GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Get ready! Let's see what actually happens, but at the moment it looks like we're in for a long-lasting storm that will throw light rain at us today as temps stay relatively warm, then as a cold front moves into place it'll turn to snow late this afternoon. Mostly snow overnight, though for a few hours sleet may mix in, especially in the southern reaches of the region, then snow will continue tomorrow. Little accumulation today, but tonight and tomorrow look like a different story (see below). Low 20s tonight.The consensus on expected total snowfall in eastern VT and western NH seems to be around 5-12 inches, with 2-6" at the low end and 10-14" at the high end. Here are the average projections:
Cold? What cold? It was 3:30 am and -11 out when this fisher crossed in front of Cynthia Crawford's trail camera in Norwich. If you've ever heard one at night you know it's unforgettable, but we don't often get to see one."We're finally able to say, 'OK, what procedures can we get back to doing?'" That's DHMC's chief medical quality officer, Dr. Michael Calderwood. Covid hospitalization rates are falling in NH, WMUR's Jennifer Crompton reports, and though some ICU's remain full, hospitals are no longer scrambling for beds for the seriously ill. DHMC saw active infections drop from 45 to 26 in a week (excluding longer-term patients still in the hospital after the initial crisis was over), and statewide, hospitalizations have dropped from 433 in mid-January to 278 yesterday.Dartmouth has highest Covid test positivity rate in the Ivies. As of yesterday, writes Farah Lindsey-Almadani in The Dartmouth, the college reported 546 out of 5,301 tests from over the past seven days as positive, a positivity rate of 10.3 percent. That compares to rates ranging from 5.3 percent at Brown to 1.05 percent at Princeton. Provost David Kotz responds that Dartmouth's early start to the term—while omicron was peaking—is in part responsible for the difference.SPONSORED: Are you the Hop’s next Box Office Manager? Or perhaps the new Master Audio & Electrics Technician? If you are a creative, collaborative individual who wants a career in the arts with great benefits and a fun team, check out all of the open positions (both regular and temporary!) at the Hop. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.24,000 gallons of water. Plus light posts, a warming hut, US and Canadian flags, and some serious ice-grooming chops.,. In a "News We Love" segment, WMUR comes to a spot in the Upper Valley with a killer view of Mt. Ascutney, where a bunch of neighbors chafing at the pandemic built an ice rink half the size of an NHL rink. "We all got sick of being inside and wanted to come out and be together," says one. Season's winning team takes home the Covid Cup."Wouldn't it be cool to own a mill?" Ally Bernstein learned knitting from her grandmother, knit through high school—where her teachers took to calling her Madame Defarge—founded a knitting club in college...and now films a knitting video podcast. Recently she headed from her home in northern VT to WRJ for an episode about Junction Fiber Mill. It went up Tuesday, with owners Peggy Allen and Amanda Kievet talking about how the whole thing came about, how wool gets turned into yarn, how all the mill's equipment works, the ins and outs of yarns...and supporting area sheep farming.NH to launch voluntary accreditation process for police departments. The issue moved front and center as police reform became a hot topic in the wake of the George Floyd killing, reports Ethan DeWitt in NH Bulletin. There's a national accreditation process, but it's expensive and small-town forces don't often have the wherewithal to meet those standards. So police leaders are developing a state alternative, focused more on policies than equipment and facilities. The goal, DeWitt writes, "is to provide departments with a state-supported roadmap to keeping policies up to date and following best practices."As NH Senate considers redistricting plans, citizens and advocates hope for changes. On Monday, the ACLU of NH released a report concluding that current proposals for the state House, state Senate, and Exec Council (it weighed in on Congress earlier) "would all give the majority Republican Party an unfair advantage in elections for the next 10 years," Amanda Gokee writes in NH Bulletin. Gov. Chris Sununu told WMUR he's not a big fan of the proposals either. One issue besides gerrymandering: Towns (like Canaan) that are due a single-rep district by population are still being denied one.For kids with special needs, VT’s teacher shortage is causing “a very deep level of heartbreak.” Seven Days’ Alison Novak surveys a dire situation for many of VT’s children with disabilities and the schools that are struggling to staff special-ed classrooms. In Springfield, a boy with multiple disabilities stayed home for months and now receives only one hour of instruction per week. Many districts are forced to “triage” available staff just to provide essential services. Says one administrator, "We have a retention issue…[and] fewer people who want to work in paraeducator roles than ever before."A lesson in sheer numbers. The omicron variant of Covid is considered less severe overall than previous variants, but nonetheless, January saw the second-highest number of Covid-related deaths for the whole pandemic, reports Erin Petenko in VTDigger. The month's 64 deaths were exceeded only by those in December, 2020, when the illness was still rampaging through long-term care facilities. The actual fatality rate has dropped from .9 percent in October to .39 percent last month, but the record number of cases drove totals up. Full state data presentation here.There are "just so many great aspects" to firefighting. "I wish more people knew that." That's 23-year-old Danielle Morse talking to Seven Days' Sasha Goldstein about the confidence that serving eight years on the Whiting, VT VFD has given her—like scaling a ladder while carrying another, then setting the second one up on a roof and climbing it. She's hoping to convince others to join up, Goldstein writes. And she's got a platform for all that hard-won aplomb: Morse is also Miss Vermont. Once her state title stint is over, she's headed for a career in nursing.UK man’s “swift intervention” makes homes for thousands of birds. It’s a story too sweet not to mention: 80-year-old John Stimpson, angry about the declining numbers of swifts and swallows, decided to take action. The Guardian’s Phoebe Weston finds Stimpson in his garage, where he’s been making and selling bird boxes for the last 13 years. He just completed his 30,000th swift box, enough to house half of the UK’s breeding population. And he’s not stopping there. “I still want to make as many boxes as I can," he says. "I don’t like letting people down. My word is my bond.” (Thanks, P&V!)And speaking of birds... Seems fair to say this rooster leaves it all on the field.
