GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Got a moment to keep Daybreak going? Daybreak exists because you and your neighbors sustain it. It's that simple. That's what allows the photos and news and Dear Daybreak and the news quiz and Wordbreak and, increasingly, stories you won't read elsewhere—like Erica Houskeeper's profile of Corinth's Crossmolina Farm below—to keep landing in inboxes all over the Upper Valley. You'll always get Daybreak whether you contribute or not, but if it improves your day or keeps you connected or helps you settle into your morning, I hope you'll hit that burgundy link at the start of this item or "Yes I'll help" below.Now, then... Cloudy, cooler, chance of showers. Yesterday's high pressure is breaking up, and with moist air flowing into the region, odds of showers grow this afternoon—from a chance during daylight hours to a likelihood overnight. Daytime temps will be a bit cooler than yesterday, with highs nearing 70, but warmer than it's been at night, with lows in the low 60s. Winds from the south.Swarms. Two of them, in fact, caught on video.
The first is from Honor Hingston-Cox at the Montshire, who caught the museum's hive swarming this weekend—with appropriate musical accompaniment. "I got to use the Rimsky-Korsakov, which feels like a career achievement," she writes;
And from Gene Kadish, a swarm of Swallowtail butterflies on Quinttown Road in Orford, "puddling" to get salt, minerals, and other nutrients.
"Usually by the time I've picked enough berries, I'm full." Henry could be speaking for all of us, right? In this week's installment of DB Johnson's Lost Woods comic strip, he and Lydia are out in a field, hunting wild strawberries—and, judging from Henry's nap, striking it rich. “Farming requires more skills than anything I’ve ever done in my entire life." Including it turns out, how to make pizza. Margaret Loftus and her husband, Jonathan, moved to W. Corinth, VT, 19 years ago from Brooklyn. They launched Crossmolina Farm on 40 acres off Gristmill Road, and in the years since, writes Erica Houskeeper in a profile of the farm for Daybreak, have become not just successful farmers, but Corinth keystones—five years ago with the Cookeville Market, and then, on a whim, with weekly summertime pizza-and-music nights that these days pull in 150 people at a go. More at the link.Norwich Farmers Market takes a tiny step toward a permanent home. Last week, as you no doubt recall, Norwich's planning commission took up a definition of "open-air market," which the market needs so that its plans to take over the land across Route 5 from the current market can get official approval. As Clare Shanahan reports in the Valley News, the commission gave its okay and that question is now in the selectboard's hands. Shanahan talks to market manager Nica Mieloch-Blinn about its plans and the muddy state of the current market. “I think we’re ready for a real slamming summer day,” she says.SPONSORED: Home grown and world class! The acclaimed Oak Hill Music Festival returns for a fourth season. Celebrated classical musicians from around the country rehearse and perform masterworks in the Upper Valley for a dazzling week of concerts. Brahms Piano Quintet June 25th, 7:00pm, First Congregational Church of Lebanon. “Around the World” June 28th, 7:00pm, Norwich Congregational Church. Schubert Octet 2:00pm, St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover. Free open rehearsals. Tickets here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by the Oak Hill Music Festival.100 Things You Should Do to Know the Real New Hampshire. Back in 1995, writer, farmer, and NH scholar Steve Taylor was asked to give a talk to Leadership NH. He was at a loss. "What could these upwardly mobile future civic sparkplugs want of a farm boy from Plainfield?" he wondered. "I figured maybe they could use some ideas for getting out of the law firm/banking/social-service mafia, so I started pulling together that crazy list." He got help from friends and updated it occasionally, last time in 2020. Now he's pulled together the 2025 version and dang if you won't want to do it all... List at the link.NH legislative negotiators agree on measure to add more documentation requirements for absentee voting. The aim, says the chair of the House elections committee, is to make "as much of Election Day...happen on Election Day as possible. It should just be like that." The result, reports NH Bulletin's William Skipworth, is a bill that—once both chambers agree—will go to Gov. Kelly Ayotte requiring people wanting an absentee ballot to bring photo ID to a clerk’s office, send in a photocopy of their ID, or send in a notarized signature. Among others, advocates for people with disabilities oppose the bill.SPONSORED: There's a film for everyone this summer at the Hop! Adventure, romance, magical realism, social justice documentaries, Ken Burns, and more. The lineup (showing at the Loew Auditorium every weekend) includes timely documentaries, adventures and thrillers featuring Dartmouth alums, Wes Anderson's latest, and Impressionist masterpieces in HD. The highlight is Ken Burns (in person!) presenting selections from his new series, The American Revolution. Check out the listings at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth.
