GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
We move into a three-day dry slot. High pressure's arriving, though without much oomph. Still, clouds will diminish over the course of the day and we'll get some sunshine, with temps hitting the upper 50s, maybe 60 in some spots—pretty much normal. Winds today from the northwest, low 40s tonight.Lest we forget: It was a highly photogenic summer... and Etna photographer Jim Block made the most of it. Starting with his leadoff photo of his cat, Rilla, at sunset on Lake Sunapee, and moving on to a series of summertime events in New London, lots of birds—including a contortionist egret near the Sugar River in Newport NH, a couple of harbor seals in Maine, the Cornish Fair, some remarkable full-moon shots, and much, much more.But fall's shaping up nicely, too. Because that was one heck of a moose watching the world pass by at Green Woodlands on Sunday. (Via FB)Next week: I-91 South will close at night between Wells River and Bradford. The closure, VTrans says in a press release, will be between Exits 17 and 16 starting at 6 pm next Monday, Oct. 23. That first night will last until 7 am the following day, and the work—bridge repairs— is expected to take place over four nights, with closure hours from 6 pm to 7 am each night. There'll be no southbound through traffic: The detour will take cars along US 302 at Exit 17, down Route 5, then back on VT 25 to the entrance ramp at Exit 16. Leb to consider taking over road through River Park; developer puts Main St. properties on market. At its meeting tomorrow, the city council will take up whether the city should take on River Park Drive, which would loop through the proposed development; it had rejected the idea in 2011, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News, but making it a public street would allow River Park to qualify for federal funds and make possible a hub for Advance Transit at the property, allowing it to move from the more congested area in front of the Kilton Library. Meanwhile, developer Lyme Properties has put the old W. Leb library and the renovated Westboro Rail Yard ticket office up for sale.Claremont officials back move to allow special assessments for road repairs, improvements. Instead of requiring a petition signed by half of the property owners on an affected street, reports Patrick O'Grady in the VN, the ordinance—which passed a first reading last week—would let the city manager "bring forth a recommendation for a special assessment without consent of the property owners." City Manager Yoshi Manale has in the past talked about the Washington Street commercial district as a likely area for an assessment—which, he argues, would help the city avoid issuing a bond.SPONSORED: SELLING KABUL plays at Northern Stage through October 29th! Northern Stage kicks off its 26th season with Sylvia Khoury’s thriller, Selling Kabul, which the Times Argus called "timely and fiercely powerful theater." A 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist, the play tells an emotional and poetic family love story about sacrifice and strength after the US withdrawal in 2021. Join us in the lobby for a coffee or glass of wine before or after, and enjoy Afghan art provided by our partner ArtLords. Through 10/29 in the Byrne Theater at the Barrette Center for the Arts. Sponsored by Northern Stage.An unlikely spot for dining out. That would be the top of a derelict fall webworm nest, writes Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast, where American goldfinches were foraging. The worms themselves tend to upset birds' stomachs, but, Elise notes, seeds "and other detritus" fall on the webs—which are "a much safer place for a bird to forage than on the ground." Also out there in the woods this third week of October: late-season mushrooms and hobblebush, which takes leaf-to-leaf color differences to an extreme in autumn.Meanwhile, beech leaves in VT have begun turning the wrong color, as disease arrives in the state. So far, writes Emma Cotton in VTDigger, cases of beech leaf disease—caused by an invasive nematode—have only been identified in the state's far south, in Vermon and Dummerston. But it's just a matter of time: the disease is already established in NH, MA, and ME. The nematodes affect a leaf's ability to photosynthesize and grow. Fortunately, VT Forests' Josh Halman tells Cotton, "Even if a tree dies, there’s new trees that are being generated from its roots immediately."Next summer: Spotting algae blooms from the air? It's possible, say UNH researchers. With a drone, says grad student Christine Bunyon, "a small lake might take as little as 10 to 15 minutes to fly over...and an entire lake’s worth of imagery could be processed within just two hours." That compares to the longer time it takes to collect and analyze individual cyanobacteria samples. In a press release, UNH's Nicholas Gosling notes the researchers found sensor-equipped drones could accurately determine cyanobacteria concentrations; they ran tests on Tucker Pond in Salisbury and French and Keyser ponds in Henniker.As NH's population ages, its housing isn't keeping up. In particular, the Census Bureau reports, only about 20 percent of New England's homes have a bedroom and bathroom on a step-free entry level. Moreover, NH Housing director Rob Dapice tells NHPR, zoning regs often stand in the way of seniors who want to split up their homes or build small-lot homes they'd be comfortable in. The result: They can't move out of their existing