GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sun at some point, dang it! Yesterday's clouds hung tougher than expected, but with high pressure finally here and warmer air flowing in from the south, things should both clear up and warm up once the fog and patchy frost disappear. Highs today in the upper 50s, and since the sky will cloud up again overnight, lows tonight will only be around 40.Granite. It's such a presence on the Welch-Dickey Loop, short but justifiably considered one of the great hikes in New Hampshire. Two photos from Bob Walker:
A milk snake up close;
And a view along the way.
Cornish's Colleen O'Neill, NH's Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year, "chooses to think in tree time." In the years since her husband, the writer J.D. Salinger, died in 2010, O'Neill has opened her 475-acre Langwood Tree Farm to anyone who wants to wander its trails—while also managing it for a modest timber harvest, wildlife habitat, and "just taking care of the trees," she tells the VN's Frances Mize. She plans, eventually, to conserve it: Cornish already has conserved parcels, “so we almost have a corridor of protected, open land,” O'Neill tells Mize. “One of my goals is to join that corridor.”S. Royalton homeowner credits family German Shepherd with alerting him to home invasion. Early yesterday morning, police say, 38-year-old Jesse Durkee, who lives near Drew Alinovich and his family, allegedly broke into the Alinovich home and "made threats to harm the occupants," John Lippman writes in the Valley News. Alerted by the dog, Sasha, Drew Alinovich had grabbed his gun and called 911—a crucial few seconds: “Had I been startled in the middle of the night with the guy in my house already, I would have likely just shot him,” Alinovich told Lippman yesterday. Durkee "displayed signs of mental health issues and drug use," according to a police affidavit.SPONSORED: Spooky Science at the Montshire! An evening Halloween event for families. This (not-so-scary) event on Friday, Oct 27 from 5:30–8 pm is designed especially for families with children through age 12. Enjoy a night at the Montshire, in costume, with tricked-out exhibits, live Halloween-themed demos, hands-on spooky stations, costume contests, and so much more! Members: $11/person, Non-members: $15/person. Learn more at the burgundy link or here—and register to join the spooktacular fun before it’s sold out! Sponsored by the Montshire Museum.Your word for the day: cantharidin. And no, you don't want to encounter it: As Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast writes, it's a toxin emitted by blister beetles that—surprise!—causes blisters. The oil beetles she found recently clumped on some leaves are a type of blister beetle, and they have other savory behaviors, which we'll let Elise describe. Also out there in the woods this fourth week of October: pine siskins, a type of finch; and a family of river otters that Tig Tillinghast found at the same site he'd seen a group last autumn.And speaking of being out in the woods... NH Fish & Game just put out its annual list of tips for hikers during hunting season. Among them: stick to well-traveled trails; try to hike during midday hours, not at dawn or dusk, when both wildlife and hunters are most active; and above all, wear blaze orange—and "don’t forget to also put some orange on the family dog." "All outdoor enthusiasts, no matter where they venture, must be committed to ensuring their own personal safety while understanding the different ways residents and visitors enjoy all that New Hampshire has to offer," they say. Same for VT, too.SPONSORED: Enjoy workshops and performances this fall with Upper Valley Music Center! There are musical opportunities for all ages and interests, beginning this week with a workshop with Canadian fiddler April Verch, a drum circle at Kilton Library, a storytelling concert at the Suzuki Fall Festival, and a performance of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music by Ensemble Halcyon. Next week we welcome Patricia Norton for a community song circle, and invite the community to try something new at an “instrument petting zoo.” Learn more at the link. Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.Logan Clegg found guilty of murdering Concord couple. The word came early yesterday afternoon, after 10 hours of deliberation Friday and yesterday by a Merrimack County Superior Court jury. The jurors found Clegg, who'd been accused in last year's shooting of Steven and Wendy Reid on a trail near their home, guilty of second-degree murder, as well as of falsifying evidence. The verdict, writes Manchester Ink Link's Maureen Milliken, came despite "a strong defense case for reasonable doubt" and a prosecution case that rested in part on Clegg's "consciousness of guilt." Milliken details the scene in court.Right whales’ numbers are still dropping, but not as fast. North Atlantic right whales lost a crushing 25 percent of their numbers from 2010 to 2020, writes the AP’s Patrick Whittle, leaving as few as 364 