Daybreak Tuesday, 3/17/26

Mostly sunny, colder. That cold front came through with a bang, eh? And the winds will continue this morning. Meanwhile, temps are dropping toward or below freezing today, so watch for downed trees, ponding water, and possible ice this morning. On the positive side, there’s a decent stretch into the afternoon with mostly clear skies, and things will clear out again overnight, with temps dropping into the mid teens.

A study in scarlet. Scribner Fauver’s captivating view through the front glass windows of the new Lebanon firehouse.

Spring! Well, in this week’s installment of DB Johnson’s Lost Woods, anyway, as it turns out that the Windo-Vision remote is powerful, indeed.

About that snow sine wave photo… Yesterday’s Daybreak began with a photo from Kathy Jones of what look like waves of gravel-encrusted snow along the side of Hanover’s Goodfellow Road. She was curious about what might have caused it, and several readers responded with their off-the-cuff guesses. You’ll find it all—photo and explanations—at the link.

Plainfield sticks with in-person town and school meetings. The votes weren’t even close on Saturday, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News: Voters rejected a proposal to switch to Australian balloting for all school issues 215 to 64, and a few hours later rejected it for Town Meeting, 190 to 32. “What we’re doing right now is pure democracy,” said Joe Crate. “This is as good as it gets.” In other towns on Saturday, Lyme rejected raising another $100K to continue removing materials from the Smith property on Dorchester Road, while Croydon opted to hire a town enforcement officer. More floor results on the VN’s Town Meeting page.

SPONSORED: Design Your Own Wooden Eyewear. If you've dreamed of truly bespoke spectacles, mark your calendar: Saturday March 21 from 11am-2pm join Natalie at Artisan Eyewear as she hosts a Trunk Show for Nina Mûr! This independent, eco-conscious company crafts lightweight frames from birch wood, and each pair is made to order in Madrid. You can customize your design from 100+ shapes and 70+ colors. Artisan Eyewear is the only Nina Mûr retailer north of Boston. While you're there, enter the raffle to win an OYOBox travel case! Can't wait? Preview your options here. Sponsored by Artisan Eyewear.

Alexandra Corwin was “one of the original earth mothers.” She was also, says a lifelong friend, “way ahead of any of us on things like the environment.” In the VN, Nicola Smith’s “A Life” profiles Corwin, a psychiatric nurse who spent her first and final years in the family home in Etna. A graduate of RISD, she was a talented calligrapher—her handwritten end-of-life directives “looked like a proclamation,” says a relative—knitter (even while walking or in the dark), weaver, and painter. Corwin died in January at the Jack Byrne Center, where she had volunteered. “She knew where she was and it brought her comfort,” says her son Ben Hickson. Dear Daybreak readers may remember her “pantoum” (scroll down—you’ll see her explanation).

SPONSORED: Save the date for a special lecture and reception with Hood Museum Director John Stomberg. On April 16 from 5 to 6 pm, join us for a special lecture, “How Did We Get Here? Thoughts on American Painting in the United States.” Using the collections at the Hood Museum as his primary focus, Stomberg will share thoughts on the endlessly fascinating and frustratingly elusive idea of “American” painting. This lecture coincides with the Hood Museum’s presentation of twelve exhibitions inspired by the 250th anniversary of the United States. A reception will follow in Russo Atrium. Sponsored by the Hood Museum.

Kelly hangs out in the snow. He’s one of the young bears at the Kilham Bear Center in Lyme, and he’s pretty much got that tree to himself. Until suddenly he doesn’t.

Oh, and speaking of bears…. “We're getting reports of bears waking up and leaving their dens all over the state, which means it's time to take down those birdfeeders and bearproof your yard,” VT Fish & Wildlife posts. They’ve got a quick list of steps to take now at the link.

Of buds and scales. “Bud scales,” writes Mary Holland in her latest Naturally Curious post, “are modified leaves that cover and protect immature leaves, stems, or flowers within a woody plant bud from dehydration and damage during dormancy.” In other words, they’re all around us now. Intriguingly, they can help with tree and shrub identification, Mary writes. “Most woody plants, including American Beech, have ‘imbricate’ scales which overlap like shingles. Others, like dogwoods and Nannyberry have two or three scales that meet in the middle without overlapping (‘valvate’).” Witch Hazel, on the other hand, has no bud scales at all. Photos of all of them…

2.88 million. That’s how many “recreational visits” New Hampshire’s 161-mile section of the Appalachian Trail drew in 2025, according to a new estimate by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and reported by the Monitor’s David Brooks. Together with the National Park Service, the Conservancy used anonymized mobile location data, along with trail counters and field observations, to compile the first-ever official visitation report for the AT—which saw 16.9 million visits in all last year. Virginia topped the most-visited states with nearly 24 percent of the total; NH was second, at nearly 16 percent. The VT stretch got 3 percent. Here’s the Conservancy’s full writeup.

New Yorkers like VT, Vermonters like NH—and so do Bay Staters, Rhode Islanders, and Maineiacs. Granite Staters? They like Maine. The website Brilliant Maps has a map up of “Every US State’s Favorite State Besides Their Own,” based on what chart creator Matt Shirley’s 416,000 Instagram followers told him. The most popular state is Florida (five southern states plus Michigan), though Minnesota’s close: four other upper Midwest states like it. Minnesotans, meanwhile, want outta here: Their favorite is Ontario.

The Tuesday Crossword. Time to get your brain going with the Tuesday “mini” from Dartmouth librarian and puzzle artist Laura Braunstein. If you’d like to catch up on past puzzles, you can do that here.

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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And the Tuesday poem.

The human heart can go the lengths of God…
Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.

Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul men ever took.

Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake…
But will you wake, for pity’s sake?

— From “A Sleep of Prisoners”, a 1951 verse play by Christopher Fry in which four prisoners of war kept overnight in a church dream biblical dreams.

See you tomorrow.

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