GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Before we start, a huge thank you! A couple of weeks ago, I made one of just a few requests for contributions that occur each year. I never know what to expect, but the response to this one was great: Over 80 of you signed up for monthly contributions or sent along one-time support, a good number for the first time. It was a boost—and a reminder that Daybreak rests on the shoulders of a community of people who care about the Upper Valley, Vermont, and New Hampshire. I'm deeply grateful: You are a model of what's possible. And if you didn't contribute then but want to now, here's the link.Now, back to springtime in northern New England: Snow showers likely. Today and tomorrow are expected to be the coldest days this week, but that's probably scant comfort as a low pressure system and a cold front arrive from the Great Lakes, bringing a chance of snow all day, maybe mixing with some rain this afternoon. Highs today in the mid 30s, down to the low 20s overnight. Maybe a half inch accumulation, a bit more north and toward the mountains.Cloud iridescence. You can't get a much better example than this, by Christoph Geiss, whose photo of the Mt. Madison summit and the clouds above featured in the Cloud Appreciation Society's newsletter Saturday. "Lenticularis clouds can form when moist airstreams flow over raised ground like the mountains of New Hampshire and develop a rising and dipping flow downwind," the CAS writes. In the photo, "Their tiny, uniformly sized droplets diffracted the light as the Sun peeked from behind the summit ridge." (Thanks, ML!)As long as VT Law (& Grad) School has been in S. Royalton, there have been rumors it might move. But that's not the most interesting thing about it. In her new episode on Brave Little State, VT Public's Sabine Poux starts with the question she texted her roommate, Frances Mize, when she first moved to town: “Why were there multiple young hot people walking around South Royalton?” The school gives SoRo a vibe and energy—"There's people doing really cool things," says resident Tess Mix—and Poux explores both the school and the town's spirit. A move? "No," says President Rod Smolla.Two Dartmouth students have immigration status revoked. In a statement, report Vidushi Sharma and staff of The Dartmouth, the college's Jana Barnello wrote that staff discovered the change in status during a "proactive check" of a federal database. One student, Ph.D candidate Xiaotian Liu, had been working as a research assistant in the computer science department and, according to a lawsuit filed on his behalf yesterday by the ACLU and a Concord law firm, had never committed “a traffic violation, let alone a crime, in the United States. Nor has he participated in any protest in the United States or elsewhere.”As Thetford ponders what to do with the old Timothy Frost church, a history—and a stained glass tour. In an essay in Sidenote, Helen Carter starts her timeline before the church's construction in the 1830s—with Hezekiah Porter's brickyard, which supplied the new Methodist church's materials. From there, she traces the years of Pastor Timothy Frost, the decades during which the church lost its status as "the center of village life," the monument to four chaplains (one from Thetford) who died in the torpedoing of a WWII troop ship, and above all, the people honored by those windows.SPONSORED: Banjo wizard Béla Fleck returns to Lebanon Opera House on Monday, May 12! From his bluegrass beginnings and otherworldly explorations with the Flecktones, to acclaimed partnership with Chick Corea and a bold reimagining of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Fleck never fails to surprise. His latest project features two of the most gifted jazz musicians of their generation: drummer Antonio Sánchez and harpist Edmar Casteñada. The genre-blurring supergroup’s explorations are rich with strong melodies and feel-good grooves that twist and turn. Sponsored by Lebanon Opera House.Hartford man dies in VT state prison. James Ingerson, 54, was serving concurrent state and federal sentences at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, VT. He was arrested in June, 2023, "when a convoy of police vehicles from three towns plus federal law enforcement agents converged at his residence adjacent to White River Valley Family Eye Care and across from Hartford High," writes the Valley News's John Lippman, then charged with cocaine possession and being a felon in possession of a firearm. His partner tells Lippman he'd been in the ICU twice this year.As Rob Grabill heads to Sunapee to coach girls' soccer team, Hanover hires former KUA girls' coach Lucas Richardson to coach boys' team. As you no doubt remember, Grabill lost his job at Hanover High last winter, and was hired to replace Myles Cooney at Sunapee High. Now, reports Tris Wykes in the VN, Hanover has hired two-time All-Ivy defender and former Dartmouth soccer captain Richardson, who worked for Norwich's Grassroots Soccer before coaching overseas. He now works for Soccer Without Borders.SPONSORED: Upper Valley Symphony Orchestra performs its spring concert Sunday, April 13, 3 pm at the Lebanon Opera House. More than 50 talented musicians from around the Upper Valley make up the ensemble, led by conductor Mark Nelson. This concert features selected movements from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in a preview of a full summer performance, as well as Paul Hindemeth’s Mathis der Maler and Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question. Tickets at the door. Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.Things are getting interesting out there on the ground. There's smoky-eye boulder lichen—resembling "a squirt of spray paint," writes Northern Woodlands' Jack Saul in last week's "This Week in the Woods" (the site was down last Friday). And burred horsehair lichen, plaintain-leaved sedge, naked miterwort (which gets its name from "the two-peaked fruits’ resemblance to Catholic bishops’ hats, or miters"), hemlock varnish shelf, and more. Plus Canada geese, which have returned to these parts and are defending territory.NH rescuers battle rain, wind, ice to reach injured hiker. The hiker, from Quebec, was on the Jewell Trail near Mt. Clay after summiting Mt. Washington Saturday when he slipped and fell in icy conditions, sliding "several feet off trail before striking an object," NH Fish & Game reports. Rescue teams were able to get to the summit via the Cog, then hiked a mile above 5,000 feet to reach him. Carrying him out "was a Herculean task," Fish & Game reports: "20 rescuers took turns carrying [him] uphill into 40–60+ mile per