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At 6 pm, several Dartmouth institutes host an online webinar on Haiti and its ongoing crises. Panelists include Eziaku Nwokocha, a postdoc in religion at Princeton; Jemima Pierre, associate professor of African and African American Studies at UCLA; Victoria Holt, who directs Dartmouth's Dickey Center for International Understanding; and Dartmouth anthropology prof Chelsey Kivland.
This evening at 7, Lebanon journalist and historian Dan Billin will tell the story of Canaan's Noyes Academy and the careers of three 19th-century African-American leaders who went there as students. The academy, founded in 1835 by abolitionists as one of the first integrated schools in the country, was attacked that year by a mob, who used 100 oxen to pull the building off its foundation; the students escaped. In an NH Humanities program hosted by Grantham's Dunbar Library, Billin "plumbs the depths of anti-abolitionist sentiment in early nineteenth-century New England, and the courage of three young friends destined for greatness."
Also at 7, the Green Mountain Club hosts outdoorsman Perry Cohen for an online talk, "Breaking it down to build it back: A story of rediscovery in the outdoors." In 2015, Cohen, who grew up hiking and camping in southern NH, founded The Venture Out Project with a group snowshoe and an eye toward making it easier for queer, trans, and LGBTQ+ to experience the outdoors through hiking and other adventures. He'll detail his own life story, as well as talk about Venture Out's growing presence in the outdoor world.
Also at 7, the Rutland Library joins VT Humanities' First Wednesdays crowd a day late with author Andrew Aydin, who worked with the late Congressman John Lewis on his graphic novel trilogy, March. He'll be talking about Run!, which picks up where March left off, as well as about his own career working in politics and with Lewis.
And also at 7, the Vermont Folklife Center and Phoenix Books host the editors and contributors to Turner Family Stories: From Enslavement in Virginia to Freedom in Vermont, a graphic compilation of personal and family stories from Grafton, VT's Daisy Turner, who was born in 1883 to formerly enslaved parents, and lived until 1988. The contributors include cartoonists Marek Bennett, Joel Christian Gill, Francis Bordeleau, and Lilllie Harris; the book's cover was done by Center for Cartoon Studies alum Robyn Smith.
And anytime between now and Feb. 11, Hop@Home is offering up "It's 3:07 Again," an interactive digital dance and theater "experience" from the NYC-based dance troupe, Monica Bill Barnes & Company. As the troupe describes it, "Audiences jump into a time loop, choosing their own paths through heartfelt, hilarious glimpses into the everyday lives of strangers in a public space." No charge, but you'll need to register. You can also, by the way, check out last summer's "Four@Play" performance by Pilobolus at anytime, via YouTube.
Houeida Hedfi started her performing career as a percussionist in a band that specialized in the trance music of Tunisia's sub-Saharan black minority. A bit over a decade ago, she appeared on an album of female musicians from Tunisia, many of them tied to the Arab Spring protests of that era. But it's taken until now for her to produce her own recording, as she sought to find melodies that moved her as much as rhythm did. She's created what one reviewer calls "a kind of pan-Arabic chamber music" group, and their debut album, Fleuves De l’Âme, just came out at the end of last year. It's trance... but with melody. Here's "Baisers Amers de l'Euphrate" ("Bitter Kisses of the Euphrates").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.
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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