GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Quick reminder: No Daybreak tomorrow, next week, or Monday the 20th. Back in your inbox on the 21st!Rainy, cooler. There's a low pressure system passing by to the south, and rain today will be spreading northward—so its timing depends on where you are. With plenty of cloud cover and air moving in from the north, we'll also see temps hitting the mid-60s at best. Things should clear out by this evening.Now. Just to tide you over... It's not like Daybreak's going to be gone that long, but still: a few more photos than usual.
Up near Newbury, Ian Clark got out around daybreak Monday on the pond where he's been following loons. Mist shrouding the water, all sorts of bird life to see...a fine way to spend the morning—provided, he writes, "one doesn’t object to paddling about in 42° weather."
And right about the same time, Jane Masters caught the rich early-morning light on the mist in over the former golf course in Hanover;
And over in Corinth, John Pietkiewicz noticed this strikingly contoured field in the sunlight;
And in Lyme, Barbara Woodard got right up close in a field of lupine on Breck Hill Road;
And finally, in Cornish, Steve Gordon caught this video of baby robins, set to perfectly timed music by Kristen Guay.
If trees talk to each other... they must be like spies! At least, that's where Eddie goes as he and Auk roam Lost Woods contemplating the "wood wide web." Usually, Lebanon writer and illustrator DB Johnson commands this spot on Fridays to chronicle Lost Woods—but since there's no Daybreak tomorrow... Meanwhile, on his blog this week, he animates a strip just to give you a sense of why plein air painters like Lydia tend to go for flora, rather than fauna.NH House redistricting leads to Lebanon reshuffle. The city will still have four representatives, but instead of all four running at-large, three will now represent specific wards, and only one the city as a whole. In a press release from Upper Valley Democrats chair Karen Liot Hill, longtime state Rep. Richard Abel says he will step down rather than force a primary with Rep. Laurel Stavis in Ward One. Incumbent Rep. George Sykes will run in Ward Two, Rep. Susan Almy will run citywide, and retired Dartmouth computer science prof Tom Cormen will run to represent Ward Three.Former Element Hotel's shift to short-term rental units set to happen. The building on Route 120 has been sitting unused for over two years, ever since a 2019 explosion from an electrical fire and propane leak. Now, reports John Lippman in the Valley News, a private equity company based in MA has bought it with plans for 88 studio units and 32 one-bedroom apartments aimed at DHMC and other employees "who are in the Upper Valley for a short time or are looking for permanent housing." It's scheduled to open in August.SPONSORED: Waypoint presents the first annual Summer FamJam! It's a free family concert and catered picnic Saturday, June 25, 4:30 – 7:00pm at Storrs Pond in Hanover. Dance in the grass to live music from the family-rock band, Sensible Shoes, and enjoy recreational activities: a splash pad, corn hole, and more. 50/50 raffle. It'll be fun for the whole family—dogs, too, on leash. Donations are welcome and will support Waypoint’s Upper Valley Family Resource Center. Online auction running now. Sponsored by Waypoint.NH lifts cyanobacteria advisory for Goose Pond; Mascoma Lake advisory still in effect. In a press release yesterday, the state's Dept. of Environmental Services removed the Goose Pond advisory it issued June 3 as a precautionary measure after green blooms were spotted along the shoreline. "While the bloom accumulation has dissipated," they write, "NHDES advises that lake-goers look out for green surface accumulations in the future."Dartmouth names new athletics director. Mike Harrity, who spent the past two years as deputy AD at West Point and before that served in similar posts at Notre Dame, will take over on July 18, the college announced yesterday. He's also the author of a 2012 book, Coaching Wisdom—"a handbook for coaches on how to lead,” says former Notre Dame women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw. Harrity, whose parents met while his father was in the Army in South Korea, takes over from interim AD Peter Roby in overseeing 35 Division I teams, as well as the college's phys ed and recreation programs. Changing of the guard at Valley News. After a year of deep and extensive reporting on environmental and climate issues, Claire Potter has left to freelance from Mexico, the paper reports. Her Report for America spot will be filled by a familiar byline: Frances Mize, who graduates from Dartmouth in a few days, has been an intern at the VN, often reporting on college-related stories. Report for America has come to play a crucial role in helping sustain local journalism by placing early-career reporters in newsrooms. Photographer Alex Driehaus, also part of the program, will get a second year at the VN.Hiking Not Quite Close to Home: the Welch-Dickey Loop. It's one of the best hikes in