Daybreak Tuesday 2/15/22

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Mostly sunny, warmer. You wouldn't know it if you step outside right now, but as that Arctic air abandons us, it's the start of a three-day trend that could see us near record highs on Thursday. For today, though, sunny in the morning, some clouds around in the afternoon, temps into the mid-20s, and winds from the northwest with some possible light gusts. Clear tonight, down to either side of 0, depending on where you are. A sun pillar, skating, plenty of winter hiking, and even more birds. Etna photographer Jim Block spent his fair share of time outdoors the last six weeks, and he's got the photos to prove it, starting with a sun pillar to herald the end of 2021 and moving on to: that black-ice day on the Connecticut; hikes around Bridal Veil Falls and Black and Bog mountains; and birds from tufted titmice to a red-tailed hawk.Puts everything in perspective, doesn't it? Jed Williamson stamps an exclamation point on the snow-cornice series with a real one from Mt. Denali, a photo he used as the cover for his annual Accidents in North American Mountaineering. Meanwhile, cornices from closer to home continued to flow in yesterday. You'll find the collection here.Fire destroys Enfield duplex. A police officer on patrol yesterday afternoon noticed the fire in the 1880 building, reports WCAX's Adam Sullivan, and called it in—departments from as far away as Grantham and Springfield responded. One of the units was unrented; the tenant in the other was not at home. Firefighters, worried about windy conditions, evacuated one neighboring house. The building "is considered a total loss," Sullivan reports."The current childcare market is in a state of market failure." In a remarkably far-reaching report, a committee tasked with looking at Norwich's child care needs has issued a clear-eyed look at the challenges bedeviling families and providers throughout the region. Chaired by former VT education secretary Rebecca Holcombe, the committee found that many parents have had to cut back on work hours or leave the workforce entirely because of the expense or the lack of care, providers are struggling to retain staff, and policy interventions have yielded unintended results that made matters worse. SPONSORED: Do you really know the Upper Valley? Curious about Art Hanchett’s secret to connecting with locals in any town? Surprised Chris Lin was a chef at Michelin-starred restaurants? Amazed that Diane Rogers has walked the length of every road in Plainfield? If you responded “yes!” to any of these questions, you should check out Humans of the Upper Valley, a space where we share the inspirational, tragic, moving, and mundane stories of our friends and neighbors. Like us on Facebook or subscribe and we’ll send you an email every time we post a story. Sponsored by Humans of the Upper Valley.Braided sweetgrass. A lot of Abenaki baskets were made from it, including those produced by Katherine and Louis Watso, who sold baskets to tourists at Blodgetts Landing on Lake Sunapee in the late 1800s. NHPR's Julie Furukawa reports that their descendants, including Donna Lee, Steve Lewko, and Meredith Lewko, have preserved a large part of that heritage—photos, baskets, Katherine's gown—and, in Steve Lewko's case, are reviving it by learning to make baskets himself. NH guv steps in...to straighten out Mt. Sunapee skiing. The state owns the Newbury ski area, but it's got a 20-year deal for Vail Resorts, the mammoth owner of 40 resorts across the continent, to operate it. And Vail, Gov. Chris Sununu says, hasn't been living up to expectations, with long lift lines, even longer traffic jams on Rte. 103, and what Sununu considers to be over-selling of season passes. The company tells InDepthNH's Paula Tracy that it's "working with the state on issues that range from parking to signage and notifications."With Super Bowl, NH's long tradition of pocketing Bay Staters' money continues. A full quarter of the people who bet on the Super Bowl in NH had MA addresses, reports Erin Tiernan in the Boston Herald. NH launched legal sports betting two years ago and has seen more than $1 billion wagered since then (with $30 million in profits going into education, according to the NH Lottery). It requires bettors to be physically in the state to wager—and since MA hasn't followed suit yet, lawmakers there are looking on in envy. No word on how many Vermonters crossed state lines to lose money on the Bengals.Oops. An Auburn, Mass. snowmobile driver has been cited by NH Fish & Game after her machine hit a local snowmobile club's groomer coming the other way on a trail in Gorham. As she and a riding partner were topping a hill, the agency says, her partner was able to slow down and steer to the side of the groomer. The woman "came over the top of the hill and saw both the groomer and other snowmobile stopped in the trail and tried to stop her machine [but] was unable to do so, so she jumped off her machine." Her snowmobile hit the groomer blade. No one was hurt; officers fault inattention and unreasonable speed.Slush, ice, mud...and just enough snow. The 93rd annual World Championship Sled Dog Derby was held in Laconia over the weekend—or, at least, on Friday and Saturday, before Sunday's events had to be canceled when everything iced over. There were lots of dogs and high spirits and plenty of racing, reports NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian, but warming winters have played havoc with the schedule—and not just here. Hoplamazian talks to mushers from as far away as Utah about what they're seeing.462 days, 8,300 miles later, NH schoolkids' model boat reaches Norway. The six-foot-long Rye Riptides had lost its hull and keel and was covered in barnacles, but its cargo, including artwork and acorns, was still intact, reports Ian Lenahan in the Portsmouth Herald. The project began late in 2019 as an effort to learn about ocean currents; with the help of a MA-based nonprofit, the boat was launched into the Gulf Stream in FL in October, 2020. Initially, students tracked its course by GPS. When their teacher retired, custodians at Rye Junior High kept tabs. After months of silence, the boat pinged Jan. 30: It was on a small island just west of Norway, where a 6th-grader there found it.Leaking roofs, disintegrating floors, broken stairs: VT libraries "are literally falling apart in some cases.” That was Tom McMurdo, acting head of VT's Department of Libraries at a legislative hearing last week. The department is seeking $15 million in federal relief funds for building maintenance and repairs to libraries around the state—it would be the first time in 25 years that VT's 183 public libraries got state or federal money for the purpose, reports Seven Days' Anne Wallace Allen. Towns and library boards have done their best, McMurdo said, but libraries "cannot thrive on goodwill alone,” How a hill in Brattleboro became an Olympian-making landmark. One hundred years ago, a man with handmade skis sped down a 90-meter slope, launched off a ramp he built, and started a sporting tradition. VTDigger’s Kevin O’Connor writes an engaging origin story of Brattleboro’s Harris Hill Ski Jump and its daring creator, Fred Harris. Before Harris’ first leap, ski jumping wasn’t a thing; in the decades since, the hill has drawn thousands of spectators to its annual event to watch future Olympians soar for glory. And a new book by local Dana Sprague tells the whole story, including Harris Hill’s exciting rebirth.Vermont Life, all in one place. The quarterly magazine, published by the state of Vermont, put a gloss on VT's “people, places and culture” from 1948 until the state pulled the plug in 2018. That's when a class at Middlebury stepped in to digitize the entire run. "Once I started looking I was hooked," writes reader BW. "I found myself looking for articles about my town, but then I started browsing whole issues! This could be a problem…." An understatement (switch the search from "metadata" to "contents"). (Thanks, BW! I think.)Like skywriting, but with vultures, crows, and bats. During the first lockdown at the start of the pandemic, CA-based photographer Doris Mitsch noticed that, while things on the ground were at a standstill, “up in the air, there was still a lot going on.” So she set up her camera and began capturing the swirling, ribbony flight patterns of birds. Her composite photographs—each made by combining hundreds of images into one—produce the mesmerizing effect of doodles on a blue sky. Vultures, cruising for carrion, tend to loop; crows and gulls like to take the long road; and bats are just all over the place. 

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