GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
You knew it couldn't last, right? The high pressure that brought us the last couple of days is shifting south and east, and it's making way for a new system. Which is slowly moving our way from the west. We should start out nice and sunny (once the fog clears), but clouds will move in steadily over the course of the day; a chance of rain toward evening and a certainty overnight. Highs today low to mid 70s, maybe some wind gusts in the afternoon. Mid 50s overnight.Look! Up in the sky!
All that rain and clouds has been good for something, anyway: Some really dramatic skies. Here's a moment when the light late in the day pierced the clouds, caught from Mink Hill Road in Bradford by John Pietkiewicz.
Meanwhile, a bit farther away... What's called Zodiacal Light—a "hazy pyramid" of light in the eastern sky caused by sunlight reflecting off space dust (or as NASA puts it, sunlight "scattered by interplanetary dust particles that lie near the Solar System’s ecliptic plane")—is visible twice a year, during spring evenings and fall mornings. And early yesterday, up at the Mt. Washington Observatory, meteorologist Ryan Knapp caught a nice shot of it. Click on the left-hand photo to see it better. Here's his explanation of the phenomenon from a few years back.
In Hanover, planned workforce housing project has neighbors wary. You may remember that at town meeting this year, voters approved transferring acreage on Greensboro Road to Twin Pines or another housing nonprofit to build workforce housing. That plan has been in the works since 2020, and as Beatrice Burack writes in her first story for Daybreak, it's aimed at balancing much-needed new housing with the town's conservation goals. However, changes in the proposal—it was originally for six to ten units—have neighbors fretting. Bea explores where things stand as plans evolve.DH reports loss for the year, but a strong final quarter. In all, reports the Valley News's Nora Doyle-Burr, the hospital system posted a $45.3 million loss for the 12 months that ended June 30, but a $47.8 million operating gain in the final three months of its fiscal year. “Staffing shortages, wage pressures and the increased costs of medications and supplies will continue to be challenges in the coming months, but we anticipate this forward momentum will continue,” DH spokesperson Audra Burns tells Doyle-Burr—and adds that DHMC has no plans for further layoffs. Doyle-Burr digs into the numbers and what they mean.VT Law & Grad School prevails in federal court over mural artist. The long-running legal feud between artist Sam Kerson and VL&GS was sparked in 2020, when the school announced plans to cover up Kerson's 1993 work, The Underground Railroad, Vermont and the Fugitive Slave, after student complaints that its depictions of slaves and slavers amounted to caricature. Kerson sued. Now, reports Christopher Kuo in the NYT (gift link), a panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeals has ruled that “ensconcing a work of art behind a barrier neither modifies nor destroys the work.” (Thanks, CJ!)SPONSORED: Want to manage pain or reduce stress? Integrative Medicine at APD combines holistic health with traditional medical care to help patients decrease stress, strengthen the immune system, reduce pain, and speed recovery. We offer massage, acupuncture, cupping, energy healing, naturopathic medicine, and craniosacral therapy. Contact information, providers, and more. Sponsored by Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital.Missing vulnerable adult alert in Claremont. The NH State Police last night activated the alert at the request of Claremont police after Amy Wescott, a 34-year-old intellectually disabled woman, was reported missing by her guardian. She was last seen yesterday afternoon, wearing black shorts with white leggings underneath them, a black tank top, and silver shoes, and carrying a small blue drawstring backpack and a white bag. The Claremont PD is asking anyone who sees her to call (603) 542-9538.Brothers. In yesterday's item about Dan Fraser stepping down as Dan & Whit's manager, I named the wrong brother who's involved in running the iconic store: It's Mat Fraser, not Rob—though Rob continues to help out. And in case you missed it Tuesday, the burgundy link goes to Carla Kimball's new documentary about Dan & Whit's, Dan Fraser's central place in Norwich community life, and the community's embrace of the store during the pandemic. The news about Dan, Kimball writes, "speaks precisely to the conversation I think we need to be having about how important the small family-owned stores are to the rural communities in Vermont and what can be done to make them sustainable."With win in Enfield special election, Democrats narrow NH House divide to a sliver. Tuesday's voting handed a convincing win to David Fracht, who also chairs the town planning board: He received 495 votes to Republican John P. Keane's 194. Fracht will fill the seat left vacant by Democrat Joshua Adjutant, who resigned in the spring following an injury on his job as a security guard at DHMC. As Stephen Porter writes in the Globe's Morning Report newsletter (no paywall), the result puts the House at 199 Republicans, 197 Democrats. There are two special elections to go.SPONSORED: Hartford Area Chamber seeks new executive director. A new exciting opportunity in the Upper Valley: Executive Director at the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce (HACC). This is a full time position located in Quechee, VT. Are you ready to lead with a pulse on local businesses and a vision for growth? Applications are being accepted now until the position is filled. The job description is here; hit the burgundy link for more information on the Chamber. Sponsored by the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce.Valley Regional, West Claremont Center, Claremont Opera House all land