GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Weather whiplash. Well, sort of. We're looking at showers this morning, which is hardly unusual of late, with chances dropping after noon. In some spots where early morning temps are hovering around the freezing mark, it'll be falling as a wintry mix; watch for icing. But we're also looking at a high today in the low 60s, as warmer southern air moves in on high. Things could get windy later this afternoon. Tonight, we'll only drop into the low or mid 40s.Shoulder-season sights. With two cool photos from Wilder.
The first is something I've never seen before: a tree casting a frost shadow. You'll get the idea right away in Roy Hatch's remarkable photo.
And then there's Larry Kilian's mesmerizing pic of the water flowing over Hazen Falls.
It's time for Dear Daybreak! In this week's collection of stories and more from readers, Lori Harriman writes about an encounter in a grocery-store parking lot; Peter Webster deals, in verse, with the rain; and Rebecca Lafave writes about a poem her great aunt penned for Camp Hanum, the Thetford girls’ camp that preceded Camp Farnsworth, and the majestic view of the three NH peaks—Smarts, Cube, Moosilauke—across the way. And hey: Dear Daybreak's larder is perilously close to bare. If you've got an anecdote or a memory or a reflection or a poem to share, please do send it in!NHDOT changes re-opening date for northbound I-91 Exit 10A. The ramp from I-91N to I-89S was supposed to re-open today, but in a press release yesterday, the agency announced that "due to weather," the ramp is instead due to reopen at 6 pm next Tuesday, April 8—though it adds the exit "will remain closed until the work at Exit 20 is complete." It's also changed the tentative date for closing Exit 20 on I-89 southbound to 6 am Monday, April 7, with a planned reopening at 6 pm the 8th.WRJ's Wolf Tree is a James Beard Award finalist. It's one of five in the Outstanding Bar category, with the competition coming from bars in Chicago, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Portland, OR. Avery Buck of Burlington's May Day is a finalist for Best Chef: Northeast, while Allison Gibson and Cara Chigazola Tobin, who own Burlington's Honey Road and the Grey Jay, are up for Outstanding Restaurateur. Meanwhile, Bethlehem, NH's Super Secret Ice Cream is a finalist for Outstanding Bakery. Winners will be announced on June 16. Full list at the link.SPONSORED: Help someone right now! At Hearts You Hold, the locally based nonprofit that supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees across the US by asking them what they need, we're flooded with requests—from a Dominican immigrant in Lebanon trying to get his feet under him to expectant moms from several African countries in Vermont who need diapers and other basics. At the burgundy link or here, you'll find people to help from all over the world who need things as simple as toothpaste, children's jackets, or just a hand getting set up. Sponsored by Hearts You Hold."The smile on her face when she can do something will bring tears to your eyes." For her Dartmouth podcasting class, junior Ellie Rodgers headed to the Upper Valley Circus Collective's camp in Thetford recently. There, she talked with founder Meg Tenney—"I have found new motivation in the kids who come here and find their people. They struggle in school to fit in the boxes, they struggle to sit still, they struggle with not fitting in with peer groups. That doesn’t happen here…"—and with the mom of an 8-year-old with Down syndrome who'd been finding doors closing elsewhere, but not in the circus world.WRJ couple who'd been facing eviction find new digs. You may remember Emma Roth-Wells' December story in the Valley News about Bob Stange and Cindy Anne Packard-Stange, who've lived off Route 5 near Hartford High School for 17 years and whose new landlord had been seeking to raise their rent or evict them. Now, Roth-Wells reports, after fighting the landlord for a year, the pair have reconciled with her and have found a ground-floor apartment—important to both of them because of health issues—up the road thanks to Twin Pines Housing. They haven't moved yet, but hope to soon.SPONSORED: Let’s resist divisiveness together. In our contentious and divided world, a story of acceptance, love, and community is more needed than ever. We the People Theatre’s mission has always been to inspire meaningful conversations in our community. Our production of A Man of No Importance opened last weekend at the Briggs Opera House. We invite you to join us in the conversation that celebrates art, love and inclusiveness. Grab your tickets now before it’s too late! The show runs through April 13. Sponsored by We the People Theatre.In one NH town, a child care center suddenly closed. Three weeks later, its parents reopened it—as a nonprofit. In a story that's as much about the urgency parents of young kids feel as it is about perseverance, NHPR's Annmarie Timmins reports on Somersworth's Thriving Roots Childcare, whose previous owner announced Jan. 24 he'd be closing the next day. At first, families divided the 24 kids among four homes and rehired the teachers—but then they wrote up a business plan and took over the old center's space. Now, Timmins reports, they're hanging on, and 50 kids attend.House GOP committee members add anti-DEI provision to NH state budget. The measure, a last-minute addition to the so-called "budget trailer bill," was advanced by the House Finance Committee; it would "block state agencies, towns, and school districts from entering into contracts that have provisions relating to DEI," reports NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt. It would also bar public schools from DEI programs, "including implicit bias training, and race-based hiring," DeWitt writes. Democrats argue the measure comes too late in the process and is likely to be challenged in court as overly vague.Investors close in on Burke Mountain Resort buy. It's not a done deal yet, the Caledonian Record's Paul Hayes notes, but a group led by Ken Graham, the son of former Burke owner Donald Graham, has agreed with court receiver Michael Goldberg on a price for the 270-acre ski area. A judge still has to approve the deal. The younger Graham is working with the family that owns the Berkshire East Mountain Resort in MA, and with Burke Mountain Academy. Burke is "sort of back to the roots of why people love skiing in the first place, and that’s what we want to protect and build," Graham tells VTDigger."'It's so bad,' he said, a tear sliding down his cheek. 