 traffic stop by Samuel Provenza, then a Canaan police officer, that turned into a physical confrontation. Yesterday, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman, Provenza's lawyer argued to the NH Supreme Court that the report declared the allegations unfounded, so should be kept from the public. The newspaper's ACLU lawyer responded, "What we are talking about are actions taken by a governmental officer in his official capacity while on the clock working for the taxpayer.”"I love that you can have a conversation with every customer." That's Marya Merriam, whose dried flower company, Wood Frog Flowers, is a first-year vendor at the Norwich Farmers Market. In The Dartmouth, Stephanie Sowa visits with vendors, including Dawn Dahlstrom of Angry Goat Pottery and Sarah Yetter of Abracadabra Coffee—whose company name, Sowa writes, "is based on an ancient protection spell." The market will be outdoors at its Route 5 location this Saturday and next, one more time just before Thanksgiving, and then will move indoors in Tracy Hall twice a month starting in December.And speaking of Abracadabra Coffee... The company's coffee trailer has become a popular, mainstay presence in Woodstock's East End park on weekends, Gareth Henderson writes in a profile on his Omni Reporter blog. While Abracadabra does have a building on Pleasant Street, it's for roasting and wholesaling. So once the outdoor season's done in mid-November, Henderson reports,"Abracadabra is working on final plans and permitting for an indoor location where they can serve to-go orders out of the trailer."Fourth most popular mountain biking trail network in VT? Ascutney. The folks at Pinkbike, a popular mountain biking site (acquired by Outside earlier this year) took a look at trail use data to come up with its list of the top five destinations in the state—not "best" or "favorite," but the most used. It'll surprise no one that coming in first is Kingdom Trails, around Burke. Also on the list: Cady Hill Forest in Stowe; Killington Bike Park; and Pine Hill in Rutland. Includes handy trail maps for each venue.A pub where everyone knows someone who's had Covid. Though still may not want to get vaccinated. That's Fagin's, on Main Street in Berlin, NH. Vaccination rates in Coos County lag the rest of the state, reports NHPR's Alli Fam, and local and regional officials are scrambling to deal with the rising caseload. Staff at Androscoggin Valley Hospital are sleeping away from their families again, fearful of bringing the virus home. The fire department's getting daily calls for help, and community leaders in the North Country are meeting every day via Zoom to coordinate efforts.VT police detail events around NH woman's murder by her husband. Warning: Some of those details are disturbing. In VTDigger, Alan J. Keays writes that a state police affidavit from Joseph Ferlazzo's arraignment yesterday in the death of his wife, Emily, lays out what they believe happened. The couple had stayed in their camper van at Bolton Valley Resort Friday night to celebrate their first anniversary. There they argued, and Joseph, who appears to have had a history of domestic violence, shot Emily. Citing the “great weight of evidence,” the judge ordered Ferlazzo held without bail.Setting marijuana market rules is high on VT’s list. Last Friday, VT’s Cannabis Control Board presented its long-awaited report that “lays the groundwork for state regulation of a legal market starting next year,” reports Sasha Goldstein in Seven Days. Now in the hands of legislative committees, the document proposes rules on licensing of cannabis growers and retailers, the proportion of indoor grow operations versus outdoor, and appropriate fees to encourage more participation in a regulated market. The state now needs to move quickly on legislation in order to ensure pot shops can open by May 1.Allegations of verbal abuse from the stands and on the field have VT Principals Assn stiffening protocols. The association, which oversees high school sports in the state, has set up an online portal for spectators and athletes to report incidents and is "building a third party investigation option" for cases when there's disagreement between schools on what happened. The high school sports scene in the state has been riled by incidents of racist and sexist language at three games recently—including one involving the Hartford High girls soccer team."The place felt like an autumn unto its own." We've got plenty of that here, too, but Thrillist's Matt Meltzer was struck that in wandering around Brattleboro at the height of foliage season, he didn't meet anyone from farther away than NH. If you're headed down the highway sometime, he's got a full itinerary of things to do in a town most passing tourists ignore. Like a visit to HatchSpace, Tom Bodett's co-working space for woodworkers; a hike up Wantastiquet Mountain, across the river; a visit to