GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Well, yuck. Right in time for the morning commute. Freezing rain will start up this morning, with some sleet maybe mixing in, and while there's unlikely to be enough ice accumulation to cause problems for utilities, the weather folks are warning that with ground temps below freezing, we'll probably see some slick roads between 7 and 10 am. Whatever's falling from the sky should turn into all rain by mid or late morning and will last into the afternoon. Air temps start below freezing and only rise into the mid or upper 30s. Lows around 30 tonight.Birds in flight. For the last few weeks, Etna photographer Jim Block has set himself the goal of capturing birds on the wing. And though he starts with a pair of bald eagles on a pair of branches, the rest of his latest blog post is exactly what he was aiming for, from tufted titmice and black-capped chickadees to those bald eagles. Birds with their wings fully extended and nearly translucent are just plain an unreal sight.In Lebanon, a tax hike and possible cuts to libraries, police, plowing, rec and parks. At the moment, nothing is etched in stone, but things are getting heated as city officials look ahead to budget season, Clare Shanahan reported in the Valley News over the weekend. Driven by rising health insurance and wage costs, taxpayers face a nearly 12 percent jump in municipal property taxes—or widespread service cuts. The latter are contained in alternative plans the city council will consider—including police patrol officers and librarian positions, which library backers are already gearing up to fight.New Killington retail and residential village delayed by design changes. The Great Gulf real estate group had hoped to have approvals for the proposed 450-acre project in hand by this weekend's World Cup, but planning has slowed after the resort's new owners suggested boosting the size of a proposed central lodge. The developers also "are working to retain a pond originally planned for partial elimination, to reroute vehicle traffic to make the village more pedestrian friendly and to add more areas for spring, summer and fall recreation," writes Kevin O'Connor in VTDigger. They plan to seek permits next year.SPONSORED: Dive into a winter of discovery with Osher at Dartmouth! Featuring dozens of courses, Osher offers a fantastic way to learn for pure enjoyment. From history and literature to science and the arts, there’s something for every interest! Featuring both in-person and online courses, Osher is the perfect place for those who are eager to explore new subjects or take a closer look at familiar topics. Don’t miss this chance to join a vibrant community of lifelong learners! Winter term registration opens next Tuesday, Dec. 3, and courses begin Jan. 6. Sponsored by Osher at Dartmouth.Disney's Beauty and the Beast at Northern Stage: "It’s been a long minute since I have been so utterly entertained." It's not just that it's engagingly acted, writes Susan Apel in Artful, or that "the music is glorious [and] the action fast-paced in a set that more than serves the story." It's also that, unusually, the original costumes "of the part-human, part-furniture household staff are stars in their own right in this production, veritable works of art." And though it's a fairy tale, Susan writes, the production as a whole has broad appeal. "Time to bring the kids along or show up alone or with an adult friend or two."Cross-river basking as "spectacular" Meriden show Guernsey places first at World Dairy Expo. Sassy was raised by Meriden's Sara Forman, 16, who last month drove to the expo in Wisconsin with her mom, WRJ primary care doc Angela Toms, with Sassy in tow. It was the capstone in a season of local and regional fairs: Sassy was also crowned the Grand Champion Guernsey at the Big E and Supreme Champion at the Cornish Fair, reports Emma Roth-Wells in the VN. Roth-Wells profiles the Toms/Formans and their robust livestock-showing partnership with Tunbridge's Seth and Shannon Johnson.SPONSORED: Photography of all sorts! Looking for headshots, graduation photos, photos of pets, or fine art portraits? I’m Diahann of All Hours Photography in Thetford, and I capture your special moments together, anywhere in the Upper Valley. You can also check out my still lifes and landscapes, which make a beautiful addition to your home or a great gift. Check it all out at the burgundy link or email me. Sponsored by Diahann Tanke.
"It’s almost like I can feel an electrical power of rootedness coming out of this land and this earth and Terrible Mountain.” Susan Leader—you probably know her pottery from the Norwich Farmers Market—grew up and still lives Andover, VT, in the shadow of that mountain (which, she wrote a few years ago, "is neither exceptionally tall, nor harsh, ranking No. 214 in the state"). On Erica Houskeeper's Happy Vermont podcast, Leader talks about growing up as the daughter of early back-to-the-landers, her life in Andover with her husband, musician John Specker, and about Terrible Mountain itself—which, she learned, was once named Mt. Pleasant. "I was shocked," she says.