'It's so bad.'" You don't normally expect open emotion from a state regulator, but on Vermont Edition Tuesday, Green Mountain Care Board chair Owen Foster couldn't help himself. As VT Public's Mikaela Lefrak writes, VT has the highest health insurance costs in the country, the "biggest players in the system are in financial disarray, including many of the state's hospitals and its largest insurer," and proposed federal health cuts could be devastating to the state's health care system. "We have some pretty tough choices to make," Foster tells her.Amid national measles outbreak, hundreds of VT schools and child care facilities don't meet "herd immunity" threshold. Though there's been only one case reported in the state this year, VTDigger's Erin Petenko reports that state health officials are fretting over the fact that the state’s measles vaccination rate for incoming kindergartners is below 95 percent, the level "that can prevent individual cases from becoming outbreaks." About 26 percent of K-12 schools and 23 percent of child care facilities don't meet the threshold. She includes a school-by-school and center-by-center chart.Take me, I’m yours. Hey, we all forget stuff. Like PayPal accounts, safe deposit boxes, and savings accounts. For Seven Days, Mary Ann Lickteig writes about VT’s efforts to reunite you with your forgotten assets. Banks and businesses must try to reach the rightful owners of forgotten assets, but if they can’t, the valuables get turned over to the state. Problem is, the money keeps flowing in and Vermonters aren’t claiming it fast enough; there’s more than $130 million sitting in the state treasurer's Unclaimed Property Division—including contents of safe deposit boxes, locks of hair, sports cards, Purple Hearts … go to Missingmoney.vermont.gov to lay claim to yours.On the day you were born, the stars aligned. Here’s proof. For more than three decades, NASA’s Hubble space telescope has been orbiting the Earth every 95 minutes, exploring the universe. Along the way, it’s captured more than 1.5 million images, including storms on Saturn, the supermassive star Eta Carinae—8,000 light years away—and “a grouping of galaxies engaging in a slow dance of destruction that will last for billions of years.” Now NASA has a tool that lets you plug in your birthday and open your gift from the heavens: an image taken on your special day.And hey, while we're looking through telescopes, here's an Einstein ring. This one's from the Webb telescope, and what you're looking at is two galaxies a huge distance apart, with the light from the very distant background galaxy warped into a ring by the much closer galaxy. Honest, it looks kind of like an immense cosmic dragon's eye. Link goes to NASA's "pan video."The Thursday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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Daybreak tote bags! Thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, the usual: sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
Rose Gottemoeller, former Deputy Secretary General of NATO and former Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the US State Department sits down with Dickey Center director Victoria Holt to talk over the impact of the Trump administration's new approach to NATO, especially on Russia's war against Ukraine. 4:30 pm in Haldeman 41 and livestreamed.
The Norwich-based physical therapist and Ayurvedic practitioner's new book is a wellness guide for women over 50, blending Ayurveda, yoga, meditation, and breathing techniques to offer self-care practices, beauty recipes, tips on exercise and how to improve digestion, and more. 7 pm.
The northern VT forester, punk musician, and author of How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World kicks off a three-part series of talks on VT's forests presented by the Thetford Historical Society and the Thetford Conservation Commission. 7 pm in the Martha Jane Rich Theater at Thetford Academy.
Christopher Landon's thriller premiered at SXSW, with Meghann Fahy playing a widowed mother on her first date in years who suddenly finds a series of anonymous drops on her phone ordering her to follow instructions or "the hooded figure she sees on her home security cameras will kill Violet's young son and babysitting sister. Whoever is sending these air-drops must be at the restaurant…" 7 pm at the Loew.
Oboist Margaret Herlehy and bassoonist Janet Polk, both from the NH Seacoast but with strong ties to the Upper Valley, join with pianist Dan Weiser for works by Poulenc, Grandval, Lalliet, Bush, and more. Tonight at 7:30 at Windsor's Old South Church, tomorrow at 7:30 at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, and Saturday at 2 pm at the home of Andrew Bauman in WRJ. There's also a Saturday evening concert in Contoocook.
As they write, "The event will be moderated by popular Vermont-based Pub Geeks. Questions will run the gamut from pop culture, sports, history, and – of course – books. The winning team gets bragging rights and their picture on the coveted digital display board!" 7:30 pm, teams of up to 6.
The Toronto-based festival favorite is a simple trio—fiddler John Showman, clawhammer banjoist Chris Coole, and upright bassist Max Malone—with a rich, resonant sound. 7:30 pm, reservations required.
choreographer Rachel Berson's improvisational dance and artistic collaboration,
Novel Formats #3: Loop
, on the road in NYC; comedians Paul Ollinger, Rufat Agayev, Shaunak Godkhindi, and Ian Levy at the stand-up JAM benefit that kicked off WRIF this year; and Zed Zha’s author talk at the Norwich Bookstore for her "humorous, colorful, and introspective" picture book,
Why We Eat Fried Peanuts,
with a helping of ancestral stories and traditional foods along the way.
And to take us into the day...
The Lonesome Ace Stringband (tonight at the Flying Goose), whose music "lurks in a truly unique space that is somewhere on the outskirts of old-time, bluegrass, and folk," as they put it,
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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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