NH, VT legislatures boost security measures. The moves at both state capitols came over the weekend in the wake of the shootings of two state legislators and their spouses in Minnesota.
In NH, reports Steven Porter in the Globe (paywall), staff of the General Court of New Hampshire unpublished online home-address info for all legislators—at least, temporarily—and asked law enforcement agencies "to familiarize themselves with where New Hampshire lawmakers live in their respective communities." They also urged lawmakers to "remain vigilant" in their daily lives.
Meanwhile, security at the VT Statehouse has been beefed up, with members of the public filing through a single entry with enhanced screening and legislators steered to a back entrance, reports Seven Days' Kevin McCallum. The legislature made it optional a few years ago for lawmakers to share their home addresses online, and "now many lawmaker bios only list their towns of residence," McCallum writes.
The measure "represents one of the biggest state income tax breaks in recent memory," reports VT Public's Peter Hirschfeld. It expands the child tax credit, boosts the earned income tax credit for workers without children, reduces state taxes on Social Security benefits, and enacts Gov. Phil Scott's longtime goal of exempting most military pensions from state income taxes. In all, the bill provides nearly $14 million in tax relief.
VT Senate, House pass broad education reform bill; Scott says he'll sign it. It was an intense evening at a divided Statehouse yesterday, as first the Senate—with most Democrats voting No and Republicans Yes—and then the House took up the sweeping measure. “It’s clear the status quo is not working for Vermonters,” said one GOP rep who, like most of his colleagues on the House side, voted in favor. “I fear we are about to make a grave mistake,” countered a Democrat worried about rural schools; the bill will likely force school consolidation—though as VT Public's Lola Duffort reports, it's "stuffed with off-ramps." The legislature adjourned for the season afterward.
As VTDigger's Shaun Robinson notes, that adjournment came without any effort to override Scott's vetoes of bills that would have redesigned the state’s homelessness response system and given supervisors in the judiciary the right to form a union. "In closing remarks Monday night," Robinson writes, "legislative leaders, and Scott, were quick to describe a policymaking dynamic they said was more cross-partisan than in the past"—sparked by Democrats' loss of their super-majorities in last November's elections.
Rosemary Gladstar is "one of those people who can point to a lowly looking weed growing out of the sidewalk and tell you five ways to cook with it or cure an ailment." The world-renowned herbalist—thanks to her dozen books, co-founding of Traditional Medicinals, and more—lives in Milton, VT now, but for decades she made Orange, VT home. It's where her work with plants "really began to focus on the herbs and the habitats they lived in," she tells VT Public's Mikaela Lefrak in a wide-ranging interview about the ways in which plants communicate (with us), her Armenian grandmother, and lots more.Shoulda just jumped out and run, buddy. At a top speed of 3 mph—about as fast as the average adult walks—it was a fair bet that the police would catch a stolen excavator rumbling through the streets of North Charleston, SC last week. The heavy equipment had apparently damaged two business before the driver put the pedal to the metal and led police on a … can it be called this? … chase. It might have gone on longer had the excavator not gotten stuck at the county fairgrounds an hour later. The driver was caught and charged. AP story at the link above, video here.Today's Wordbreak. 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:
Like Daybreak tote bags, thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, 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!
Upper Valley Music Center continues its lunchtime faculty concert series, with guitar teacher Hobbs joined by Rich Greenblatt on vibraphone, Wim Auer on bass, and Tim Gilmore on percussion. They'll be performing original music ahead of Hobbs' new album of lyrical jazz. Noon in UVMC's Bach Room—followed at 5 pm by
The Tuesday poem.
"John & Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who also had never met." — from a freshman's short story.
They were like gazelles who occupied differentgrassy plains, running in opposite directionsfrom different lions. They were like postal clerksin different zip codes, with different vacation time,their bosses adamant and clock-driven.How could they get together?They were like two people who couldn't get together.John was a Sufi with a love of the dervish,Mary of course a Christian with a curfew.They were like two dolphins in the immensityof the Atlantic, one playful,the other stuck in a tuna net—two absolutely different childhoods!There was simply no hope for them.They would never speak in person.When they ran across that windswept fieldtoward each other, they were like two freight trains,one having left Seattle at 6:36 P.M.at an unknown speed, the other delayedin Topeka for repairs....
— From
by Stephen Dunn, from his collection
Different Hours
,
.
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!