GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Hot again. Humid again. Showers and thunderstorms possible again tonight. Things look a lot like yesterday. Highs today will be higher—low 90s—with a heat index around 95. Showers and thunderstorms could arrive this evening, and the chance runs until after midnight, with damaging winds a possibility. Plus, as the weather folks write, "storms of any kind could spell trouble for areas with saturated soils in such a moist air mass." Low tonight around 70. But hang in there—things start to change tomorrow afternoon.Up close and personal with milfoil. Only it's the good kind: the native variety that belongs under the surface of Grafton Pond, in a drifting, two-minute video by Peter Bloch.Boy falls 25 feet on Mt. Ascutney; helicoptered to DHMC. The 13-year-old, who was conscious and able to talk to first responders, was with a summer camp group hiking near Little Cascade Falls when he fell off a cliff into a gorge below, the Valley News reports. He suffered a head laceration and broken clavicle; rescuers from fire departments in Ascutney, West Weathersfield, and Claremont, as well as VT Fish & Wildlife wardens requested a DHART copter to speed his trip to the hospital. Officials released no information on the boy's identity or on the camp group he was with.A look ahead at the Windsor County state Senate contests. In all, nine candidates—five Democrats, four Republicans—are running for the three Windsor County seats in the Aug. 13 primary. Two are incumbents (Alison Clarkson and Becca White), the others come from a range of backgrounds. For the VT Standard, Tom Ayres asked them all a series of questions about their priorities, the state's housing crisis, Act 250 reform, and education funding. All nine candidates responded—their answers are at the link.In Hanover, Allen Street closure draws both praise and flak. The criticism, writes Kent Friel in The Dartmouth, comes from Jack Stinson of Stinson's Village Store and Frank Pizzuti of Michael’s Audio-Visual, who both have seen a drop in business since the town closed the street to cars in June. "It’s the stupidest idea," says Stinson, of the two-month pilot project. "It benefits three businesses on the other side of the street." Sawtooth's Kieran Campion tells Friel he and other business owners have been working on the plan for a year: “I hope that having more pedestrians is a plus for everyone," he says.SPONSORED: This Friday at the Lebanon Opera House, the NH Music Festival presents an evening of "Beauties & Beasts". Led by conductor Yaniv Dinur and featuring cellist Sydney Lee, the concert includes Texu Kim's playful Blow, Fly, Pop!!, Shostakovich's haunting Cello Concerto No. 1, Ravel's magical Mother Goose Suite, and Mozart's majestic Symphony No. 29. NHMF is an engaging, immersive festival experience that presents world-class performances to venues throughout the state of New Hampshire. More 2024 season concerts here. Sponsored by the New Hampshire Music Festival. “Everything about Susan was about making it possible for other people to shine." Former Richmond Middle School Principal Susan Finer died June 22, and in the Valley News, Liz Sauchelli writes about why she was so thoroughly admired by kids, parents, teachers, and the larger school community: an advocate for teachers' creativity, a disciplinarian who believed in helping kids understand their effect on others, a schools advocate who calmed heated debates by helping people in the room "realize they all had the same goals in mind,” as one admirer puts it. Sauchelli traces her career and key moments.Firing records allege Claremont state rep harassed, intimidated prison co-workers. Still catching up from last week—when Damien Fisher, who broke the news about NH State Rep. Jon Stone's behavior as a Claremont police officer, published a new story in InDepthNH on why Stone was fired in 2021 from his job as a corrections officer at the VT state prison in Springfield. According to transcripts of a grievance hearing before the VT labor relations board, former coworkers said Stone "spreads poison around this facility like it’s candy," as one put it, with homophobic, racist, and sexist remarks.Hartford schools will pay former superintendent's full salary for a year, along with interim supt's salary. Tom DeBalsi, who stepped down at the end of June, a year before his contract was due to expire, will receive $210,214.65 plus health benefits through the end of next June, reports Christina Dolan in the VN. That's on top of the $160K his interim replacement will receive—a financial hit in a year of budget cuts that the teachers union and district administrators had raised objections to earlier this year. Dolan notes that the circumstances around DeBalsi's abrupt decision to leave remain "ambiguous."Hanover elm that survived '38 hurricane and two Dutch elm disease outbreaks due to come down. The DeWitt Elm stands at the southwest corner of the Dartmouth Green, across from the Hanover Inn, and is thought to be between 120 and 130 years old, writes Charlotte Albright for Dartmouth News. Tended by the town—which, Albright writes, has spent some $13K since 2010 to treat and protect it—it lost a large limb in June, and signs of decay have officials worried that more limbs could fall onto the busy intersection. The tree's removal is expected at the end of July or in early August.A redstart gets its start. Last week in the woods, Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast