GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Colder, with unsettled weather. In the wake of last night’s cold front (which, by the way, brought measurable snow up to the north), we’re looking at highs at best in the mid 30s, while instead of rain showers, today we get a chance of snow showers—along with a gusty afternoon and evening. It’ll be partly to mostly cloudy all day, winds from the west. Lows tonight back in the mid 20s.
So let’s look at a dramatic daybreak photo from an uncloudy day. It’s dawn in Meriden, by Scribner Fauver, who did a little tinkering with exposure and the white balance to get this memorable image.
Oh, and hey, that “nest”? Nuh-uh. Yesterday’s nest photo from Fairlee brought several responses from people pointing out, as one reader wrote, that it’s “the remains of a coir liner for (likely) a hanging plant pot. Additional clues are the bits of perlite scattered within.” The question is, how on earth did it get to the middle of a path on someone’s property? Guesses include “blown out of a compost pile or a truck on the way to the dump” and “someone dumped it in a nearby compost pile, where some bird(s) or varmint(s) picked at it to use for nest-making.”
Nothing a well-aimed rock won’t cure. Henry’s been foraging in DB Johnson’s Lost Woods, saving weeds in his hat. This week, Eddie and Auk wonder if actually they’re weeds that are taking over his head, and Eddie aims to find out…
Things were going great at Newport, NH’s Relax & Co. Then, suddenly, it folded. And as a result, reports John Lippman in the Valley News, former employees of the construction and property management firm are starting their own businesses. But the story really begins back in the summer, when Valerie Mars, a member of the family that owns the candy empire of the same name, sued Relax owner James Bruss for allegedly “misappropriating millions of dollars she paid him for construction projects,” Lippman writes. The firm shuttered in August with 145 employees; Lippman traces what happened, and follows up with several who had no “inkling” anything was amiss.
In Charlestown, the struggle to sustain a town “built for a world that no longer exists.” In the Keene Sentinel, reporter Abigail Ham and photographer Ethan Weston take a three-part look at the town just across from Springfield, which hosts both the Fort at No. 4 and the remains of industries that pulled out decades ago. As Ham writes, “The town needs new residents to move in and wants young people and families to stick around to keep Charlestown vibrant. But it’s becoming a tougher sell,” what with high property taxes, a housing shortage, rising rents, pockets of poverty, and young people leaving. In Part 1, Ham gives an overview.
Part 2 takes on property taxes, which are an issue, driven especially by high school taxes: “It’s the town with the highest property taxes in a county with the highest property taxes in a state with one of the highest property tax rates in the country,” Ham writes. One small elementary school closed last year, but it hasn’t made a dent as the state pulls back on aid, health insurance costs skyrocket, and low median property values mean higher tax rates. It’s a common picture in other towns, too, Ham writes.
So what’s to be done? In Part 3, Ham looks at everything the town’s got going for it, and how town leaders are tinkering with regs and expenses. “The effort is to elevate what residents feel is already great about the town, and to make the Charlestown experience both affordable and desirable. With that aim, members of the town's selectboard, planning and zoning boards have set their sights on boosting the development of single-family and multi-family housing, which could increase the average value of property,” she writes.
SPONSORED: Register for Cedar Circle's 2026 CSA starting this Thursday! Choose from flexible debit-style CSA cards, plant, flower, and prepared food shares. There’s something for everyone who loves fresh, local, organic food and community. New this year: our Spring Quiche & Fresh Greens Share and a CSA Intro Card. By joining our CSA, you not only receive special members-only perks and discounts, you also help our nonprofit farm thrive year-round and plant the seeds for a strong season ahead. Join today; your future self will thank you. Sponsored by Cedar Circle Farm and Education Center.
Destination shopping in Claremont. That’s how Susan Apel feels about Claremont Spice and Dry Goods, on Tremont Street just off the square. They’ve got lots, she writes—”Whole and ground herbs and spices, housemade blends, coffee (big red grinders on the premises), tea, imported Italian pasta, cookbooks, and a small adjoining room filled with kitchenware…”—and you can order online, but that would mean missing a chance to sniff the spices, poke around, and above all, chat up owners Ben Nelson and Chiara Tosi-Nelson. Like, what do you do with roasted Persian lime powder. Or dill pickle seasoning when you’re not actually making pickles?
On some Upper Valley farms, a shift “from simply producing food to selling experiences.” They’re still growing things, of course, but as Lukas Dunford writes in the VN, “the Upper Valley’s agritourism industry has blossomed” in recent years. There’s dinner in the orchards at Plainfield’s Riverview Farm; Fledge Fest, the four-year-old food, music and arts festival at Tunbridge’s Fledgling Farmstead; Crossmolina Farm’s weekly summer pizza nights in Corinth; Feast & Field at Fable Farm in Barnard; Flying Dog Farm’s burger nights… Not every farmer’s happy with what a pair of economists once labeled the “Experience Economy,” but they’re adapting.