NH, if extra travel time and rising gas prices don't deter you: a rewarding half-day jaunt highlighted by scrambles up steep granite slopes to expansive mountain views. Almost half the 4.4-mile trek is on exposed ledges with stunning photo ops in every direction. Be ready for a workout: You'll gain about 1800 feet in elevation after a deceptively gradual initial climb. Also, plan ahead and bring $5, since there's a parking fee; the trail may be crowded on weekends. The parking area is off Orris Rd in Thornton, NH.Explore these private lands in VT, very much open to the public. Boy, sometimes it’s rough being a reporter—like if, say, Seven Days sends you on a hike to write about how beautiful it is. (Sarcasm level: high.) Ken Picard, Sally Pollak, and Paula Routly do the dirty work of exploring seven different properties around the state that, though privately owned, welcome anyone. Incredibly, about 80 percent of VT forestland (3.5 million acres) is under private ownership. And much of it is dutifully protected by its stewards, who simply ask that we stay on marked trails, leave no trace, and don’t block the driveway.“Our arms were like birthday candles." That's Karen Wilson, the mother of slain off-road cycling star Moriah "Mo" Wilson, describing a memorial gathering at E. Burke's Kingdom Trails on what would have been her daughter's 26th birthday. In all the national coverage of Wilson's murder, the story of her upbringing in the Northeast Kingdom and of her meteoric rise from never having competed to the pinnacle of off-road cycling has mostly rated a quick mention. In Vermont Sports, Abagael Giles sets out to correct that—tracing her childhood, her decision to go pro (helped by her boyfriend at the time, Norwich-raised Gunnar Shaw, and his family), and her wild successes. (Thanks, JF!)The gondola that carries riders to the start of Stowe's zip line is carefully monitored by the state. The zip line that carries riders down at highway speed? Nope. And that's become a big issue in the wake of the death last fall of zip guide Scott Lewis—especially, writes Derek Brouwer in Seven Days, after the finding by VT OSHA that Lewis was using old, worn safety lanyards that Stowe's owner, Vail Resorts, had failed to replace—at $26 a pop. Brouwer digs into what happened and why zip lines remain unregulated. The legislature had a chance in 2018, but passed.A "historic change" to current use. You may remember that a new law in VT now allows landowners who want to let their forests age intact to enroll them in the state's current use program. VPR's Abagael Giles (this is her day job) and Grace Benninghoff talk over the change: why letting forests grow old is important in helping mitigate climate change, what kinds of land will be eligible, the tax implications. "Early modeling shows it will have a miniscule impact" on state revenues, Giles says. "And climate activists say this change is well worth it to keep those forests from potentially becoming subdivisions."Egad! Is that a small whorled pogonia I see??!! We can laugh, but here's the thing: The rare orchid, which hasn't been seen in Vermont for 120 years and is listed as endangered by the feds, has been found growing on conservation land in Chittenden County. The flowers were first spotted by a birder, who used iNaturalist to ask for help identifying them; his post was spotted by another citizen scientist, a botanist, who reported it to the state. “It’s Vermont’s equivalent of rediscovering the ivory-billed woodpecker," says Fish and Wildlife botanist Bob Popp.Sometimes it's better just to read the children's book and not wonder about the author. For parents of little ones, bedtime books eventually are memorized word for word, opening up space in your brain to wonder, “What kind of person writes this stuff?” In a LitHub excerpt from his new memoir on fatherhood, Keith Gessen couldn’t let it lie. Intrigued by a curious dedication in an Eric Carle book, he found out Carle’s emigré father moved the family back to Germany on the eve of WWII. Dr. Seuss, Gessen learned, “turned out to be a real piece of work.” And the author of the sweet, family-centered Frances books—he left his family.Rugby? It's got nothing on the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake. Really, it's simple: A crowd of men or women stands at the top of the hill in Gloucester, England. A wheel of Double Gloucester cheese—7 to 9 pounds—is set rolling. First person down the 200-yard incline (ideally having caught the cheese) wins. What could possibly go wrong? The Atlantic's got photos from this year's competition, held last Sunday. Fun facts: The cheese can reach 70 mph. And the first written reference to the competition is almost 200 years old, but it's believed to have been going on much longer.The Thursday Vordle. If your day can't begin until you've done it, remember: You can sign up to get a daily Vordle email while Daybreak's not publishing; you'll find the signup page right here. Use the email address you already use for Daybreak or once the newsletter returns you'll be getting two of them.
