GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly cloudy, chance of showers. We’ll get a little blip of warmer air today, with temps climbing to about 60, but otherwise we’re dealing with the remnants of the storm that brought rain elsewhere. Chance of showers until early afternoon, then things start clearing out. Lows tonight in the low 40s.
Looking up and out. Three Upper Valley scenes:
You could call Judith Randall’s striking photo from Quechee this weekend “Moon Rhymes With Balloon”…
Doug Donaldson was out along the fog-strewn Connecticut in Norwich the other morning when one of the Dartmouth men’s eights rowed by…
And in the Valley News, Jennifer Hauck captures the arresting, weightless moment when Dartmouth student Louisa Wheeler releases the rope after swinging out from Patchen's Point along the river in Norwich, just before she starts falling.
Henry needs help. Though in this week’s Lost Woods by DB Johnson, it’s not exactly clear which kind, as he catalogs plants for his ongoing Book of Seasons.
As temps drop and summer’s bounty is done, a pair of recipes for fall crops. There are peppers, of course, and mushrooms, and sweet potatoes are coming in… So over on the Edgewater Farm CSA blog, home chef, cookbook author, and Kitchen Sense blogger Mitchell Davis takes full advantage. He’s got one recipe for a Sichuan shrimp or scallop stir-fry, and another (okay, it’s not really a recipe, more a suggestion) for roasted sweet potato wedges with the Middle Eastern spice blend za’atar (herbs, sesame, and salt). Get an air fryer or a cast-iron skillet going and you’re on your way…
Sawdust silo fire at Pompanoosuc Mills in E. Thetford draws heavy response. As Clare Shanahan reports in the VN, 11 area fire departments responded after the fire broke out yesterday morning around 6:40 and, around 10:20 am, caused an explosion that sent two firefighters to DHMC with what Thetford fire chief Chad Whitcomb later reported were minor injuries. Until late afternoon, firefighters fought the blaze, which was limited to the steel silo, pumping water and removing all of the sawdust and wood chips to eliminate hot spots. It’s seen fires before, showroom manager Nick Porcello tells Shanahan. “Whenever you have sawdust, pressure and a little bit of moisture you have decomposition happening and it can get hot enough to light.”
“It was an impressive show of mutual aid, without which a community would be hard pressed to control such a situation, one which could have developed very quickly into a serious and economically devastating conflagration,” writes Li Shen in her description of the firefighting efforts in Sidenote.
World’s first college-specific wellness AI being developed at Dartmouth. Evergreen AI’s been in the works for close to two years, reports Jackson Hyde in The Dartmouth, built by students with faculty advice—including Geisel psychiatry prof Lisa Marsch. The platform, she tells Hyde, is not for “treatment,” but instead “for building resilience, protective factors and life skills during college life”—and, specifically, life at Dartmouth. The initial tests beginning next year will be based on structured dialogues written by students, with student data hosted on a Dartmouth-owned server, and full generative AI capabilities not rolled out until 2028, to allow for testing.
SPONSORED: Celebrate the Hop’s grand opening with Hans Williams! Enjoy a free community lunch and festivities on the Dartmouth Green this Saturday, October 18 at noon with music by rising singer-songwriter Hans Williams—raised in Vermont, based in New Orleans—and an opening set by Day Drooler. Bring your friends and be part of the Hop’s new chapter. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
Word of the day: Brumation. It’s the snake and reptile equivalent of hibernation, writes Mary Holland on her Naturally Curious blog, but while “a hibernating mammal does not consume food or water or move very much, a reptile in brumation might occasionally wake, engage in some activity, drink water, and return to dormancy.” Here, she’s focused on red-bellied snakes, which let their digestive system clear out after their last meal, often by stopping feeding for up to two weeks. “During this time they are exposed to gradual cooling and reduced day length, which acclimates them to the coming cold.” Then they find a place a place to shelter until spring.