swimming in the waters off the East Coast in 2021. Now, the number is around 356. Climate change forces the whales into unprotected waters, where they collide with ships and get entangled in fishing gear. While the birth rate is trending upward, "it shouldn't be dependent on the whales to give birth to enough calves to reverse what we're doing to them," says the New England Aquarium's Philip Hamilton.A look at NH's Education Freedom Account numbers. In NH Bulletin, Ethan DeWitt delves into some interesting stats about the three-year-old program, which this year has 4,211 enrollees (vs 160K kids in public schools). Of the students who transferred into the program this year, 72 percent came from homeschooling or private schools. Of all students in the program, some 44 percent get free or reduced-price lunches, compared to 26 percent in public schools; meanwhile, 6.3 percent get additional special ed funding, compared to 20 percent in public schools.$75,000. That's how much VT has fined a New Hampshire man for cutting 839 trees in Hazen's Notch State Park in 2019 as he was creating backcountry ski glades on what he told officials he thought was his own, abutting property. Lou Bushey, a stewardship forester with the state, tells VTDigger's Emma Cotton, “Definitely know where you are before you start cutting, and make sure you have permission because it does get expensive.”Well, this is reassuring. VT's Mt. Mansfield got its first measurable snowfall on Sunday—about an inch, reports VT Public's Corey Dockser. That date is well within the normal range for the mountain, which has seen its first snow as early as Sept. 15 (1959) and as late as Nov. 20 (1978).The cranberry harvest: spiders, aggressive swans, and the occasional deep bog hole. In the Boston Globe, photographer John Tlumacki has a set of colorful photos of this year's ongoing harvest, detailing the work that goes into bringing those little ruby spheres to your Thanksgiving table. Last year, says a spokesperson for the A.D. Makepeace Company, the largest cranberry grower in North America, its workers harvested 385,613 barrels of cranberries; they expect this year's harvest to be similar. Burgundy link goes to the Globe story (paywall); here's a non-paywalled version with smaller photos.The cider donut map is back. Every year since 2020, "cider donuteur" Alex Schwartz has put out a map of choice New England spots to check them out. As in past years' versions, there's a big empty space on the VT side of the Upper Valley, but Schwartz has gotten to Patch Orchards, Riverview Farm, and Canaan's 603 Bakery. Just as important as taste, Schwartz tells NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer, is ambience: "If they make them hot and fresh directly in front of you at the orchard, that's a very different experience from buying them at a Shaw's when they're cold in a plastic box."Raise a glass—or several hundred. In Cyprus, Aristotelis Valaoritis has been moonlighting as a “glass dancer” for more than 25 years, entertaining restaurant patrons and audiences with his extraordinary balance. Now Valaoritis has broken the world record by balancing 319 (empty) wine glasses on trays on his head … while dancing. That blows away the previous record of 270, set by a fellow Cypriot. Next up for Valaoritis: different shapes of glasses. Still empty, we presume.The Tuesday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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This evening at 7, Here in the Valley brings to a close its four-part Tuesday Jukebox series at Hanover Strings with an out-of-the-ordinary lineup: Jakob Breitbach and Jes Raymond as Beecharmer opening for River Glen Breitbach—Jakob's brother—who's touring at the moment. Jakob explains: "River and I grew up in a family of FIVE! fiddling homeschooled kids. I'm the oldest, and Riv was the baby for the longest time, until our youngest brother, Chiron was born... Along with our sister, Maple Flo and our middle brother, Jackson we played with our parents in The One Hat Band—we put the FUN in dysfunctional 🤪. We have lots of stories and songs to share." In-person and livestreamed.
Also at 7, the Norwich Bookstore hosts poet and essayist Ross Gay at the Norwich Congregational Church. Back in 2019, Gay published a book of short essays, The Book of Delights, that pulled from his yearlong exercise of sitting down every day to write about something that delighted him, from fireflies to air quotes. Now he's followed it up with The Book of (More) Delights—sweet potatoes, hummingbirds, rejecting a QR code menu... Seating is first-come, first-served.
And the Tuesday poem...
may the tidethat is entering even nowthe lip of our understandingcarry you outbeyond the face of fearmay you kissthe wind then turn from itcertain that it willlove your back may youopen your eyes to waterwater waving foreverand may you in your innocencesail through this to that
— "blessing the boats" by
.
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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