GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
"Beneficial rain." It's arriving sometime today—possibly this morning, probably by mid-afternoon, certainly by tonight—and settling in for a while. Fed by a system moving in from the south that's drawing marine air into the region, temps will be warm enough that even on the summits, snow's unlikely today—though the peaks may see some wet snow tonight. Whatever happens, it's good news for our parched landscape. Temps will hold steady: around or slightly above 40 during the day and through the night.Mornings from on high. And from right near each other, no less.
Looking out from the Dartmouth Skiway over Clark Pond toward Mt. Cardigan, by Jay Davis;
And a video from Holt's Ledge by Ann Little, who writes, "Crisp, cold air, Hunter Moths, Downy Woodpeckers, and the distant sound of hunters creeping about. A proper fall morning in NH."
Time for Dear Daybreak! In this week's collection of readers' short posts about life in the Upper Valley: Linette Wermager reflects poetically about how quiet the woods are in November... and why; Aleah Sommers describes her encounters with a "master porch-sitter" in WRJ; Lynn Ujlaky on a barred-owl encounter; and in this week's "Little-Known Gems of the Upper Valley", we go back a few years with videographer Barbara Krinitz to check out her collection of the region's "hidden treasures".Facing complaint that it violated open meetings law, Norwich selectboard to hold emergency meeting tonight. The complaint by town resident Kris Clement focuses on two closed sessions last month as the board considered changing town manager Brennan Duffy's contract to allow him to work from home in Rutland two days a week. Last week, the board voted 3-2 to ask Duffy to check in with town counsel on Clement's complaint, reports Emma Roth-Wells in the Valley News. The board will decide tonight whether to "cure" or reject the complaint; Clement "is prepared to go to court" over the matter.SPONSORED: The countdown is on! Don’t miss the Third Annual Winterfest Artisan Fair on Saturday, December 7! Hosted by Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, this festive event offers a stunning selection of handmade jewelry, pottery, ornaments, and more. It’s the perfect place to finish your holiday shopping with unique, one-of-a-kind gifts while supporting talented local artisans. Save the date and join us! Learn more at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by APD.CRREL scientists show you can 3D print snow and ice. Let's say you need to construct buildings in remote regions where it's really cold. What are the most plentiful materials around? No points for guessing snow and ice. Now, two teams at the Hanover-based cold regions engineering lab have demonstrated that, using natural fibers as reinforcement, they can 3D print a (peewee-sized) building. The goal, says research engineer Kiera Thompson Towell, is for the military and others to build whatever they need, wherever they need, with minimal material to transport. Next step: going big. Video at the link.With change in ownership, Killington "is now one of the largest privately owned ski resorts in the world." That's just one of the points that Anne Wallace Allen brings up in Seven Days, as she takes a look at the sale by Utah-based POWDR in September to a group of private investors, "many of them locals and people who have long skied the mountain." Daily operations, the new owners say, won't change, though plans are going ahead for a big new village at the mountain, as well as efforts to boost snowmaking (and make it more energy efficient), and to keep a lid on parking.SPONSORED: You can help shape the future of public media in Vermont when you join Vermont Public’s Community Forum! This group of volunteers gives feedback on our programming and services, and helps Vermont Public serve the whole community better. The group meets a few times a year, in different locations around the state. You let us know how we’re meeting the cultural, education, and information needs of Vermonters, and provide us a link to communities around the region. Learn more at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Vermont Public.So, what would you do with more than 800 (and counting) mice? Oh, and some rats. Spare a thought for the NH Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Stratham, which last week began taking in the mice from a Seacoast man who, as Amanda Gokee puts it in the Globe (sorry, paywall), was "overwhelmed by the quantity of rodents in his possession." As you know, mice breed fast. “I assume that this is a man or a family that just loved these animals, and whatever happened, this just sort of got out of control,” UNH biologist Matthew MacManes tells Gokee.In court case on Lake Tarleton logging plan, environmental groups take opposite sides. Last year, the US Forest Service approved a plan for logging a tract by the lake east of Piermont, rebuild a boat launch at nearby Lake Katherine, and make other improvements. In May, VT-based old-growth advocate Standing Trees sued to stop it. Now, reports InDepthNH's Paula Tracy, a litany of NH-focused groups, including the Forest Society, Appalachian Mountain Club, NH Wildlife Federation, and NH Audubon, have filed a brief in support of the plan, arguing that it advances multi-use goals for the Whites.Along with a worrisome level of "self-neglect" among aging Vermonters, a level of official neglect. VT tends to take a hands-off approach to isolated seniors, leaving care in the hands of its area agencies on aging—but those in the field, reports Rachel Hellman in Seven Days, "say they're already overwhelmed." Part of the challenge is VT's go-it-alone ethos at a time when "the civic and social ties for elder Vermonters are fraying" and the state—with limited interest, transportation, and housing—is ill-positioned to help. Hellman dives deep into the issues, checks in with Springfield-based Senior Solutions.The leaves of Hubbard Brook: a whimsical—but scientifically accurate—look at fall. Through stencils, in fact, with the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest as the background. Working with a Cornell researcher, communications specialist Raisa Kochmaruk cut stencils of some of the forest's leaves—striped, red, and sugar maples, red oak, American beech, yellow birch—then filmed them with the changing forest as a backdrop. It's just 42 seconds, but it's fall.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
The cidery's winter-time Rumney Sessions are in full swing, with pizzas, soups, cocktails, cider, and music most Thursdays. Tonight, the trio of poets Partridge Boswell and Peter Money, with guitarist Nat Williams, "blur boundaries between spoken word and song, weaving poetry with Andalusian ballads, blues, rock, folk, reggae, hip hop, Americana and jazz in pursuit of the
cante jondo
(deep song) Lorca so ardently championed." Things get going at 5:30 pm.
You may remember that freelance journalist and former
Valley News
reporter Frances Mize has a new podcast series out,
Voices of the Voters
, in which she spoke to voters throughout the Upper Valley before the elections. This evening she'll be at JAM—which helped her pull the series together—to talk about the podcast, what she heard from the people she interviewed, and talk over the elections with the audience. Starts at 6:30 pm.
The 30-minute documentary by Richmond School science teacher Greg Stott and director of photography Nick Natale was filmed in the Connecticut River Valley and features local landmarks, regional scientists, and writers explaining the Ice Age geology under our feet—from when Lake Hitchcock filled the valley for millenia and left imprints we can still see. Screening at the Bugbee Senior Center in WRJ at 7 pm sponsored by the UVLT and the UV Food Co-op's new documentary film club, followed by a Q&A with Stott and Natale.
The group's videographers caught the 2024 Fall Fashion Extravaganza sponsored by Revolution and Nancy The Girl at the Briggs Opera House earlier this month; the three dancers and two musicians in a performance of dance artist Rachel Bernsen's
Novel Formats #2: The Set Up;
and former Vice President Mike Pence at Dartmouth earlier this month for "Conservatism, the Presidency, and the Future of American Democracy".
And for today...
The Umoza Music Project, a collaboration between a group of musicians from Malawi and a few in the UK. Their 2022 album was mostly recorded in an unlikely studio built in a small fishing village by Malawi-born, UK-raised singer/songwriter Max Jere, then put together and mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, where one
extremely
well-known UK bassist joined in.
See you tomorrow.
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.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
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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