GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, definitely colder. That was a lovely taste of things to come yesterday, wasn't it? But now we're back to things that are: a quiet day that starts on either side of 10 degrees and only makes it into the mid- or upper 20s. Still, there's high pressure in place for a little bit, so we'll get lots of sun. Down into the upper teens tonight as low pressure arrives to our south and brings us... snow! Which should be falling by tomorrow morning. Stay tuned.Yesterday morning's mist... It made for some striking scenes not long after first light.
At Lake Fairlee, Jen MacMillen caught a solitary fisherman, way out on the ice with the lake to himself;
And in Quechee, Lisa Lacasse was out by the Ottauquechee with her drone. The ice was breaking up and starting to flood the surrounding areas, while the emerging sun bathed the water in copper light.
Crews in Woodstock use excavator to break up ice jam, relieve Route 4 flooding. With the past week's warm weather, ice had built up under the Lincoln Bridge in W. Woodstock, and Tuesday night's rain forced the closure of several side roads, though Route 4 itself remained open despite water washing over it. “It’s not unusual for the jams to hang out for a little bit," Woodstock Fire Chief David Green told NBC5 yesterday. "Obviously, we like them to move along." When that didn't happen, VTrans and the town brought in an excavator. NBC5 has the video (maroon link), Omni Reporter has the blow-by-blow.New London Hospital, Newport Health Center to stop taking primary care patients for now. "As we see improving numbers in terms of the pandemic, we unfortunately continue to deal with staffing challenges," hospital CEO Tom Manion wrote in a message to the community sent on Monday. The hospital has hired some new providers, he said, but it needs time to bring them up to speed—as well as more health care providers. "We ask that you check back with us in 60-90 days and we will revisit our availability," he wrote.Tiny home development proposed for Brownsville. The Vermont Standard reports that local builder Mark Morse and Yulia Moskvina, who directs anesthesia services at Springfield Hospital, have applied to the W. Windsor development review board to build six tiny houses on a parcel alongside Mill Brook, at the entrance to Brownsville. Their hope is to rent them to bikers, skiers, runners, and other outdoor enthusiasts drawn by Mt. Ascutney and Ascutney Outdoors.Lebanon Planning Board approves more apartments, storage facility for Dartmouth Library. The 204-unit apartment complex on Mt. Support Road, proposed by developers Dick Anagnost and Ken Braverman, would be aimed at middle-income renters, the Valley News's John Lippman reports. It would be directly across the road from Dartmouth's new complex for grad students. Meanwhile, the library storage facility will go up on a portion of the parking lot for a building the college owns on Etna Road, near FW Webb. (Link goes to VN's "e-edition"—the web version of the story hasn't been posted.)SPONSORED: Delve into Black history being made here in the Upper Valley with CATV. Join VT Senator Kesha Ram, former VT Rep. Kiah Morris, and US Rep. Peter Welch on challenges facing elected officials of color in VT in "Race and US Elections." Get "Out of Yourself" with burlesque performer Dominic Anju. Join Reggie Condra of the podcast "Brown n' Out" with JAG's Jarvis Green on JAG's mission to produce theater through the lens of the African-American experience. And much more at CATV8. Sponsored by CATV – Channeling the Upper Valley on cable, streaming, and YouTube."A gentle nudge into treating the planet—beginning with your own backyard—with the respect it deserves." Strafford artist Daisy Hebb has produced three calendars that meld art and science, Susan Apel writes on her Artful blog. Hebb's calendars, beautifully illustrated, also "bring you information you information you'll want to know," Susan writes, whether it's little nature facts—American bees pollinate differently from European bees—or useful suggestions, like planting honeysuckle or a timeline for gardening tasks throughout the year."Virtually a dissertation on opposites attracting." Seven Days theater reviewer Alex Brown, a playwright herself, likes Northern Stage's production of Heisenberg. Though the two-person play could head in a steamier direction, Brown writes, by "dialing down the romantic thermostat" director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley "lets the dry humor take prominence, and here the actors excel." The performances by Jamie Horton, as a 75-year-old butcher who's spent much of his life alone, and Monica Orozco as an impulsive 42-year-old American visitor to London, Brown writes, are "mesmerizing."Sununu says schools must end mask mandates. With the number of hospitalizations for Covid dropping below 100 (it stood at 93 yesterday), NH's governor said at a press conference yesterday that mask mandates would violate new education department public health guidance, reports InDepthNH's Nancy West. In particular, they would run afoul of guidance that school policies promote "a school environment that is conducive to learning” and meet "the special physical health needs of students." The state has also dropped its general indoor mask recommendation.Lost ski areas site builds a "vibrant, teeming community." Jeremy Davis works in upstate NY, went to college in VT... and first got interested in closed ski areas in NH, after his family drove past a shuttered Mt. Whittier in West Ossippee when he was 12. “All of these lost areas made me very curious to find out what they were all about," he tells Brion O'Connor in New Hampshire mag. Davis' website, the New England Lost Ski Areas Project, catalogs old ski areas state by state. But really, O'Connor writes, "with each ski area, the site captures a place and time capable of unleashing a torrent of tales."One old ski site that is most definitely not lost... Last weekend, the Harris Hill Ski Jump in Brattleboro celebrated its 100th anniversary with thousands of people and a jumping competition—made possible after days of warm temps by organizers, athletes, and coaches furiously shoveling and tamping down snow the night before. There was a strong Upper Valley presence there, from Olympic jumper Mike Holland to longtime Olympics announcer (and former ski jumper himself) Peter Graves, who announced the events. Montpelier-based photojournalist John Lazenby caught it all on camera.WHOA! indeed... The Vermont State Police's traffic safety division yesterday posted video on Twitter from a trooper's dashcam of an incredible near miss, as an oncoming SUV slides out