GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sun then clouds and maybe some rain. Definitely cooler. Now that the cold front's passed through, we've got some low pressure sitting to our north, so after a reasonably clear morning we're due a gusty, unsettled afternoon. Chance of showers late afternoon, along with wind gusts from the west as high as 30 mph. We're back to reasonable temps for the season, with a high reaching the mid-60s today, down to around 40 tonight.Sandpipers, wrens, warblers, thrashers... oh, and a purple trillium. Photographer Jim Block spent last on the Vermont side, around Campbell Flat along the Ompompanoosuc in Norwich, at Crossroad Farm in Post Mills, and by the Union Village Dam in Thetford. He captured the astounding variety of smaller birdlife (and one wildflower) that's back and busy in these parts.Oh, sure, let's do two more hot-air balloon photos. Because really, when it's the Post Mills festival, it's always good to look up.
Here are two highly photogenic balloons from the weekend, by Hartland's Jane Svetaka.
And here's "Ballunar Landing" by Vershire's Avi Horster—named that for reasons that will be obvious when you see it.
Hanover announces new town manager. Alex Torpey, who's served as several NJ towns as manager, teaches in Seton Hall's public administration program, and consults and writes about local governance, will take over from retiring Hanover manager Julia Griffin next month. He's a volunteer EMT, took off last summer for a four-month road trip across the country, and, says the press release, is interested in long-term budget planning and transparency, emergency preparedness, technology, sustainability, and "engaging others in the civic process." He's got a website detailing his background.Tim Briglin, Alice Nitka announce they're stepping down from VT Legislature.
Briglin, who chairs the House Energy Committee and has represented Thetford, Norwich, Sharon, and Strafford for eight years, said in a listserv post (here via Norwich Observer), "If it’s true that 80% of life is just showing up, perhaps the other 20% is knowing when to move on." He tells VTDigger's Riley Robinson that it's become "untenable" to balance a job and the legislature. “That just reached a point where I've got to kind of make a choice between the two, and there's really no choice,” he said.
Nitka has represented Windsor County in the state Senate for 15 years; her decision to step down was confirmed to VTDigger's Sarah Mearhoff by Senate Majority Leader Alison Clarkson, who along with longtime Sen. Dick McCormack also represents Windsor County. Hartford Rep. Becca White had already declared her intention to run in the Democratic primary for the three-seat district.
Bobcat had rabies. "This one was definitely on the aggressive side of things,” VT Game Warden David Lockerby tells the Valley News's Claire Potter of the bobcat that on Friday chased a house cat through the pet door of a Windsor home and bit its elderly resident. The state health department on Saturday confirmed it had rabies, though "due to a delay in communications [the homeowner did not hear the news until Monday. He is now receiving additional medical treatment," Potter reports.SPONSORED: Unique classical concert will inspire UV music lovers. Come experience J.S. Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor! Called “a cathedral in sound,” it is one of the greatest masterpieces in all classical music. Upper Valley Baroque brings highly accomplished professional musicians together with gifted Artistic Director Filippo Ciabatti to create a powerful, uplifting experience. Sunday, May 29 at 4 pm at the Lebanon Opera House. Tickets available at the maroon link, free for students. Sponsored by Upper Valley Baroque.Dartmouth preps Lyme Road proposal for next month. As you'll remember, the college in February announced it was slowing down its plan for undergrad, apartment-style housing north of campus, at Garipay Field. The Office of Communications now says that planners "will be ready to share a revised housing concept in June"—though gives no real idea of where they're headed, other than to write that "campus planners and senior leaders have considered a broader array of factors beyond Dartmouth’s urgent need for more beds as they determine how to alleviate Dartmouth’s housing shortage."Former Dartmouth skier, rising off-road biking star from VT found dead in Austin. Anna Moriah Wilson, a 25-year-old East Burke native who was in Austin, TX for a 150-mile gravel race she was favored to win, was found with multiple gunshot wounds last Wednesday, reports Seven Days' Colin Flanders. Police have identified a "person of interest" and on Saturday said the shooting does not appear to have been random. Wilson comes from a prominent skiing family; VeloNews interviewed her about her background and goals last week. "Bill-sweeping." White-breasted nuthatchers are among the 85 North American species of birds that nest in cavities, writes Mary Holland on her Naturally Curious blog, and they've developed what seems to be a brilliant strategy for keeping squirrels and other uninvited guests out: They hold a crushed insect in their bill, then sweep the inside and outside of the cavity with it. "It’s thought that chemical defense secretions from the crushed insect," Holland writes, discourage other animals from entering.Covid is "not going away but we’re paying less attention." That pithy summary comes from David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog. Hospitalizations in NH are rising, he notes—40 percent in May so far. At the same time, the state last week announced that it's ending its weekday email updates, which a lot of people used to keep track of what was going on. Unlike Vermont, it's keeping its dashboard active (well, except yesterday). But as Brooks writes, it "does feel like we are heaving a deep sigh and becoming resigned to living a