RABBIT RABBIT, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly sunny, cooler. The wind's shifting at some point today, bringing cooler air into the region aloft, which will translate into highs in the mid or upper 60s down here on the ground. Calm winds, lows around 50 tonight. Fog to start.Cool mornings bring... sleeping bumble bees. Over by Crossroad Farm in Post Mills, former farm owner Tim Taylor found this bee sleeping in a zinnia around 7:30 am the other day. The temperature was in the upper 40s. "It started waking up around 2 hours later and was flying by 10:30," he writes. "Only a retired person could watch a bumblebee all morning."In S. Royalton, dreams of a food hub. Plus apartments. At the moment, Nando Jaramillo lives in the 1850 Greek Revival building on the town green. But, writes Kate Oden in the VN, he'd not only like to move his Moon and Stars arepa, empanada, and masa operation into its commercial kitchen, but share the kitchen with other local prepared food producers and use it as an anchor in a series of locally created food hubs with regional markets. One challenge: It's unclear whether the current owner of the building is of a mind to go along. Oden sketches out the idea, and talks to locals about whether it can work.Advance Transit boosts frequency of Leb-West Leb service. The regional transit service's Red Route, which runs between downtown Lebanon, the Miracle Mile, downtown West Leb, and the 12A strip, will now run every half hour from 6 am to 6:30 pm on weekdays, the agency announced yesterday in a press release. It serves everything from Leb City Hall and the Kilton to the Target Plaza, Walmart and BJ's.On Saturday in Hanover, tackling "the loneliest disease." That's how Leah Farley, a social-worker-turned Alzheimer's-advocate, describes the disease that she herself has. Farley, whose daughter and grandkids live in Thetford, will be a speaker at Saturday's Walk to End Alzheimer's—and in the Valley News, Lukas Dunford profiles her. She started seeing symptoms when she was just 56, and traces for Dunford the impact on her life and relationships, and her decision to throw herself into working with and on behalf of the Alzheimer's Association. Dunford also checks in with walk organizer Kathy Harvard.SPONSORED: Ford Sayre announces Youth Ski Mountaineering! Come try out a new sport in a laid-back atmosphere! Coaches Josie Fisher and Ed Warren will lead team practices on Wednesday evenings at Whaleback. Join us by headlamp to get in a great workout and learn new skills. Weekend trips to skimo races and ski mountaineering in the White Mountains are also available. Ages 12-18. More details and registration at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Ford Sayre Youth Ski Mountaineering.Word of the day: "Prolegs". That's what caterpillars use to make their "fuzzy" way across a stretch of ground, Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast tells us in this week's "This Week in the Woods". Prolegs anchor parts of the caterpillar to a fixed point, and then the rest of it can stretch forward. Each of those little hairs you see has a sensory neuron feeding back information about the leaves, twigs, grass, gravel, pavement, or whatever the caterpillar's crossing. Plus, a nice pic of a banded tussock moth caterpillar.SPONSORED: Ira Glass, host of This American Life, comes to Lebanon Opera House on Saturday, October 12. The Pulitzer Prize-winning creator/producer/host of public radio’s This American Life will share insights into his creative process. Using audio clips, music, and video, Glass delivers "Seven Things I’ve Learned", a unique talk sharing lessons from his life and career in journalism. Spend the evening with one of the country’s foremost storytellers, whose iconic program is heard by millions of listeners around the world. Sponsored by Lebanon Opera House.New NH voter ID law gets a high-profile lawsuit. Last month it was the NH Youth Movement, challenging it on behalf of college students. Now it's the ACLU and the League of Women Voters, who allege that the documentation the law requires from people registering to vote is unconstitutionally burdensome—and that challenges at the polls could disenfranchise legit voters. As NHPR's Todd Bookman explains, the new law replaces the old "affidavit" route for people who don't have appropriate documents in hand when they register. The law is due to go into effect Nov. 11, after this year's elections.Facing more abuse claims, VT's Roman Catholic Diocese files for bankruptcy. The church will continue to operate 68 local parishes, writes VTDigger's Kevin O'Connor, "as it becomes the nation’s 40th Catholic entity (of a total of some 200) to try to reorganize depleting finances in court." Although the AG's office in the early 2000's did not charge any priests against whom credible allegations of abuse dating to the 1950s were made, accusers have been free to file civil claims—and have done so repeatedly, with the church paying out $30 million so far. O'Connor digs into the legal and financial details.Preliminary VT student data shows reading, math scores remained flat. The new figures from the state Agency of Education look at results of the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program, and find slight declines among third graders on both reading and math from the previous school year, reports Alison Novak in Seven Days; ninth graders, on the other hand, showed improvement in both. The agency's report, released earlier than usual, also finds a large achievement gap between "historically marginalized students" and