SPONSORED: Upper Valley Music Center brings inspirational master artists in voice, piano, and traditional music this fall. Masterclasses and workshops give local music-lovers access to world-class performers right here at home. Whether you’re a musician or want a window into how professionals approach a performance, you’ll be enlightened and entertained. Observe Dr. Richard Lissemore coach singers in two voice masterclasses October 18 & 19, and Artina McCain inspire pianists November 6. Eloise & Co. present a workshop (bring your instruments!) and concert on October 25. Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.
Move to revive rail section between NH and VT sets off cascade of ripples. In VTDigger, K. Fiegenbaum tells the story of what’s happened since news broke this summer that VT Rail Systems is reconstructing a rail section from its lines in Whitefield, NH, to the village of Gilman, which is in Lunenberg, VT. VRS sees the line as holding renewed freight potential—and wants rail giant CSX to buy the 20 miles of line that run from Gilman to St. J. Fiegenbaum lays out the mixed reactions of people in Gilman. The Twin State Rail Project, which had been counting on the railbed to connect the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail in St. J to two NH rail trails, is now looking for alternatives.
Another word for the day: Gilfeather. Actually, it’s a name. For a turnip hybridized by farmer John Gilfeather in Wardsboro, VT. As writer Anita Rafael tells Erica Houskeeper, the turnip is “sweet, and it’s creamy, and it’s not like that turnip that gives you that little choke in the back of your throat.” Which may be why the Gilfeather turnip became Vermont’s official state vegetable in 2016. It also put Wardsboro on the root-vegetable map, which is why the town’s holding a Gilfeather Turnip Festival on Oct. 25. In her latest Happy Vermont post, Erica—and Anita Rafael—give the backstory on a turnip that, despite Gilfeather’s secretiveness, outlived him.
A ghost, an angry god, or indigestion—what makes this lake burp? Seneca Lake, the largest of New York State’s Finger Lakes, has been booming randomly for centuries, writes David Andreatta in the NYT (gift link). While James Fenimore Cooper, the native Seneca people, and American folklore all have their explanations, there’s never been a proven cause. Now, thanks to a recent sonar survey that revealed long craters pockmarking the lake floor, researchers are getting closer to finding a scientific reason. It’s possible, says one, that “methane or other geologic gases are penetrating the ground surface and bursting like a big pimple.”
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
In Woodstock, L. Annette Binder and “The Power of Words: Finding Community in the Dementia Journey”. Dementia, writes Binder in her 2025 memoir, Child of Earth and Starry Heaven, “finds its fuel in the things that make us human.” The Lyme short-story writer and novelist will be at the Norman Williams Public Library to talk about her boo about her mother’s decline and, in conjunction with the Upper Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s, help “provide a forum and a sense of community for those whose lives have been touched by dementia.” 6:30 pm.
Rena Mosteirin at Still North Books & Bar. The poet, Left Bank Books owner, and Daybreak Enthusiasms contributor has a new poetry collection out, Disaster Tourism. From the description: The collection “offers glimpses of disasters at once personal and global. Steeped in violence, injustice, immigration stories, and accounts of police brutality, Disaster Tourism gives us a lens to re-imagine our dangerous surroundings in the hopes that we strive toward a better existence.” 7 pm.
Jeff Tweedy at the Lebanon Opera House. The singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and Wilco front man is bringing his Twilight Override tour to these parts (he sold out S. Burlington’s Higher Ground last night), backing his newly released triple album of the same name, which the Globe yesterday called “the most diverse solo record Tweedy has ever made, both lyrically and musically” (how could it not be, with a song entitled “Lou Reed Was My Babysitter”?). There are still a handful of tickets left, but you’d better act fast. 7:30 pm.
The Tuesday poem.
Past is past, and if one
remembers what one meant
to do and never did, is
not to have thought to do
enough? Like that gather-
ing of one of each I
planned, to gather one
of each kind of clover,
daisy, paintbrush that
grew in that field
the cabin stood in and
study them one afternoon
before they wilted. Past
is past. I salute
that various field.
— “Salute” by James Schuyler.
See you tomorrow.
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