of control, crosses the median, and nearly wipes out the trooper and the family he'd stopped to help—and minutes before had told to stop sitting on the guardrail and get in his car. "Whoa!" the trooper says to the dispatcher over the radio. "I've gotta go..." Two kids in car seats in the out-of-control car "were OK," the VSP writes, "but the driver, not wearing a seat belt, was ejected and suffered injury."Snow squalls in VT prompt unusual wireless alerts. VTDigger’s Talia Heisey reports that last Saturday’s spate of squalls around the state led the National Weather Service’s Burlington office to issue its first Wireless Emergency Alerts in years, using geotargeting to warn thousands of Vermonters of possible whiteout conditions. Some thought the warnings were overblown; others wished they’d come sooner. NWS meteorologist Pete Banacos says the technology has room to improve, like pinging your car instead of your phone when you shouldn’t take your eyes off the road.What's the best way to run a direct democracy? That long-running Vermont discussion has been rekindled, writes Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days, after many towns shifted to Australian ballots for town meeting during the pandemic and saw large increases in participation. But for all the people who value increased voter participation, there are others who weigh what's being lost. "Town meeting is a treasure, and it's not because it's quaint or it's precious as a legacy," says one town clerk. "The vote is the little tiny last endpiece of the process. The process of getting to what to vote on is the whole thing."Part yearbook, part handbook and part love letter to Vermont. That's how Dave Mance III, a maple sugarer, outdoorsman, and former editor of Northern Woodlands, describes the publication he now helps co-edit: the Vermont Almanac. In Seven Days, Ken Picard profiles the almanac and talks to Mance about how the two current volumes were put together—and about creating something that's educational and entertaining and covers everything from sugar-makers holding their own against "big maple" to the science of cyanobacteria blooms. Worth reading top to bottom.Scientists are tuning in to “an underground orchestra of animal activity.” With more biodiversity inside the soil than anywhere else on earth, it stands to reason that things are, quite literally, humming beneath our feet. And Swiss researchers are listening in, expanding a field called soil bioacoustics to learn about how subterranean life—burrowing, slithering, scraping—utilizes sound to thrive and survive. Ute Eberle’s story in Knowable mag explores how noise sensors can detect everything from grub larvae chatter to plant roots growing—and why we should worry if the ground makes no sound at all.Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
This morning at 9, the Concord Chamber of Commerce hosts an online forum on the challenges facing NH hospitals at the moment, from workforce shortages to Covid hospitalizations to the state's mental health crisis. Physicians from D-H Concord and Concord Hospital will talk with Steve Ahnen, head of the New Hampshire Hospital Association. Virtual tix are $10.
At 4:45 this afternoon in Dartmouth's Sanborn Library, novelist Katie Crouch and poet Matthew Olzmann will read from and discuss their work, as part of the Cleopatra Mathis Poetry and Prose Reading Series. Crouch, who lives in Norwich, is the author most recently of Embassy Wife, her barbed look at embassy life in Africa; the book's been optioned by two studios for a potential streaming series. Olzmann, who teaches creative writing at Dartmouth, is the author most recently of the collection Constellation Route, poems in the form of letters, which include the memorably titled "Letter to a Cockroach, Now Dead and Mixed Into a Bar of Chocolate."
Starting at 5 pm, the Hood Museum hosts "Winter Opening," an in-person celebration of its current and upcoming exhibitions. There'll be live music from local jazz group Sunday Table, an intro by Hood director John Stomberg, and "spotlight talks" in the galleries on exhibitions throughout the galleries. Details on highlighted exhibitions at the link.
Also at 5 pm, NH Humanities presents an online lecture by CUNY historian David Waldstreicher on the meaning of citizenship for the people who lived through the American Revolution and the generation that followed. Waldstreicher, who specializes in early American history, will talk about how citizens were expected to contribute to the new country, and how those expectations could be a source of controversy. This is the first in a series of talks on how Americans understand citizens' responsibilities.
And if that's not early-America enough for you, at 6:30 pm the Howe and the Hanover Historical Society present an online talk by archeologist Robert Goodby, author of A Deep Presence, his history of 13,000 years of Native American presence in these parts. He'll be talking about the archeological discoveries that help tell the story of Abenaki life in NH over the millennia.
Also at 6:30, the Green Mountain Audubon Society hosts an online talk by birder and novelist Maeve Kim on "Bird Nests: custom-designed and custom-built for the growing family." Which is about exactly what it sounds like it's about: an exploration of bird nests and the birds that make them. No charge, but you'll need to register.
At 7 pm, Hop Film presents Freda, director Gessica Généus' 2021 film about a young Haitian woman trying to navigate the challenges of modern-day Haiti and facing the question of whether to stay or to flee. A conversation with Généus and Dartmouth anthropology prof Chelsey Kivland follows.
And at 7:30 this evening, the Etna Library hosts an online talk by writer and adventurer Anders Morley. His 2020 book, This Land of Snow, won a National Outdoor Book Award for its retelling of his four-month journey on cross-country skis across northwestern Canada in winter. It's partly a travelogue about northern outdoor culture, wilderness living, and the history of northern exploration, and partly a meditation on winter and the approach of mid-life. Zoom link here.
Let's just say that not everybody with a whim gets to record on the Empire State Building's observation deck—even when it's really cold up there. But Norah Jones did just that in December, performing two songs off the Beatles'
Let It Be
album in honor of their famous January 1969 exit performance atop Apple Corps headquarters. Here's
...
Oh, and what the heck,
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 and writers who want you to 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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