hour winds across ice-covered rocks. There were injuries suffered by rescuers during this effort."NH's James Beard Award finalist: "I think we have a lot of impostor syndrome." Though Kristina Zontini, who runs Super Secret Ice Cream in Bethlehem—a finalist for Outstanding Bakery—admits to NHPR's Olivia Richardson that she might be rethinking things, now that her popular shop's been nominated two years running. And in between answering congratulatory phone calls and scooping out cups of Meyer Lemon & Pistachio, Richardson reports, Zontini is working to set up a fund for the local elementary school "after hearing that teachers were paying for some students' lunch and groceries."Federal judge praises NH's progress on cutting mental health wait times. Back in 2023, Judge Landya McCafferty issued an order that the state stop so-called "ER boarding"—that is, holding people in crisis in ERs, sometimes for days, before finding them an inpatient bed. At the time, the waitlist was in the 40s; now, reports NHPR's Paul Cuno-Booth, it's been averaging about half that, and on some days it's been zero—or had fewer people listed than the number of available beds. Thursday, McCafferty said she was “very, very pleased”—though the state says the six-hour time limit she ordered may be tough.Brandon, VT chef recovering after stabbing by former employee. Robert Barral, co-owner of Café Provence, which opened in 2004, was allegedly attacked by Jozef Eller, who visited the café Saturday despite having "received a no trespass order in August forbidding entry to the cafe," writes Greta Solsaa in VTDigger. Eller was captured in Rochester after he fled following the stabbing, and yesterday pled not guilty at his arraignment. Yesterday, Seven Days' Melissa Pasanen reported that Barral is back home after being treated at UVM Medical Center and facing "a long road of recovery," in the café's words.VT Agency of Education reverses itself after asking schools to certify compliance with federal anti-DEI directive. On Friday, Ed Secy. Zoie Saunders sent school district leaders a letter informing them of the federal order limiting programs “that treat students differently based on race" and asking them to certify "compliance with existing law." Following a public backlash, reports VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein, Saunders yesterday announced the state would send a single statewide certification. The state continues "to support diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in our schools," she said.Facing decline in transportation funding, VT will repair fewer roads next year. Over the year that ends in June, VTrans will have repaved some 220 miles of state-owned roads, reports VTDigger's Shaun Robinson. But in 2025-26, the figure will be closer to half that. The reason: falling fuel tax revenue and rising construction costs—and while transportation fund revenues have grown over the years, it hasn't been enough to keep pace with rising costs. Moreover, some legislators argue, without new revenues the state will lose out on federal funding matches.
The Monday jigsaw on Tuesday. This week's puzzle, writes the Norwich Historical Society's Cam Cross, features the White Owl Diner in downtown Lebanon in the 1960s. Known as the Pollard Lunch originally, it became the White Owl in the '30s and then was demolished in 1970 to make way for the Hanover Street bridge over the Mascoma River, by where Dazzle Cupcakes sits now. Here's a Google Street View image of the intersection now.
The Tuesday Wordbreak. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.
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Daybreak tote bags! Thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, the usual: 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!
Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts the three graphic artists—Cooke from Ireland, Smith from Jamaica, and Lutes from the Center for Cartoon Studies—for a panel on "using art and cartoons as powerful tools for change." They'll talk about "how their work challenges societal norms, amplifies marginalized voices, and sparks meaningful conversations." 5 pm, Haldeman 41.
As it does every year, the Thayer School throws open its doors to community members of all ages for tours of its research labs, a look at ongoing student projects, food science demos (and samples), displays of robots and race cars, and more. At the Thayer School and the Irving Institute, 5-7 pm.
Volunteers with the NH branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness "will share their diverse perspectives and personal experiences on the impact mental illness and suicide have had on them and their loved ones," and will talk about why they volunteer. Meyer Room, 6 pm.
The biologist, massage therapist, Reiki practitioner, and popular local musician will talk about his new book, subtitled,
The Chronic Separation of the Human from its Divine Nature and The Incredible Story of Awakening
, and about "his awakening story, receiving messages from across 'the veil,' and his understanding of humanity’s challenges." 6 pm.
At the Norwich Bookstore, Ted Levin and Jeanette Fournier talk over their new book, The Promise of Sunrise.
If you've been reading Ted's blog or his every-other-week paragraph about creatures on Erin Donahue's trail cam, you know he's among the most compelling and lyrical nature writers working today.
Promise
is his set of observations and musings about the day-to-day natural workings of a Thetford hillside. Fournier did the illustrations. 7 pm.
The concert by the internationally celebrated chorus, hosted by the Hop, is sold out, but as always, it's worth a check for spare tickets:
603.646.2422. 8 pm.
The Tuesday poem.
The snail pushes through a greennight, for the grass is heavywith water and meets overthe bright path he makes, where rainhas darkened the earth’s dark. Hemoves in a wood of desire,pale antlers barely stirringas he hunts. I cannot tellwhat power is at work, drenched therewith purpose, knowing nothing.What is a snail’s fury? AllI think is that if laterI parted the blades abovethe tunnel and saw the thintrail of broken white acrosslitter, I would never haveimagined the slow passionto that deliberate progress.
— "Considering the Snail" by
.
And a moment's music...
Because today, for reasons lost to the mists of time, is National Banjo Day, and up above is an LOH ad for Béla Fleck, and the synchronicity is just too strong to ignore.
, with animation by Steven Vander Meer.
See you tomorrow.
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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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