Scott Farm, where you can learn to make cider, and the neighboring Stone Trust, where you can learn stoneworking.It's been exactly 1,000 years since Vikings were first in North America. Okay, this is just plain interesting. You no doubt know about the L'Anse aux Meadows site at the tip of Newfoundland, where evidence of a short-lived Viking settlement, believed to be the first European presence on the continent, was found back in 1960. But precisely when they were there has always been vague. Now a team led by scholars in the Netherlands has used tree-ring evidence from a known solar storm in 923 CE to date the settlement precisely to 1021, writes Brian Handwerk in Smithsonian.If you’ve ever wanted to crawl inside a bird’s nest… Something about the perfect roundness and snug, sinewy construction begs the question, “Why can’t we have that?” Margherita Cole at My Modern Met spotlights a Brooklyn artist named Charlie Baker, whose milieu is building nest sculptures that, well, humans can fit into. Baker says he prefers working with natural materials like wood and stone, rather than “covering them with paint or other coatings,” in order to create “magical outdoor moments” for his clients. Check out Baker’s Instagram, too, for a peek at his process and marvelous handiwork.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
At 5:30 this afternoon, Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center hosts two former US solicitors general (both Dartmouth grads) for a conversation about "Renewing Trust in Democracy: The Role of the Courts." The event, which will be both in-person and online, is moderated by Laura Knoy, former host of NHPR's The Exchange. Gregory Garre, who clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist during the early 1990s, was appointed solicitor general by George W. Bush and served two years before heading to private practice. Neal Katyal, who clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer, moved into the solicitor general role when Barack Obama named Elena Kagan to the Court. The in-person event is in Filene Auditorium. Whether you show up in-person or go for the livestream, you'll need to register.
Also at 5:30, Sustainable Woodstock is offering up an online talk on how to weatherize your home by COVER's volunteer coordinator, Lisa Ricci. She'll be talking about all the ways you can button things up before winter arrives.
And if, on the other hand, you're thinking about getting outside this winter, at 6 pm Whaleback hosts its first-ever Fall Flannel Fest (tagline: "Let's get RAD in plaid!"). It's a fundraiser for the mountain ($50 a head) with wings, beer, ice cream, and a chance to hear from Whaleback's new executive director, Jon Hunt, about plans for the winter and beyond.
This evening at 7, Lyme's Converse Free Library hosts an online talk by Robert Goodby, author of A Deep Presence: 13,000 Years of Native American History. Goodby, who teaches anthropology at Franklin Pierce, details what the archeological record in New Hampshire—from the remains of the oldest known dwellings in New England at the Tenant Swamp Site in Keene to the 4,000-year-old Swanzey Fish Dam still visible in the Ashuelot River—tell us about the involvement of the Abenaki and their ancestors "in a vast, complex social universe of Native people extending across northeastern North America."
At 8 this evening, the Hood hosts the Third Annual Indigenous People's Day Fashion Show. The high-spirited "celebration of Indigenous fashion, creativity, expression, and design" is open only to Dartmouth students for the in-person event, but they'll be streaming it via Facebook Live, as well.
Finally, also at 8 and a bit farther afield, but, thankfully, available via livestream, Montreal's Blue Metropolis Foundation brings to a close its "Life... as a Song" project. It spotlights the period from the '60s to the '80s when a sparkling array of Canadian musicians—Joni Mitchell, Michel Rivard, Clémence Desrochers, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Piché, Yvon Deschamps, Richard Séguin, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Diane Dufresne, Sylvain Lelièvre, Francine Raymond, and Bruce Cockburn—made their mark. Tonight's event, from the Cabaret Lion d'Or, pairs their music with ten contemporary poets who reflect on their work. Helpful to know French, but from the preview it sounds like there'll be plenty of English, too.
Which gives us so much to choose from! But let's go with Buffy Sainte-Marie just a few years ago, here with Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat singer from Nunavut,
Sainte-Marie's song, "You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind)". It was inspired by George Attla, the Alaska native and champion sprint dogsled racer, who competed in the first-ever Iditarod in 1973.See you tomorrow.
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! You can subscribe at:
Thank you!