GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, delightful. There's some high pressure over to the northeast, and in the wake of yesterday's cold front we're looking at dry air and temps maybe reaching the low or mid 70s under mostly clear skies (soon, soon). Which will last into the night, bringing overnight lows into the upper 40s.Charismatic water birds. By and above the water. There's just something about cormorants and herons, isn't there?
In Plainfield, Carol Majewski writes that a double-crested cormorant has been visiting a small beaver pond there. "As I frequently see them at the shoreline, I was surprised to see a single one for multiple days in our area. I've been photographing wildlife at this pond for years and this is definitely a first." Though cormorants prefer the ocean, they do migrate along rivers. Here it is in flight.
And at a lily pond near Lake Runnemede in Windsor, Phyll Perry writes that a great blue heron has been "hanging around all summer and loves to fish for his dinner in this pond."
And birds (and bats) in words. Up on Hurricane Hill in WRJ, naturalist and writer Ted Levin keeps early morning watch, and then fills his regular readers in. Yesterday, it was "a pulse of bats" on the hunt. "Nighthawk slices through bat chaos—a straight, rowing flight above the treetops. Bats disperse. Return, comb through dawn ... and then head south one valley at a time." And the night before, two owls in conversation. "Although I had no idea what the owls said, I felt anticipation—like the sun rising and filling the world with light," he writes.New Randolph hotel opens, town hopes visitors will make their way down hill. The My Place hotel at Exit 4 off I-89 has been in the works in one form or another for seven years and now, reports WCAX's Adam Sullivan, its doors are open. The 64 rooms are aimed at extended-stay guests like visiting nurses, business travelers, people drawn to the VT State campus in Randolph Center, and others. “There hasn’t been anywhere for anyone to stay since the Three Stallion Inn closed years ago,” the White River Valley Chamber's Linda Runnion says, and Main St. businesses are hoping for a boost in foot traffic.Dothan Brook School forced to delay start for kindergarten, first grade after mold discovery. The 70 students in those two classes will begin next Tuesday, reports Christina Dolan in the Valley News, nearly a week after the rest of the school opened. Teachers getting first-floor classrooms ready last week found visible mold, Dolan writes, and consultants on Tuesday charted out a path for testing and remediation. The delay, Hartford schools' facilities director Jonathan Garthwaite tells Dolan, will let teachers get their classrooms ready. Staff at the high school have also found mold in one classroom.SPONSORED: Dance Party Birthday Bash! Hartford Dismas House's 10th Birthday party includes music by the Tricksters, fab food by Big Fatty’s/Maple Street Catering and support for people successfully leaving incarceration. Also, a silent auction, “red carpet” photo op, and honoring Founder Rita McCaffrey and the community that has donated almost 12,000 hours in support of second chances. Tickets just $50, at the link above or here. Move now: They're going fast! September 7, 5:30 to 8:30 pm, Cornerstone Community Center in Hartford. Sponsored by Hartford Dismas House.NH anglers take state to task for proposed changes. In all, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman, Fish & Game's proposals would cut the number of ponds and streams limited to fly fishing, change fishing season start and end dates, and let fishermen on some bodies of water keep more of the fish they catch. But at a hearing in Concord Tuesday, officials got an earful from fly fishermen and gear-supply shop owners concerned that the changes would harm the industry, fish populations, trout streams, and the North Country economy. The state is still reviewing the changes. Here they are (this time with a more reliable URL).Why we have lake hosts. In NH, they're both paid and volunteer, and their job is to educate boaters on how to avoid transporting invasives—from milfoil to zebra mussels—from one waterbody to another, and to check the boats arriving at a public put-in. So it was that, early this month, a lake host on Conway Lake, near Easton, NH, did a check of a pontoon boat from Connecticut and found it loaded with zebra mussels. Which can produce 30,000 to 1,000,000 new mussels a year, notes InDepthNH's Paula Tracy. The boat didn't go in the water of the pristine lake, NH LAKES' Brea Arvidson tells Tracy.In VT and NH areas at risk for eastern equine encephalitis, officials take action. In Hampstead, NH, where a 41-year-old man died this week after being hospitalized with central nervous system disease caused by the virus, school and town fields will be closed today and tomorrow for spraying, reports WMUR; nearby towns are taking the step, too. And in the northwest corner of VT, state health officials are urging residents to stay indoors from dusk until dawn and encouraging all Vermonters to take care to avoid mosquito bites, reports Habib Sabet in VTDigger. EEE is rare in humans, but can be fatal.In VT, health care costs are rising, and health insurance is now among the most expensive in the country. If you factor in federal and state subsidies, individual insurance (which can also apply to families) on the exchange averages $243 a month, versus $111 nationally. Without subsidies, the average is $874 a month. In VTDigger, Peter D'Auria and Erin Petenko dive into the numbers, the difference the subsidies make, and the big picture. The state has been seeing a surge in claims—and, says one insurance exec, “We see much higher prices in Vermont compared to neighboring states for the exact same service," driven largely by rising hospital costs and an aging population."A love letter to Vermont ... with all the potholes visible." Poet and Vermont Public jazz host Reuben Jackson died suddenly in February—but he left behind a collection-in-the-making. And now, reports Hannah Feuer in Seven Days, Rootstock Publishing owner Samantha Kolber is bringing it into the light of day—including one poem that Jackson left on her voicemail. The poems, Feuer writes, grapple with the two faces of Jackson's sojourn in the state: his love for its peace and serenity, and his experiences as a Black man in an overwhelmingly white state. "10:00 A.M. / A neighbor smiles / In the elevator. / 10:05. / I'm followed to the / Radio station / By the Cops," he wrote.“A cat falling off a dresser would have a magnitude of negative 2.” News about earthquakes usually pegs the magnitude within a narrow frame—3 to 9. But the scale can go much higher and much lower. On "What If?", xkcd cartoonist (and engineer) Randall Munro sketches out what would happen if quakes of various magnitudes hit the planet. At 9+ (there have been two this century), the length of a day is minutely altered. At 15, all the water on Earth would evaporate. And 0? That’s “equivalent to the Dallas Cowboys American football team running at full tilt into the side of your neighbor’s garage.” Negative 7? A single feather drifting to the ground.
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The Pointe Noir Cajun Band at Feast and Field. As the days grow shorter and evenings get colder, the weekly gatherings at Fable Farm Fermentory in Barnard are winding down, but there are still five to go. This evening at 6 (gates at 5:30), it's a taste of southwest Louisiana: The band's musicians may hail from VT, but they're steeped in music from Lafayette and beyond, with a mix of dance music, country songs, and Cajun tunes.
Join or Die at the Orford Congregational Church. It's anyone's guess how many political scientists have had films made of their work, but here's one: the 2023 documentary by siblings Rebecca Davis and Pete Davis about Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone. The argument in a nutshell: Americans need to gather and join things, or democracy will wither. The screening is organized by Fairlee's Sunnyside Coffee Company, with mixed drinks from Wolf Tree, and all proceeds support the church's maintenance. Film at 7 pm, doors at 6.
And to start us off today...
Monsieur Periné, the Colombian duo of Catalina García and Santiago Prieto, who got their start playing weddings and parties in Bogotá and have gone on to bigger things, joining forces with the southern Pacific-coast African-inflected Colombian band Bejuco.
and you definitely want to check out the scenery while you're listening.
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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