GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Hot again. Back into the mid or upper 90s today, with the heat index over the 100-degree mark again. The good news: a cold front's dropping down from the north tonight, bringing with it a slight chance of showers or thunderstorms in some parts of the region. Lows tonight around 70, winds today from the west.Heat risk. Just something to keep in mind today and the rest of this summer: Yale epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina writes a measured, always useful Substack called Your Local Epidemiologist. Yesterday, she pointed out that the issue isn't absolute temp, but heat and humidity to the point that your body can't cool down properly, which is why 90 degrees in these parts can be worse than 120 in Arizona. She explains it all at the link, along with who should be especially wary, what to do, and what to look for. And she links to a federal HeatRisk tool that's still hanging on. We're in the major risk zone today.
In addition to the VT cooling sites on the state map you saw yesterday, Lebanon has four open (its libraries, the airport terminal, and, for seniors only, the senior center), while Enfield's got the library and public works building.
A bouquet for you. Though as always when Rich Cohen gets his camera out to photograph flowers, it's got that extra verve. These are from the garden, arranged by his wife, Anna Typrowicz. "These berries are so inedible nobody eats 'em!" Yeah, because choke cherries make your mouth pucker and your tongue fuzzy, Auk tells Eddie in this week's Lost Woods, by DB Johnson. The two ponder choke cherries, the nature of nature, and, of course, Eddie finds a use for the berries anyway.Theft hits Thetford's Treasure Island, attempted break-in at Wing's in Fairlee. They happened a day and a half and a nine-minute drive apart, reports Marion Umpleby in the Valley News. In a Facebook post Friday night, the manager of Thetford's beach on Lake Fairlee wrote that three people in a car with NH plates pulled in, distracted a gate attendant and then "were able to leave with an undisclosed amount of money." The Wing's incident occurred around 2 am Sunday, when someone tried to "pry open" the market's door, setting off an alarm. They fled. Only the lock was damaged, Umpleby reports.Law enforcement agencies seize guns, drugs, cash in Hartford raid. Hartford police, working with the VT Drug Task Force and other agencies, on Friday seized methamphetamines, fentanyl, cocaine, 12 firearms, and "a large quantity of US Currency," the Hartford PD announced yesterday. They also arrested 45-year-old Rahm Klampert of Hartford. Apart from the announcement, reports WCAX's Adam Sullivan, police gave few details. "It’s a good day for the town of Hartford as we were able to get all of that dangerous material off the street,” Hartford Police Lt. Duncan MacDonald tells Sullivan.SPONSORED: Oak Hill Music Festival returns this week, June 25-29! 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.Three new cafés for the Upper Valley, with community-gathering in mind. You read on Friday about Strafford's Occasional Rooster, which has opened in the village post office annex. Over the weekend, the VN's Marion Umpleby wrote about her visits to that spot—until its opening, owner Phoebe Mix jokes, the town's most popular gathering spots were the Coburns' store parking lot in S. Strafford and the recycling center—and to Dana Hansen's new Brick House breakfast and lunch spot in Chelsea, which is searching for staff, and Tom Morrill's Carpenter's Cup café in Enfield, which he hopes to open in July.“You Look Smashing, Darling." Every Monday morning for years, whatever the weather, Roz Finn would stand at a corner in S. Strafford holding a sign. It wasn't a protest, her friend Therese Linehan tells the VN's John Lippman for his "A Life" profile of Finn. Instead, "She was wishing you something good." Finn died May 20, aged 84. Born in England just before the start of WWII—her memories of the Blitz put her off fireworks for life—she moved to S. Strafford 42 years ago, where she and her husband raised sheep and she took in animals of all kinds, including horses, ducks, cats, and a llama named Lloyd.SPONSORED: Family time! It’s the start of summer, with all its warmth, sunshine, and promise of outdoor adventure. Capture the relaxed atmosphere with your family in curated images from Britton Mann Photography. Photo sessions are fun, even for the camera-shy. You'll cherish putting up these informal but beautiful portraits around your house, celebrating and reflecting back to you the closeness of your family at this special time of year. Sponsored by Britton Mann Photography.One dead in Unity mobile home fire. A joint investigation by the NH Fire Marshal's office and the Unity NH Fire Department is underway, after fire crews arrived at a Quaker City Road address Sunday evening, where "they found a mobile home fully consumed in flames and began efforts to extinguish the fire," according to a press release. A person was found dead inside. There's no more information available at the moment, but they're looking for any information from the public. Call the fire marshal's office at 603.223.4289 or email [email protected].Speaking of inedible berries... Choke cherries (up top) aren't the only thing you don't want to put in your mouth. Red baneberry is fruiting around now, and though "all parts of Red Baneberry are poisonous," writes Mary Holland on her Naturally Curious blog, "the berries are the most poisonous part of the plant." Even so, deer, birds, and small rodents eat the fruit—and Native Americans reportedly used the plant to treat rattlesnake bites, menstrual problems, and syphilis—and its berries' juice as arrow poison.Behind the effort to save NH's arts council. As you remember, the House version of the budget eliminated it entirely; the Senate's version reduces funding to $150K a year, then creates a private fundraising structure. But in the Globe's Morning Report (no paywall), Amanda Gokee writes that former council head Ginnie Lupi is warning that the new funding level would probably mean firing six of the council's seven employees, and that the new fundraising mechanism "would put the agency in direct competition with the people and organizations it serves, with only so many donations to go around."
“How do you maintain a social life in Vermont once you can no longer drive?” That question for VT Public's Brave Little State came from 92-year-old Gerry Quinlan, who can't drive, but gets around with a friend's help. "It is hard to ask for a ride. Who likes to be, who likes to inconvenience other people?" Quinlan tells producer Burgess Brown, who's sitting in the car with her on the way to a coffee date. To explore her question, Brown accompanied her and two others—by bus and rideshare—to talk transportation, but also "grief and independence and aging and friendship." This is one you want to listen to.
The first images are out from the Rubin Observatory and … yowza! The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has started its 10-year survey of the night sky using the biggest camera ever made, "capturing an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the universe,” writes Robin George Andrews in MIT Technology Review. In its first days we’ve seen spiral and merging galaxies, oceans of luminescent gas and dust, and 2,100 asteroids never before seen by humans. Funded by NSF and DOE, its mission includes studying dark matter and dark energy and inventorying the solar system for astronomers and other scientists—and the rest of us—around the world.
Want to go behind the scenes? PetaPixel went up with a video yesterday describing how the enormous camera made it to its mountaintop home in Chile (verrry slowly), how it all works, and how it's getting those photos.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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Harold, who lives in Montpelier, has two historical mysteries and numerous shorter pieces under her belt. Her new novel is set in 1892 Paris, where Anna Shaw—the widow of 54th Massachusetts infantry commander Robert Gould Shaw—encounters her husband's aunt, plunges with her into the bohemian city, and then finds herself confronted by her overbearing former mother-in-law—who intends to move in next door. Harold will be in conversation about it all with Norwich novelist Mary Hays.
And the Tuesday poem...
Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice.
— "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost.
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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