COVID-affected life."NH judge orders climate activists to refrain from climate activism. The sentencing from Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman came in the case of four activists (three from ME) who in 2019 blocked a coal train on its way to Merrimack Station coal-fired power plant in Bow. The four were found guilty of trespassing in March. "While it's fine to say that you don't like coal...what's not fine is to stop the coal train," Schulman told them. He ordered them to pay fines, reports NHPR's Susan Sharon, and to "refrain from participation in climate activism and civil disobedience for several years."Driving with a car that's too clean. Doing your best to stay at the speed limit. Driving a rental car. Driving with your hands at 10 and 2. Those, reports the Granite State News Collaborative's Paul Cuno-Booth, are all reasons NH state troopers have stopped motorists. They're not the legal reasons—that might be something like not signalling before a lane change. But they fed the suspicions of officers on the lookout for gun and drug trafficking. Police say the stops are an important tool. Legal experts, Cuno-Booth writes, argue they're arbitrary, prone to bias, and often snag innocent motorists.It’s official: VT issues first adult-use cannabis grower’s license. After delays hampered the state’s timeline for creating a marketplace, an indoor cultivator in Brandon is now the first in VT with a license to grow weed legally. As the Cannabis Control Board reviews applications, writes Seven Days’ Sasha Goldstein, it will prioritize those most “disadvantaged by the nation’s war on drugs, including Black or Hispanic applicants.” And to curb the influence of corporate producers (aka “Big Pot”), last week the legislature approved a measure limiting integrated license holders to only one license.Okay, Upper Valley, time to up our game. On the one hand, I'm as dubious about reader-generated "Best Of" polls as the next person. On the other, they're pretty fun to read—if, that is, places you know about show up. But year after year when Seven Days does its "Seven Daysies" awards for everything from best farmers market to best day hike to best place to get body art, the spots within an easy drive of Burlington get featured. Stands to reason: That's what most of its readers know. Well. Nominations opened yesterday. Think we could show the rest of the state what they've been missing all these years?The Tuesday Vordle. For those of you who've just joined Daybreak: This is the Upper Valley version of Wordle, keyed to a word related to an item in yesterday's Daybreak. If you had trouble getting to it yesterday or over the weekend, Vordlewiz Kevin McCurdy and his crew released a new version over the weekend that produced problems for a few people. The issue's been fixed, so have at it!
And the numbers...
On Friday, Dartmouth reported there had been 189 active cases during the previous 7 days, a slight drop from the 196 reported a week ago. The college said 38 undergrads (-25), 34 grad and professional students (+2), and 117 faculty/staff (+16) had active cases over the previous week.
NH hasn't yet updated its dashboard from over the weekend.We'll catch up tomorrow.
VT's case numbers have dropped a bit, with the state notching 405 cases Friday, 414 Saturday, 197 Sunday, and 166yesterday, bringing it to 129,252 total and a 7-day daily average of 328, compared to 334 on Thursday. There were 4 deaths during that time; they stand at 652 all told. Hospitalizations have risen again: As of yesterday, 67 people with confirmed cases were hospitalized (+15 since Thursday), with 6 in the ICU (-1). Windsor County added 76 cases since Thursday and 335 over the past two weeks, for 9,695 overall, while Orange County gained 24 since Thursday and 156 in the past two weeks and stands at 4,434 overall.
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If you live down around New London, today from 4-6 pm the New London Bike/Walk Coalition and a variety of co-sponsors are hosting a "Be Bike Safe" gathering at Kearsarge Elementary for families with school-age kids. There'll be bike safety checks, a bike course, giveaways, a limited supply of free kids' bike helmets, and more.
At 6:30 this evening, the Howe hosts an online NH Humanities talk by Dartmouth history prof Allen Koop on the history and traditions of the Appalachian Mountain Club's huts in the White Mountains. Koop, who teaches European and American (including NH) history, will discuss how the huts and the people who built, maintain, and use them have formed their own mountain society, with a rich set of traditions and legends.
This evening at 7, the Norwich Bookstore hosts writer and novelist Peter Heller (you may remember The Dog Stars), talking about his latest thriller, The Guide. It's a sequel to The River, set at a near-future western wilderness lodge where the well-heeled go to escape the various coronavirus variants plaguing America. Heller will be joined for an online conversation by Sean Prentiss, author of Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave.
Also at 7, it's Here in the Valley's Tuesday Jukebox. Tonight, fiddler and host Jakob Breitbach welcomes Royalton's AliT. The indie-pop singer-songwriter has been playing the guitar since she was 11, and before the pandemic was doing well over 100 gigs a year around the region. Both in-person at Speakeasy Studios in WRJ and livestreamed.
Is it for miracles We live? I like it when the morning sun lights up my roomLike a yellow jelly bean, an inner glow. May mutters, "WhyAsk questions?" or, "What are the questions you wish to ask?"
— From "Hymn to Life," by James Schuyler. There's lots more.
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 and writers who want you to 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 Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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