homes and make way for young families looking to buy, thus exacerbating the state's housing crisis.In effort to short-circuit rising numbers of overdose deaths, VT debuts Narcan-by-mail. The overdose-reversal drug, reports VT Public's Mitch Wertlieb, will be available free to anyone who orders it. The kit, announced yesterday, includes two doses of Narcan with instructions, as well as fentanyl test strips and information on VT's Helplink alcohol and drug use help center.Judge in Banyai court case: "There’s going to be a resolution of this. I am going to assure you of that." In an online hearing yesterday, environmental court Judge Thomas Durkin told lawyers for the town of Pawlet and for Slate Ridge gun facility owner Daniel Banyai that he's open to extending an arrest warrant for Banyai, if the two sides can reach terms or the state Supreme Court allows it. A key issue: whether Banyai has taken down unpermitted buildings. “It would seem to me that it would move this case along considerably,” Durkin said, “if Mr. Banyai would authorize town agents to enter upon the property.”Fuel truck stolen from Rutland recovered in NY State...after it runs out of fuel. The truck, with about 800 gallons of fuel on board, was taken yesterday morning; owner Scot Sullivan of the Rutland Fuel Company put out a call for help via FB—which drew a call to police from a woman in Ticonderoga, NY who spotted the truck, which was eventually found in Glens Falls. "People of all walks of life were sharing it and we were getting reports of the truck in Pittsford, in Brandon, in Middlebury, in Vergennes,” Sullivan tells WCAX's Jessica Tara.Red light and blue. On Mars, the Perseverance rover has turned its camera toward the sun and sent back dazzling photos of blue sunsets, writes Margaret Davis in Science Times. Scientists are focused on the reason—light scattering. Here on Earth, sunlight interacts with oxygen, nitrogen, and other particles that separate the colors. Violet vanishes, blue shades the sky, and orange and red appear before our eyes. On Mars, the thin atmosphere, distance from the sun, and iron dust particles tint the days red, sunrises and sunsets blue. The photos give scientists insight into atmospheric conditions on the planet.The Tuesday Vordle. With a fine word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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At 6 pm, Woodstock's Norman Williams Public Library hosts VT teacher and knitter Jen Ellis, reading from and talking about her new memoir, Bernie’s Mitten Maker: The Story Behind Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ Infamous Inaugural Mittens—which, of course, is about far more than a pair of mittens.
At 7 this evening, Here in the Valley's Tuesday Jukebox takes the room at Hanover Strings, with Wilder's Allison Fay Brown opening, and Nashville-based singer-storyteller-songwriter Dana Cooper headlining. Music and conversation about music led by HitV's Jakob Breitbach. Cooper also spent some time on Sunday in the NHPR studio with The Folk Show's Kate McNally. Here's that visit.
Also at 7, in Grantham Town Hall and online, the Eastman Charitable Foundation hosts Something Wild co-host and NH Forest Society naturalist Dave Anderson for "The Night Visitors: Wildlife Images Captured on Backyard Game Cameras." There'll be a slideshow of images, but Anderson will be using them to talk about the behavior of animals native to the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee region, covering everything from forest food cycles and how they affect wildlife numbers to the status of bobcat and bear populations.
Also at 7, Still North Books & Bar brings in Diné author and "recovering chef" Brendan Shay Basham, reading from and talking about his first novel, Swim Home to the Vanished. It's about a Diné chef mourning the death of his brother who quits his job, heads out with no destination in mind, and winds up in a seaside village with a family of three women enmeshed in their own complex fable.
Meanwhile, across the river at 7, the Norwich Bookstore hosts poets Michael Dumanis and Camille Guthrie. Dumanis, director of poetry at Bennington College, has a new collection out, Creature, which "considers what it means to be a living creature in an inherently inhospitable habitat, to attach oneself to others, to be an immigrant and a geographic nomad"; Guthrie—who directs Bennington's undergrad writing programs—has four collections out, most recently 2021's Diamonds, about "the trials and surprises of divorce, parenting, country life—and the difficulties and delights of being alone, looking at art, and falling in love."
And the Tuesday poem...
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defacedThe rich proud cost of outworn buried age;When sometime lofty towers I see down-razedAnd brass eternal slave to mortal rage;When I have seen the hungry ocean gainAdvantage on the kingdom of the shore,And the firm soil win of the watery main,Increasing store with loss and loss with store;When I have seen such interchange of state,Or state itself confounded to decay;Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,That Time will come and take my love away. This thought is as a death, which cannot choose But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
— William Shakespeare, Sonnet 64, also known as "When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced".
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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