GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, warmer. There may be some clouds, depending on where you are, but one thing that won't vary much is the fact that warm air is riding in on winds from the south, and we'll most likely be in the low or mid 60s today. Mostly cloudy tonight, slight chance of rain showers starting after midnight, lows in the mid 30s.Not your usual eclipse pics. Thank you so much to everyone who sent some in. They were all fantastic. Here's a smattering.
For starters, there are the coronal mass ejections that Tig Tillinghast got by using a strong telephoto lens and a metal filter. "Nothing like seeing the actual clockwork of the universe to give perspective," he writes. And explains that the big, pink coronal mass ejection at the bottom is moving around 400 kilometers per second, "apparently a little toward us but mostly down and to the left." He adds, "It was pretty cool rumbling up class four mud season roads and seeing every few houses hosting eclipse watching parties. It seemed everyone was in on it; like a parade across the whole state."
Here's the entire blocked sun with flares, taken from Montpelier by Conor Dube (thanks, CH!)
And the remarkable glow of gases around the blocked sun, by Erin Donahue.
Here's Annemieke McLane's photo of the warmth of a crescent sun.
Up in Greensboro, VT, Nancy Schindler caught the sun together with more terrestrial fireworks.
And finally, here's Lynn Sheldon's completely different approach: the eclipse through a colander. "I love my mom’s old (multipurpose!) colander," she writes from Lyme. "It’s all banged up and I wouldn’t switch it. An eclipse gives me extra reasons to love it!"
By 11 yesterday morning, northbound highways were filling up and, according to
VTDigger
, the line for the Tesla charging stations at the Price Chopper on 12A stretched out onto the road. Things got worse after the eclipse. Much worse. Interstates and many state highways filled up pretty much as soon as the eclipse reached totality.
. The snarl lasted many hours more. The burgundy link goes to Jonathan Frishtick's spirit-withering photo of I-91 southbound last night.
On the other hand... There were a lot of happy people up in the zone of totality. At least, before they got in their cars. News organizations in both states flooded the zone. For vignettes from northern towns all over, here's:
Christina Dolan's coverage in the Valley News of Upper Valleyites in St. Johnsbury.
VTDigger's coverage: “Looking up at where the sun usually is and seeing, like, a hole in the sky, is …” "So weird."
Vermont Public's: "We just experienced the eclipse and then he proposed to me."
NHPR. "Everyone says it’ll change your life when you see a full. So, I guess I need my life changed."
Okay, I think we're done.
Oh, except this: As if yesterday wasn't enough, traffic between old West Leb and 12A is about to get bad, too.
As the
VN
reports, construction on what's known as the "Dry Bridge" that connects Main Street, Seminary Hill, and Maple Street to the 12A strip starts up today, and between 8 am and 4 pm through Friday, traffic will be reduced to a single alternating lane. "We encourage motorists to consider alternate routes and allow extra travel time," the city said in its traffic alert last week.
SPONSORED: Classicopia's third annual summer music day camp, Aug. 5-10 in Lebanon. Open to pianists, string players, and singers ages 8-18 of all levels, this is a fantastic opportunity for young musicians in the Upper Valley to work together with other young musicians to produce incredible music in only one week. Students will be placed in chamber music groups coached by a fantastic faculty from around the country; there will also be an orchestra and a chance to sing in small groups. Private lessons are also available. Hit the burgundy link for more info and to register. Sponsored by Classicopia.Fires hit Claremont, Hanover, and Canaan. You already know about Sunday's apartment fire in West Wheelock. But as Patrick Adrian reports in the VN, there was also a suspicious fire Sunday in the upper seating area of the grandstand overlooking the rec field at Barnes Park in Claremont, which the city fire department was able to contain to just that section. And in Canaan, a fire early yesterday morning destroyed a detached barn on Prospect Hill Road; the nearby house appeared unharmed, a neighbor tells Adrian.Barred owls nesting, winter fireflies falling into sap buckets... It's the second week of April, and as Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast writes, things are picking up out there. In her latest "This Week in the Woods" installment, she writes about the owls' nesting habits, the fact that winter fireflies use pheromones to attract mates—which means they can get a daytime jump on their flashier cousins who avoid cold nights—and golden-crowned kinglets. Also, keep an eye out this week for red-shouldered hawks doing dances in the sky.SPONSORED: Learning for fun! Spring registration at Osher is open, and we have an exciting collection of online, in-person, and HyFlex courses! Osher at Dartmouth offers the chance to learn purely for pleasure, with no need to work for credits or grades. Members enjoy dozens of special events and opportunities for travel throughout the year! Hit the burgundy link for more information about spring term, and visit osher.dartmouth.edu today for info on membership and other upcoming events. Sponsored by Osher at Dartmouth.VT Senate powerhouse Dick Mazza resigns. “There’s a popular misconception that Vermont is run out of the fifth-floor governor’s office...when in reality, it’s run out of the deli section of Mazza’s store" in Colchester, Peter Welch once told Seven Days. Yesterday, however, those days came to an end, when Mazza, a conservative Democrat, called it quits after 39 years as he battles cancer. Republican Gov. Phil Scott, a friend, will get the chance to fill the seat as several crucial votes loom in the Senate, including on his nominee for education secretary. Seven Days' Kevin McCallum reports."You take your forehead and it goes down about four inches. Simultaneously...your finger goes up. Make sure it's the correct finger. That would be your index finger." New vaudevillian Brent McCoy is just one of the people VT Public's Nina Keck spoke with for her Brave Little State episode on "the Vermont wave"—the gesture people make as they meet another car on a back road. "When I first saw it," S. Strafford's Mica Tucker explains to her as they drive around Tunbridge, "I was like, what are people doing?" So Keck dives in: one figher? two? an actual wave? a head nod?...Before the skies darkened, the ground shook. The 4.8 magnitude quake that rattled New Jersey and elsewhere last week came as a surprise to practically everyone. On The Conversation, Gary Solar, a geoscientist at U Buffalo, explains that the region had tectonic activity some 300 million years ago, which left faults that still exist. Periodically, rocks in the fractures slip, causing an earthquake. Solar says it’s unlikely we’ll feel another quake of this magnitude soon. “Once the slip happens in a region like this, the gravitational problem on that ancient fault is typically solved and the system is more stable.”Oh, and then there are the smoke rings coming out of Italy's Mt. Etna. Seriously. A new crater opened on the summit, and darn if the thing isn't blowing near-perfect rings... The BBC's got video.The Tuesday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
I pick an orange from a wicker basketand place it on the tableto represent the sun.Then down at the other enda blue and white marblebecomes the earthand nearby I lay the little moon of an aspirin. I get a glass from a cabinet,open a bottle of wine,then I sit in a ladder-back chair,a benevolent god presidingover a miniature creation myth, and I begin to singa homemade canticle of thanksfor this perfect little arrangement,for not making the earth too hot or coldand not making it spin too fast or slow so that the grove of orange treesand the owl become possible,not to mention the rolling wave,the play of clouds, geese in flight,and the Z of lightning on a dark lake. Then I fill my glass againand give thanks for the trout,the oak, and the yellow feather, Singing the room full of shadows,as sun and earth and mooncircle one another in their impeccable orbitsand I get more and more cockeyed with gratitude.—
"As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse" by Billy Collins, from his collection
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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
, or if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!