GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Some sun, a bit warmer. We're pretty much back to normal weather for sugaring season, with mildly unsettled weather, a mix of sun and clouds, temps reaching the low or mid 40s, and winds from the west. Chance of showers over the next few days, including this afternoon. Down to the mid 20s tonight.The birds (and views) of winter. "It is hard not to start with Bald Eagles mating," photographer Jim Block writes in his latest blog post. And so he does: The pair were among five bald eagles he photographed in a single early-March day in Hanover, Lyme, and Norwich. But he's been out a lot, and there's been a lot to see—including barred owls, Cooper's and red-tailed hawks, and amazingly, an Audubon’s warbler, which don't appear often on the East Coast; this one over-wintered. Plus the moon, the sky, and hikes around the region, including views of Ascutney and KUA from French's Ledges.I-89/I-91 traffic pattern heads up. Next week, crews working on the I-89 bridge over the Connecticut will be shifting southbound traffic onto the newly completed southbound bridge, NHDOT says in a press release. At various points, this will require temporary closures of the I-91 northbound exit 10A off-ramp and the I-89 Exit 20 southbound off-ramp to Route 12A. Things get going tomorrow, the press release says, with the I-91 northbound 10A exit closed 8:30 am to 3 pm, then ramp up with longer closures starting on Monday. Details and detours at the link. 12A "dry bridge" repairs could be quick—but approval from New England Central Railroad may take weeks. The rail company owns the tracks spanned by the bridge, which connects downtown West Leb to the 12A strip and was closed suddenly March 6. The railroad is “moving as quickly as possible to get the repairs underway,” a spokesperson tells the Valley News's Clare Shanahan. Once the plan's approved, the short-term fix can be done in days. Long-term plans, on the other hand, are "in limbo," depending on whether the city decides to buy the Westboro Rail Yard property. It's a debate. Shanahan explains.Oakes & Evelyn to open in the Upper Valley, and other restaurant news. The celebrated Montpelier restaurant—begun in 2021 by former Hanover Inn and PINE executive chef Justin Dain—is slated to open this summer in The Jackson, an inn on the western edge of Woodstock, reports Susan Apel in Artful. In a quick roundup, she also reports: Gusanoz is aiming to open a quick take-out spot next to its home base; Jewel of India is starting a Sunday lunch buffet this weekend; and The Baited Hook in Enfield has gone up for sale.Longtime Hanover High boys' soccer coach to coach girls' soccer at Sunapee. Rob Grabill, who was told at the end of last year that HHS wouldn't be renewing his contract, has signed on to coach the Sunapee Middle High School girls soccer team, reported Alex Hall in the Union Leader last week. “I’m going to guess that there will be a little more singing on the bus,” Grabill jokes. Grabill had long known his predecessor at Sunapee, Myles Cooney, and got in touch after he lost his Hanover position. "I don’t feel the need to make a big splash right away,” he says. “I’m in this for a long haul." (Thanks, JD!)SPONSORED: “I just wish I'd done it sooner!” At 70, Tom Cronkite wasn’t ready to slow down—but shoulder pain he chalked up to arthritis started holding him back. Driving, reaching, even sleeping became a challenge. But a surprising recommendation from his doctor turned things around and now he’s back to the activities he loves, traveling, biking, and "Skiing almost every day, totally enjoying it!” Read the full story at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy.Rachel Barenbaum's books podcast Check This Out! just keeps growing. Barenbaum, who lived for years in Hanover, began her series of interviews with emerging authors as a small "passion project," she tells NHPR's Zoë Kay—until Howe Library director Rubi Simon asked if it could become a Howe program. With librarians there "work[ing] wonders on the tech side and social media," Barenbaum eventually felt ready to approach NHPR in 2023—which has been running it since. Now, she's got a new partnership with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. "Talking to authors is a shot of adrenaline for me," she says.Leb police arrest Canaan man in hammer attack. The incident took place Sunday, when police responding to reports of a fight outside the city's emergency winter shelter on Mechanic Street found Shawn Mooney, 37, behind the building with another man, holding a hammer. Mooney was charged with allegedly striking one man in the head and trying to gouge out another's eyes. Both victims were treated on-site, according to an LPD press release, and one was then taken to DHMC. Mooney was out on bail after a March 11 arrest for failing to register as a sex offender and for resisting arrest.With federal funding freeze, Connecticut River work on hold. The biggest issue, reports Liz Sauchelli in the VN, is an $11.5 million, five-year grant to the Connecticut River Conservancy. In part, the money is supposed to fund a series of projects upstream planting trees, shrubs, and other riparian buffers to filter water, enhance the river habitat, and, as Sauchelli writes, "slowing the flow of the river in extreme rain events." With the funds frozen, the organization can't move ahead on early stages. In addition, Sauchelli reports, there's uncertainty around planned erosion work on Jacobs Brook in Orford."For sixty million years, owls have made baby owls." Despite yesterday's snow, naturalist Ted Levin writes on his Another Morning in Paradise blog, it was busy out there: "Chickadees chase around a sapling maple and then perch side by side. Both nuthatches are singing. Juncos trilling. Crows pair off. Robin visits the shed and inspects the shelf. Owls dueting. Pileated drumming. Mourning doves, chummy. The world turns internally green." Includes two photos of the male barred owl who's been hanging out there on Hurricane Hill since Thanksgiving, taken by Erin Donahue.Wood frogs are at it, too—though maybe not yesterday. They're emerging from under northern New England's plentiful leaf litter, Mary Holland writes on her Naturally Curious blog and heading for the vernal pools where they mate. "He who hesitates sacrifices his chance of passing on his genes," Mary writes, "so males are aggressive in their pursuit of a mate, leaping upon practically anything that moves." Then, eventually, it's back to the woods, "leaving their progeny to develop before the temporary vernal pool dries up."NH routinely sends foster kids out of state—and spends 10 times more on residential facilities than on foster care and community alternatives. Those are just some of the conclusions in a deep look at the issue by the Monitor's Michaela Towfighi (here via NHPR), who focuses on Brie Lamarche, now 24, who under the state's care had lived in two treatment facilities, an adult prison (despite being a minor), two hospitals, a youth detention center, a group home and a special ed school by the time she was 18. “I was a chess piece just being moved to the next play. I was nothing, I just felt nothing,” she says."Nothing really shows up here looking like a piano." That's because, at the Steinway & Sons factory in Queens, pianos get built from scratch. Irresistible to the folks at the Public Opinion YouTube channel—"From our origins as a man-on-the-street show, we’ve learned that the best way to learn something is to talk to people"—who drop by to talk to the "craftspeople and artisans who shape, tune, and perfect these instruments by hand." It takes about 11 months for sheets of wood to get turned into a grand piano, but you'll learn about the whole process—from the people who make it happen—in 11 minutes. The Tuesday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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Poetry, I tell my students,is idiosyncratic. Poetryis where we are ourselves(though Sterling Brown said“Every ‘I’ is a dramatic ‘I’”),digging in the clam flatsfor the shell that snaps,emptying the proverbial pocketbook.Poetry is what you findin the dirt in the corner,overhear on the bus, Godin the details, the only wayto get from here to there.Poetry (and now my voice is rising)is not all love, love, love,and I’m sorry the dog died.Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)is the human voice,and are we not of interest to each other?
— "Ars Poetica #100: I Believe" by
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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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