highlighted an American redstart chick getting fed (that great photo is here). This week, she writes, the chicks have fledged—with a photo taken just a few minutes before the last one hopped out of the nest. Meanwhile, field sparrows are out there in the meadows, guarding nests in the grass, and all the rain has produced an explosion of mushrooms. Also out there: deer ticks, evening primrose (and evening primrose sweat bees), deer flies, and more. Ticks "are just animals looking for their next meal, not a source of evil with a vendetta against larger animals," Pia Carman writes bigheartedly in the VT Center for Ecostudies' "Field Guide to July" as she traces tick-borne pathogens' lifecycle from host to host. Gita Yingling tackles evening primrose and the specialized pollinators that help them flourish; Spencer Hardy explains why, believe it or not, "July is an ideal time for deer fly appreciation"; plus: salamanders and Wolf’s Milk-slime!How NH coal plants' closing fits into New England's energy picture. You know the outline: Granite Shore Power has announced that the two coal plants it owns in NH will become battery-storage facilities, a solar farm, and in one case, a port for the wind turbine industry. What you might not have read about is the thinking behind those moves—it's all about "how to keep the lights on when power demand surges" if you're not going to rely on fossil fuels, writes Benjamin Storrow in Politico's E&E News. Storrow explains the challenges Granite Shore is trying to address and why it's so tough in New England.NH schools get AI tutor. The program, Khanmigo, comes from Khan Academy, the online tutoring company—and not surprisingly, writes NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt, it's being met with both support and skepticism. It can do everything from let students interact with, say, Lady Macbeth to help them with precalculus; critics worry about "hallucinations", supporters say it has better "guardrails" than, say, the publicly available versions of ChatGPT—though it's in part powered by ChatGPT. DeWitt took it for several test rides. Earlier this year, so did the WSJ, which found problems with basic math.302 miles the length of Vermont, all on dirt roads and rocky trails. As an added bonus, the gravel cycling route known as VTXL also includes 30,600 feet of climbing. Running from the Massachusetts border in the southwest to the far northeastern corner of the state, the route covers a good bit of territory in the Upper Valley, from S. Woodstock to Corinth. It was designed over six weeks in 2020 by Pownal cyclist Joe Cruz for gravel racer Ted King, writes Charlotte Oliver for UVM's Community News Service. King did it in less than 24 hours. The rest of us can expect to take four or five days. Here's a map.And speaking of going up 30,000 feet, you can do it in just four minutes. Though strictly speaking, the summit of Mt. Everest is at 29,032 feet. The other day, drone manufacturer DJI put up a remarkable high-def video of the Everest climb, following the traditional Western Cwm route from Nepal. The drone overflies the Khumbu Icefall, the Geneva Spur, the Balcony, the Hillary Step, and a whole lot of little climbers down there. It also scales the unbelievable rise climbers face after leaving Camp IV at 26,000 feet. It's a pretty unforgettable tour of why, for all the crowds, the mountain commands so much respect.Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
From 12:30 to 1:30 pm today, Dartmouth's Collis Center and music department are sponsoring a free concert (and lunch) with the father-daughter duo and their backing band—Andy Greene, Kirk Lord, and Matt Flinner. Original and traditional bluegrass. And barbecued chicken. In Collis Common Ground.
The band is a trio made up of former members of the Bluegrass Gospel Project: former BGP and Northern Lights frontman Taylor Armerding (mandolin, vocals), Andy Greene (guitar, banjo, vocals), and Kirk Lord (bass). Presented by Fairlee Arts starting at 6:30. Town Hall auditorium if it rains.
The festival began Saturday and lasts through Sunday. Tonight at 7 at the Briggs Opera House, they're screening films about Hannah Dennison's
Quarry Project
, Paula Higa's
The Migrant Body
, and Quinn Tomashow's
Drip.
And the Tuesday poem...
I taste a liquor never brewed—From Tankards scooped in Pearl—Not all the Vats upon the RhineYield such an Alcohol!Inebriate of Air—am I—And Debauchee of Dew—Reeling—through endless summer days—From inns of Molten Blue—When “Landlords” turn the drunken BeeOut of the Foxglove’s door—When Butterflies—renounce their “drams”—I shall but drink the more!Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats—And Saints—to windows run—To see the little TipplerLeaning against the—Sun—
"I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson (first published, in slightly different form, by the
Springfield Daily Republican
in 1861).
Oh, and by the way: That Vivaldi guy sure knew his way around a New England summer. That Daybreak guy? He needs some musical history remediation.
—part of Vivaldi's
Concerto no. 2 g minor—is, of course, from the "Summer" part of The Four Seasons, not "Autumn". Yeesh. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.
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.
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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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