federal economic development grants. The money comes from the Northern Border Regional Commission, which for the last 15 years has funded projects in corners of northern NH, VT, NY, and VT that, as NH economic development commissioner Taylor Caswell puts it, "are largely ignored by many other federal programs." Valley Regional is getting $500K for workforce housing; the new Claremont Creative Center will see almost that much for basic infrastructure work; and the opera house will receive $128,360 for audio-visual work.Two treasured Upper Valley arts organizations mark key anniversaries. Artistree in S. Pomfret is turning 20 this year and AVA Gallery has hit the half-century mark. And both, reports Liz Sauchelli in the VN, are marking the occasions on Saturday: Artistree with a sold-out gala, AVA with a birthday celebration from 10 to 5. The two organizations have distinguished themselves by making the arts engaging and accessible to anyone: "They celebrate the art of doing," Sauchelli writes. She talks to Artistree development director Karen Rodis and AVA executive director Shari Boraz about what they do and why.“Don’t let Merrimack’s door hit you on the way out.” That was NH state Rep. Wendy Thomas responding yesterday to the news that Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, the French multinational at the core of the years-long controversy surrounding PFAS air and water pollution there, is closing its plant. The company says the move is part of a US restructuring—though no other facilities in North America will close because of it—and that layoffs will begin at the end of October. Hadley Barndollar reports in NH Bulletin on the local response to the announcement (burgundy link) while NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian and Adriana Martinez-Smiley give historical background.A couple days of sun? Farmers are out in the hay fields. As you know, it's been a tough spring and summer for lots of crops, and feed crops have been no exception. “We waited, and then waited, waited, waited. And then it just kept raining and raining and raining and raining," one farmer tells VT Public's Elodie Reed and Lexi Krupp. That's led to intense concern about feed supplies—to the point where the state plans to roll out a platform to connect farmers in need with suppliers of hay and other crops. Still, says Ag Secretary Anson Tebbetts, "The mood is a little better today and yesterday than I’ve seen in a long time."The question, though, is will tourists arrive in the fall? After a stormy, wet, flooded summer, towns in VT are readying for foliage season—and counting on the influx of tourist dollars to boost the economy. In the Washington Post (gift link) Andrea Sachs notes that meteorologist Jim Salge, who for the last dozen years has been forecasting New England fall colors for Yankee mag, is just out with his report, and there's lots to worry about: waterlogged tree roots, warm temps diluting colors, fungal rot... Sachs writes that its also possible that ash and smoke from the Canadian wildfires has interfered with photosynthesis. Salge is predicting "a softer, more pastel palette of foliage colors this year. They’d still be beautiful, just less bold." Here's his report.“Fish are not on the list of frequent offenders.” Rare indeed are the incidences of fish falling from the sky, smacking into a transponder, and plunging 2,000 Sayreville, NJ residents into darkness. Don’t blame the fish; it was likely carried far overhead by an osprey. A Jersey Central Power & Light spokesperson pointed to the punctures on the fish, probably from the osprey’s talons. As for the bird that didn’t quite have a grasp of the situation, “We also send our thoughts to the osprey,” says JCP&L, “because if you’ve ever dropped your ice-cream cone at the fair, you know the feeling.”The Thursday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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At 5 pm today, the Hop offers up a preview of choreographer Richard Move's Dartmouth-landscape-specific outdoor dance work, Herstory of the Universe@Dartmouth, which will premiere next month. Today, dancers will offer excerpts of the work-in-progress on a tour of the former golf course, while Dartmouth soil ecologist Bala Chaudhary provides insights into the earth beneath us, microbial movement, and restoration and rewilding—"all concepts that inform the piece as science and arts intertwine like the symbiotic organisms that inspire the work," the Hop writes. Starts at the Dartmouth Outing Club House by Occom Pond.
Feast and Field is back at Fable Farm in Barnard this evening at 6 (gates at 5:30) with the Pointe Noir Cajun Band—seasoned Vermont folk musicians who've steeped themselves in the music (and the landscape) of southwest Louisiana. F&F has a tent, so it's rain or shine.
Also at 6 pm and a drive away, Bread & Puppet Theater will be down in Putney, sponsored by Next Stage Arts at The Grammar School Soccer Field (you might want to check the skies before you go). It's the troupe's 60th anniversary, and they'll be observing it with The Heart of the Matter Circus.
And at 8 pm, the Lake Morey Resort continues its free summer concert series with Boulder, CO-based Big Head Todd and the Monsters—high-energy alt-rockers with a taste for folk, country, soul, and blues and a long history of both live performances and studio albums. Gates at 6, rain or shine on the 10th fairway of the golf course.
And to start off today...
We're going to listen to someone make some pretty darn sweet lemonade out of lemons. Depending, of course, on how you feel about the iPhone alarm. If you can't quite call it to mind, the opening bars of Toronto-based pianist and composer Tony Ann's score will remind you.
that weaves the original tune into something you'd actually look forward to waking up to.
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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