GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
In case you missed this yesterday... Daybreak will take a break starting Friday, lasting through Monday, June 20. Back as usual on Tuesday, June 21.Partly sunny today, showers tonight. A fine day to be out... temps getting into the mid-70s, a mix of sun and clouds. There's a cold front headed our way, though, and we'll likely see winds from the south pick up this afternoon, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Rain could show up this evening, but it's likeliest once night settles in. Mid-50s tonight.While mom's away... As you know, a doe will sometimes stash her fawn someplace safe while she goes off to forage—with strict instructions not to move. But that doesn't stop them from satisfying their curiosity with their eyes. Here's a photo of a field in Tunbridge, from Caren Pratt."More than a hobby." Seed-saving, writes the Valley News's Claire Potter (here via VTDigger), boosts its practitioner's independence and "contribute[s] to the resilience of the wider food system" by safeguarding and building plant diversity. Potter hung out at the Upper Valley Seed Savers' first potluck since the pandemic. Started 13 years ago by Sylvia Davatz and Ruth Fleishman, the group talks the ins and outs of onions and carrots, rye and leeks, and about how choosing seeds over generations "allows plants to express their personalities and preferences," as Davatz puts it.Visiting retired bishop struck, killed near LaSalette Shrine. Bishop Emeritus Joseph Donald Pelletier, 90, who was visiting from Madagascar, had arrived to stay at the shrine late Saturday afternoon, reports the VN's Darren Marcy, when he stepped onto 4A and was struck. The driver, who is not believed to be at fault, told the shrine's director "she doubted Pelletier even saw her before he stepped into the road" and didn't even have time to hit the brakes. Enfield Police Chief Roy Holland told Marcy yesterday that the sun may have been a factor.On an out-of-the-way stretch of Lake Fairlee, the pros and cons of building a trail. There's a relatively narrow, 1200-foot-long band of land between Route 244 and the lake that's closer to "something you’d find in the wilds of Maine" than by a popular lake in VT, writes Li Shen in Sidenote. A group of volunteers has proposed trails there to give walkers from Treasure Island a chance to contemplate nature and, eventually, be able to see the local loon nesting raft. Shen, who makes her feelings clear, wonders about the cost of "human intrusion" in previously undisturbed habitat.SPONSORED: Make meaningful connections with the Billings Farm community through the volunteer program. Share your enthusiasm for farming, rural life, gardening, and history. Apply your talents and learn new skills. There are a range of positions and flexible timeslots available. Volunteers greet guests, facilitate crafts, give out Billings Farm Cheese samples, garden, and more. Enjoy perks with an ice cream or beverage each shift and hours accrued towards cheese, admissions or even a membership. Hit the maroon link to get involved! Sponsored by Billings Farm.There's nothing like a downy belly for comfort... Killdeer parents are highly protective of their newborn chicks, Mary Holland writes in her latest Naturally Curious post. Like some other birds, they lead predators away by pretending to be injured. And they shelter their chicks from possible threats—shown nicely by Mary's photo of a killdeer with four little legs sticking out below its breast.NH will deploy drones to study moose population. Well, drones and 140 wildlife cameras out in the woods, writes Paula Tracy in InDepthNH. In the past, state wildlife biologists have relied on reports from hunters and from manned aircraft using infrared to get a sense of population numbers—which have seen a drastic decline with the rise of winter ticks and a parasitic worm, both of which are killing off yearling moose. Fish & Game says the state's moose population is now about 3,300, down from a peak of about 7,500 and well below the state's target of 4,000.Sununu may be softening on provisional ballots, but legal issues remain. The NH guv had earlier announced his opposition to the measure, which would create a new class of ballot for first-time voters who don't have documentation with them; if they don't send required documents to the Secy of State within 7 days, their ballot will be pulled and their votes subtracted from the total. Now, writes Ethan DeWitt in NH Bulletin, he appears to be leaning toward signing. But the bill, says Secy of State Dave Scanlan, raises constitutional questions, and is advocating that it be sent to the state Supreme Court for review.If VT legislators request a new study, they should be required to read it. That's a joking suggestion by state Sen. Jane Kitchel that, as Riley Robinson writes in VTDigger, gets at a real problem. This past session, the legislature requested 100 new studies. It also created 31 new fact-finding panels. There's a sunset commission that recommends shutting panels each year, but this year only 6 got the axe, so it's fighting a losing battle. Sometimes, Kitchel tells Robinson, studies meet legit needs, or help move legislation forward. And sometimes they'resimply a way of kicking the can down the road.” "An incendiary letter." We're talking health care policy, so that may be an exaggeration. But it's how VTDigger's Liora Engel-Smith describes Gov. Phil Scott's letter last week explaining that while he signed a bill giving the Green Mountain Care Board money for a plan to sethospital budgets, he thinks it's over-reaching. Scott wants the board to regulate, Engel-Smith writes; the board argues that rising hospital costs require it to step into policy. Scott wants the administration to oversee the board; its outgoing chair says he doesn't have the authority to do so.From metric units to 10,000 steps, really how scientific are our measurements? Beginning with the ancient Egyptians’ invention of the cubit, a standardized length based on the distance from elbow to fingertip, our need to quantify the world has led us, inevitably, to an obsession for measuring everything from workplace performance to personal wellness. James Vincent explores in The Guardian what the modern age’s fixation on numbers means for society and individuals. Is it possible to measure too much? And ultimately, how arbitrary—and meaningless—are some of our favorite metrics anyway? The Tuesday Vordle. In case you missed it, there'll be no Daybreak this Friday or next week. But never fear! You can sign up to get a daily Vordle email while it's gone; you'll find the signup page right here. One key thing: Use the email address you already use for Daybreak or once the newsletter returns you'll be getting two of them.
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At 5:30 today, VINS hosts an online presentation, "Avian Influenza–A Virus on the Wing." VINS’ consulting veterinarian, Dr. Basil Tangredi, will talk about the biology and ecology of a virus that's already been found in crows, pelicans, and bald eagles in the US, and that has cause poultry farmers to cull millions of birds from their flocks.
This evening at 7, the Norwich Bookstore brings in Maine writers Margery Irvine and Annaliese Jakimides for an in-person reading and discussion about a new collection of some 70 essays, Breaking Bread: Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family. Both have essays in the book—which is about food, of course, but also, writes one reviewers, about how "what’s on our plates engages with what’s off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class."
We're into June, which brings an entirely new theme to this month's poetry. Here's the first:
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air -
Between the Heaves of Storm -...
I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable - and then it was
There interposed a Fly -
With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -
Between the light - and me -
And then the Windows failed - and then
I could not see to see -
— From
by Emily Dickinson.
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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