“Remember God. Earn an honest living. Share with others.” Those three Sikh tenets, writes Nicola Smith in the VN, helped guide the life of Harjit Singh Rakhra, who moved to Pompanoosuc from England in 1968 with his wife, Amarjit Kaur Sappall, raised a family, worked as a typesetter at the VN and Dartmouth Printing, went on to sell real estate, and died in March, age 87. But more than that, he was embedded in local life as a volunteer at the Haven, a life member of both the Thetford and Norwich Lions, and reliable offerer of a home-cooked meal to any Indian performer passing through the Hop. In an appreciation, Smith traces his life and impact.
From scrubbing burns with scalding water in Lyme to death in a hot car in Andover, abuse and neglect in NH’s disability system. In the first of a three-part series (the next is due tomorrow), NH Bulletin’s William Skipworth details the results of a review of court filings, state records, and interviews that together point to “systemic failures in oversight and accountability” in the state’s care system for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “The private agencies are hiring private people, and not training them or educating them adequately, and it’s ultimately the disabled individuals who are harmed,” says a Manchester lawyer. Skipworth digs into three specific example in what the Bulletin calls “A System of Harm.”
Food benefits go out in both NH and VT. As you’ll remember, NH sent them out on Friday, and though the USDA had ordered states to return the money over the weekend, yesterday a federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocked that move. “It was a big relief,” a SNAP enrollee in Berlin tells NHPR’s Kate Dario (burgundy link). “We were really concerned on how we were going to survive the month.” Meanwhile, in VT, Attorney General Charity Clark told VT Public’s Liam Elder-Connors yesterday that regardless, the administration’s demand doesn’t affect the state, since it’s using state dollars to “backfill” benefits.
“People don’t understand how thick jungle is.” So in the Vietnam War, even if you walked right into an ambush, you still might not see anyone, St. Johnsbury hairdresser Vaughn Hood tells radio producer Erica Heilman. In honor of Veterans Day, Heilman’s up with her interview with Hood—”One of the most extraordinary conversations I’ve had in my life,” she says—who weighed 118 pounds when he was sent to Vietnam in 1968. “I avoid conflict, I would rather hide than have confrontation. I’m a gentle person—I’m a hairdresser for chrissake,” he says. But he wound up with a Bronze Star, a purple heart, the Army commendation medal for heroism. He tells Heilman his story. Note: It contains descriptions of combat, mentions suicide, and you’ll hear profanity.
No profanity here, but lots of falling dominoes. For the 18th year, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center held its domino-toppling extravaganza on Sunday. Domino stars Lily Hevesh, Chris Wright, Michael Fantauzzo, and Alex Huang arrived 48 hours ahead of time to lay out over 27,000 of the little planks in towers, whorls, and intricate designs—then, of course, set them to falling over. The link takes you to the action, but there’s no actual sound until the 8:57 mark. Countdown to get things rolling (literally) begins at the 11:48 mark.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
THERE'S SOME GREAT DAYBREAK SWAG! Like Daybreak tote bags, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
HEADS UP
Veterans Day observances. You’ll find them at VT Law & Grad School in S. Royalton starting at 10 am; in Springfield, VT at VFW Post 771 at 11 am; in Lebanon at American Legion Post #22 (breakfast at 8, parade and ceremony at 11); and in Dartmouth’s Class of 1953 Commons starting at 8 am.
At AVA Gallery, photographer Don Toothaker and “Lessons in the Field”. Toothaker leads instructional photo walks around Boston and New England, and teaches photography, and he’ll be talking about it all at 6:30 pm.
At the Norwich Bookstore, Katy Farber and The Board. Farber, an education prof at St. Michael’s College with a picture book and a middle-grade novel under her belt, is out with her first novel for adults: a thriller about a newly divorced mom who moves to small-town NH and gets increasingly concerned that the school district and its board are up to nefarious deeds. She’ll be talking it over with school librarian Becky Whitney at 7 pm.
Dartmouth dance showcase at the Hop. Student-led ensembles give their fall performances starting at 7:30 pm in the Moore Theater.
And the Tuesday poem.
Once upon a time there was a mistake
So silly so small
That no one would even have noticed it
It couldn't bear
To see itself to hear of itself
It invented all manner of things
Just to prove
that it didn't really exist
It invented space
To put its proofs in
And time to keep its proofs
And the world to see its proofs
All it invented
Was not so silly
Nor so small
But was of course mistaken
Could it have been otherwise
— “A Conceited Mistake” by Vasko Popa, translated from the Serbian by Anne Pennington.
See you tomorrow.
Looking for all of the hikes, Enthusiasms, daybreak photos, or music that Daybreak has published over the years? Go here!
And always, if you’re not a subscriber yet:
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page, or on Daybreak’s homepage.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to visit daybreak.news to sign up.
Thank you!