In Vershire, largest landowner "thinks long term." For over a decade, Donna Goldberg has been amassing forested property in the town—and nearby—coming over the years to own some 3,300 acres, writes Jim Kenyon in a feature article for the VN. But Goldberg isn't interested in harvesting the trees there: Rather, she's part of a movement aiming to create new old growth forests by leaving the woods alone for centuries. The sanctuary she's created, Sandbhreagh, is open to walking, but not to hunting, trapping, or fishing...and definitely not to logging. Kenyon profiles Goldberg and her approach.In the WPTZ spotlight: Norwich. Well, King Arthur Baking and the Norwich Inn, anyway. NBC5 meteorologist Ben Frechette traveled to the town for this week's episode of the station's "This Is Our Home" series. At King Arthur, he talks to J. Ryan about the customers' experience there—"Food," Ryan says, "is one of those things that elicits memories and elicits an emotional response." A short drive away, Frechette checks out the Norwich Inn, where longtime employee Gretchen Dwyer shows him around and describes the inn—"There's no two pieces of furniture the same"—and its place in the community.Mt. Washington Observatory aims to expand weather monitoring. “Weather affects us all," the observatory's director of weather operations, Jay Broccolo, tells NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian. But in NH, it especially affects tourism: snow, leaves, summertime visitors. In an effort to "help scientists and businesses better understand the weather driving tourism in the state," Hoplamazian reports, the observatory is planning to set up some 14 new observing stations all over the North Country—including at Moosilauke, along the Kanc, and as far north as Second Connecticut Lake.NH makes a lot of money from "sin taxes"—and especially gambling. All told, reports Paul Briand in NH Business Review, the state pulled in $516.4 million from taxes on tobacco, liquor, beer, and gaming in fiscal year 2024. That was more than from property taxes and meals & rental taxes, though less than business taxes. By far, the fastest percentage growth since 2017 has been in lottery and gambling revenues: 161 percent. Overall, gaming tax revenues for FY '24 compared to FY '23 were up 7.3 percent; tobacco tax revenue was down 12.8 percent, liquor down 10.9 percent, and beer down 6.2 percent.Feds release data about apprehensions at NH's northern border: 49 since 2020. It's been a charged debate for several years, ever since political concern about illegal crossings into New Hampshire spiked in the legislature. But numbers were hard to come by: Customs and Border Protection would release them only for the entire Swanton Sector, which also covers VT and a section of NY: 19,222 from October 2023-October 2024. Now, reports Amanda Gokee in the Globe (paywall), CBP has released its NH-specific numbers: 2 in 2020, 5 in 2021, 2 in 2022, 22 last year, and 18 so far this year.Camping, sleeping outdoors or in their cars, staying with relatives: Where Vermonters who lost their motel vouchers have been living. Over the course of the fall, more than 1,500 people—including 378 children—have had to leave the motels where they'd been staying thanks to the state's motel voucher program, reports Carly Berlin via Vermont Public. No one has kept track of them all, but Berlin talked to service providers to get an overall sense of what's been happening—from being hospitalized for exposure to finding affordable housing—and to people doing their best to get by.
At the same time, the cap that pushed people out of motels will be lifted for the winter starting this coming Sunday. But as Berlin reports in a separate piece (here via VTDigger), the cold-weather rules will be somewhat more restrictive than they were last year. Motels participating in the program regularly filled up last year, and are expected to do so again this winter—and it's not clear whether modest shelter expansions, including five beds for Vermonters at the Haven shelter in Lebanon, will be enough.
Talk about pressure: Mikaela Shiffrin aiming for 100th career World Cup victory on sort-of home snow. That's because she won her 99th victory in Austria on Saturday, and the next race on the circuit is this coming weekend at Killington. She's long since been in a league of her own—she passed Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories in March, 2023, the AP notes. "If it happens, it's wonderful. If it doesn't happen, kind of nothing to cry about in the grand scheme," she says. "But I hope to have a really good performance in front of the home crowd." And hey, there's always Mont Tremblant next.The Seven Days personals—a "new-old way of approaching dating: farmer’s market rather than meat market." Well look at this! In the NYT (gift link), Adrienne Raphel (who grew up in St. J "and has read the personal ads in Seven Days since high school") profiles one of the weekly's most-read sections, which decades after it started is still thriving—unlike in the vast majority of alt-weeklies, which have dropped them. Couples have met and married through the ads, and readers of all sorts scour them—and the popular "I Spy". "That’s partly because of the ads’ distinctive tone: eager, eclectic and earnest, with more than a dash of quirk and the occasional soupçon of kink."The Bread Bakers of Samarkand. "Who knew that bread could get so wild and dangerous?" Drew Binsky (né Goldberg) has traveled to all 197 UN-recognized countries, and on his YouTube and social media channels, he's won a lot of followers for his video highlights of life in the places he's visited. Last year, he was in Uzbekistan, and in Samarkand he dropped in to a corner bakery to watch what he calls "the world's craziest bread makers" at work: not just making bread, but then literally diving headfirst into the dome-shaped ovens to pull the glossy round loaves off the walls where they bake.
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She came every morning to draw waterLike an old bat staggering up the field:The pump’s whooping cough, the bucket’s clatterAnd slow diminuendo as it filled,Announced her. I recallHer grey apron, the pocked white enamelOf the brimming bucket, and the trebleCreak of your voice like the pump’s handle.Nights when a full moon lifted past her gableIt fell back through her window and would lieInto the water set out on the table.Where I have dipped to drink again, to beFaithful to the admonishment on her cup,
Remember the Giver
fading off the lip.
— “A Drink of Water” by Seamus Heaney,
See you tomorrow.
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