others in their age cohort.Starting tonight: livestreamed debates between the major candidates for VT lieutenant governor, governor (and US House and Senate). VTDigger is hosting the four virtual debates, with the first tonight at 6 pm and featuring Democratic incumbent David Zuckerman and his GOP challenger, former state Sen. John Rodgers. On Thursday, Oct. 10, they'll turn to incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott and Democratic/Progressive challenger Esther Charlestin, a former member of the Middlebury selectboard. The federal debates are later in the month, with US Senate debate not yet confirmed.The history of stripping in Vermont. Yep, two "p"s. One of the cool things about VT Public's Brave Little State is that, because it's listener-powered, it goes some unexpected places. Like, for instance, Sabine Poux's new episode, launched by a listener's professionally inspired question about the old county fair "girlie shows" and strip clubs in the state. Poux actually hits two Upper Valley landmarks, among others, with a long segment on the Tunbridge Fair's burlesque shows and their eventual disappearance, and a mention of the infamous White River Amusement Pub, which succumbed to fire in 2005.After Helene's flooding and devastation, a third of the Appalachian Trail is closed. The brutal impact of the hurricane and its remnants on the mountains of GA, TN, NC, and VA has left trail communities reeling, too. "More than a third of the Appalachian Trail is currently inaccessible," the AT Conservancy's president, Sandi Marra, posted on FB Saturday, "and we expect sections of the Trail will be closed for some time because of bridges that have washed away and downed trees and mudslides obstructing the treadway." Outside's Adam Roy rounds up what's known, and how to help.Gems laid out against velvet night. Deep in the forest of Celo, NC, live foxfire, “glowing fungi known to turn forest floors into scenes from a fever dream.” On Atlas Obscura, author Leigh Ann Henion takes us on a nighttime walk in search of the mushrooms. She explains how their bioluminescence throws enough light that, pre-electricity, people read by the glow, marked paths, even illuminated submarines. And comes across "something beyond handheld marvels; it’s an entire tree trunk covered in a glow that no one knows what to call." With some breathtaking photos.Comet-rise. Up there on the International Space Station, astronauts Matthew Dominick and Don Pettit have been paying photographic attention to Comet C/2023 A3 (aka the no-less-easy-to-remember Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). And while their photos are great, an X timelapse of the comet "rising" above the horizon and the aurora just before orbital sunrise is definitely a beauty fix for the day. Here via Matt Growcoot's article in Peta Pixel.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
As the Hanover Garden Club writes, "our lives depend on healthy soil ecosystems—they are the foundation of terrestrial life and environmental health. Jocelyn Duffy will discuss why soil isn't dirt, what is happening under our feet, and how we can protect our soil with good management practices. She'll also go over some basic DIY soil tests you can do at home." 1 pm at the Montshire or via Zoom.
The renowned writer and spiritual explorer is back for three weeks this fall as a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth—along with a delegation of monastics from the Blue Cliff Monastery—and though most of his time will be spent with students, he's giving a public talk today at 4:30 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
The center hosts University of Texas natural resources law prof David Spence and Dartmouth environmental studies prof Elizabeth Wilson for a conversation about "how to rescue the U.S. energy transition from voter partisanship." In the center's Hinman Forum or livestreamed online.
In Hanover, hunters and landowners tackle the deer problem. The town's conservation commission is convening the public conversation on deer over-browsing in part to explore the problem and in part to discuss "how landowners can work with hunters to protect biodiversity." It'll be led by NH Fish & Game deer project leader Rebecca Fuda, landowner relations expert Mark Beauchesne, and conservation officer Heidi Murphy. 6 pm at the Howe Library. No link.
Good Beginnings of the Upper Valley hosts the journalist and author of the best-seller with the same title for a lecture via webinar. She'll also be taking up her new book,
Mattering: Building A Life of Value at Home, Work, and in the Larger World
. At 7 pm at the link above
.
This week TAC is showing two films by the Italian director Vittorio de Sica. Tonight at 7, it's his Oscar-winning 1970 film about the slow and inexorable arrival of Italian fascism—despite walls and wealth. Friday,
Bicycle Thieves
, the 1948 classic that, TAC's Arthur Kahn writes, "will keep with you, in the best way, for the rest of your life." In Thetford Academy's Martha Rich Theater.
And the Tuesday poem.
It is liberation, how Itake the steps three at a time,I storm downwards, nearly weightless,the joy, how it spreads throughmy body, the presentimentof a deeper joy, or the deeperpresentiment of a far-off joy,liberation, but how?,as if someone in me kneweverything much better,as if this someone knew everything and finally it is I.
—"Deeper, farther" by
seen first on a German subway car and translated from the German by Michael Lipson.
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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