And the trends...
On Tuesday, Dartmouth reported there had been 146 active cases during the previous 7 days, down a bit from the 152 reported last week. Undergrad cases were up a bit to 43 over the previous week, grad/professional cases down to 30, and faculty/staff holding steady at 73.
NH cases continue to fall, with a 7-day average now of 335 new cases per day versus 423 a week ago. There were 16 deaths reported over the past week; the total stands at 2,555. Under the state's rubric of counting only people actively being treated for Covid in hospitals, it reports 27 hospitalizations (+3 over the past week). The NH State Hospital Association reports 98 inpatients with confirmed or suspected cases (+9 since last Thursday) and another 35 Covid-recovering patients. The state is no longer reporting active cases. Instead, it's switched to positive cases in the last 14 days: 422 in Grafton County, 138 in Sullivan, and 493 in Merrimack. Same with town-by-town numbers: 109 in Hanover, 79 in Lebanon, 46 in Claremont, 26 in Grantham, 25 in Haverhill, 23 in Newport, 22 in Enfield, 21 in New London, 11 in Canaan, 10 in Lyme, 8 in Sunapee, 8 in Charlestown, 7 in Newbury, 7 in Wilmot, 6 in Plainfield, 5 in Croydon, and 1-4 in Piermont, Warren, Orford, Wentworth, Rumney, Orange, Grafton, Springfield, Cornish, and Unity.
Vermont rates community transmission levels as low, with its weekly surveillance report yesterday reporting 968 new cases over the week between May 29 and June 4, down 500 from the week before. The state also reported 52 new hospital admissions over that week, down from the previous week. Specifically, reports Jeralyn Darling in the VTDigger weekly wrapup, 33 people were hospitalized with the virus as of yesterday, including five in intensive care, with similar numbers on June 3 and June 6. There were also 3 new deaths since the previous state report, bringing the total to 673.
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At 5:30 today, Sustainable Woodstock hosts an online workshop on invasive plants with Lina Swislocki, of the VT Dept. of Forests, Parks, and Recreation. She'll be talking about how to identify and manage common invasive plants, and taking questions about them from the audience.
Today at 6 pm, Feast & Field in Royalton brings in Noah y Maurizio's Acoustic Nomads, an emerging newgrass band of string musicians and composers who got together at the Berklee College of Music and the Acoustic Music Seminar at the Savannah Music Festival to blend influences from all over the Americas. Gates open at 5:30.
This evening at 7, Grantham's Dunbar Free Library hosts an online NH Humanities talk by Dartmouth history prof Allen Koop on the history and traditions of the Appalachian Mountain Club's huts in the White Mountains. Koop will discuss how the huts and the people who built, maintain, and use them have formed their own mountain society, with a rich set of traditions and legends.
This week also marked the opening of Billings Farm's annual quilt exhibition, showing both historic quilts and contemporary versions made by quilters in Windsor County. Runs through July 10.
And finally, anytime, check out the week's highlights on CATV, including VT state Reps Becca White and Jim Masland talking about the power of a governor's veto and Gov. Phil Scott's willingness (35 vetoes over six years, a record) to use it; the panel discussion on the Upper Valley's housing needs and potential solutions held as part of Vital Communities' annual housing breakfast (this was where the region's new $10 million housing loan fund was announced last week); a playlist of locally created video content for Pride Month; the Norwich Bookstore conversation between novelists Katie Crouch and Flynn Berry on Berry's Northern Ireland thriller, Northern Spy; and the latest episode of the Shelf Help podcast, with the region's local booksellers making suggestions for graphic novels.
It's been a decade since Lyle Lovett put out a studio album, and one big reason is the subject of the title song, "12th of June." That's the date in 2017 when his wife, April Kimble, had twins, and the song itself is Lovett's deeply felt reflection on fatherhood. He's got others on the album, too, like "Pants is Overrated." As he said of his kids to
The Washington Post
, "These are the two most interesting people I’ve ever met.”`Daybreak won't be back until after Father's Day,
Yep. For you, dads and kids of dads. And above all, for you, K, S & S.
Have a wonderful 11 days! See you June 21.
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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