GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
No Daybreak tomorrow. I'll be spending the day at a memorial gathering. Back as usual Thursday morning.Well, here we go... Showers, maybe a thunderstorm. The threat of severe storms is quite low, but still, we face a likelihood of showers through the morning and then a chance the rest of today and tonight, with slight chances of thunder throughout the day. Highs today in the mid 70s, lows mid 60s, calm winds unless there's a thunderstorm.Time for dinner now, let's go eat. Actually, these chicks aren't going anywhere, but they've sure got a way of showing that it's time. for. food. now! From Jeanne Fabrikant in Thetford Center.For ShackletonThomas, first water, then fire. A year after flooding forced the high end Bridgewater furniture maker to shut down for weeks, an electrical fire broke out last Friday on the manufacturer's third floor. This time, reports John Lippman, a quick response by Bridgewater and Woodstock firefighters—as well as a new sprinkler system—kept damage to a minimum, though firefighters “encountered heavy black smoke with zero visibility” when they arrived. Shop manager Jeff Shepard tells Lippman they hope to have production back up and running in two weeks. "It's Groundhog Day," he added.SPONSORED: Art connects, innovates and awakens. The Hop has announced its 24/25 season, celebrating the power of art. Highlights include resident artists igniting dynamic exchanges in the community; innovative works that deepen our connection to the natural world and inspire ecological awareness; and a journey through centuries of Western music. Tickets are on sale today at noon. Get a preview at the free season launch party on Thursday, July 25 at 4 pm on Allen Street in Hanover. Learn more here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.A restaurateur and "unfiltered version of Dear Abby" who made herself available to anyone in need. Mary Koloski, who with her son, Nick, owned Time-Out Americana Grill in Claremont, died after a respiratory illness back in October. Yesterday in the VN, Patrick Adrian wrote that Koloski had a reputation for "putting others’ needs ahead of her own"—a small symbol of which is the food pantry in the entryway of Time Out. She pulled out of nursing school so she could care for her grandfather, hosted free community dinners for two decades, and, says a friend, was "friendly and sweet" but wasn't afraid "to speak her mind if she felt you needed to hear something."Sure, nectar if it's available. But northern pearly-eye butterflies are happy with animal scat, rotting fruit, and sap, too. And they're out there in the woods right now, writes Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast, with their rippling lines and black spots. So are great blue heron chicks, which may still be in the nest (they take their time growing up), but are probably getting anxious to leave right about now. Elise includes a link to this gallery of fledglings practicing landings. And in the pantheon of odd forest growths, surely chocolate tube slime mold deserves a place of honor.Do the math: a single deer can eat 4,000 tree seedling tips per day, a "preferred" density of 12-18 deer per square mile... No wonder, Li Shen writes in Sidenote, that forest diversity has nosedived. The canopy? Still a rich mix of trees. The understory? Almost all beech, which deer don't like. Oh, also, they don't like invasive plants like barberry, buckthorn, honeysuckle, goutweed, or garlic mustard. You get where this is going: the knock-on effects on ecosystem health of deer overpopulation have been massive, from plummeting wildflower species to declining bird populations and endangered forests.The quirks of checking the weather atop Mt. Washington in winter. Well, there are the winds that, every few days, reach over 100 mph. There are the 14 inches of ice accumulation per hour during bad storms—hence the de-icing mallet that weather observers carry with them when they venture outside. A wintertime job commute by snowcat. Plus, in every season, eight-day shifts and a cat named Nimbus. But then, if you're the night observer, "It’s essentially your summit up here,” says the weather observatory's director. In the Globe (sorry, paywall), Amanda Gokee looks at what goes with the job.Ideas for day trips in NH. There's Ellacoya State Park in Gilford, for instance, and Vulgar Brewing Company in Franklin (or Kettlehead Brewing in Franklin and Tilton). Or maybe the Nova Arts Block down in Keene—or a Keene SwampBats game. NHPR staff have rounded up a suite of ideas for trips to the Lakes Region, Keene, and the Seacoast (Hampton Beach, Star Island, the Black Heritage Trail, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles historical marker...). No Upper Valley (or North Country, Concord, or Manchester), but hey, you'll find no shortage of diverting Granite State destinations to consider.“I can’t pay salaries on ‘I promise.'" A year after NH legislators put $15 million in the budget for childcare, providers are still waiting. So on Friday, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, 286 providers, directors, and community members sent off a letter to Gov. Chris Sununu and the Exec Council. A DHHS spokesperson said grants are expected to go out this week. But some teachers, tired of waiting for bonuses or raises, have left; providers who invested in facility upgrades still haven't been reimbursed, and the consulting firm charged with distributing that money has gone silent."It used to be it was easy to love thunderstorms in Vermont because nothing bad ever happened here." Those days are over, Erica Heilman says on Rumble Strip. She's been reporting for VT Public on the recent flooding in Plainfield and turns the mic over to Allison, who tells her, "The home I was in was there for 74 years without being hurt. So I never expected the whole house to be taken away into the river and destroyed. Everything. Everything that I owned." The water, she says, burst in the door "and was pouring in...in huge spurts.... I finally said the Lord's Prayer. I knew I didn't have much time at all."It’s what’s outside that counts. Over at Rolling Stone, Gavin Edwards has pulled together a scathing list of the 50 worst album covers: “the monstrosities, the design disasters, the images that you can’t unsee no matter how hard you try.” No musician is spared: Michael Jackson’s HIStory (music’s fine, says Edwards) and the Village People’s Renaissance (music is so not fine). Just a sampling: The art for Ozzy Osbourne’s Down to Earth “presumably was meant to be terrifying but just looked like Ozzy was getting prepped for gall bladder surgery.” And Bob Dylan’s Saved? “You may have seen better art on religious tracts handed out by missionaries at the bus station.”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!
The Upper Valley Music Center's cello instructor—and an active chamber music performer—will perform solo cello works that include Bach's
3rd Solo Suite in C Major
,
Serenata del Gaucho
by Ennio Bolognini, and
Seven
by Andrea Cassarrubios. At the Kilton Library in West Leb.
Hosted by Dartmouth's Dickey and Rockefeller centers, Pyle—who was also chief economic advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris—will hold a "fireside chat" with economics prof Nina Pavcnik. At the Haldeman Center as well as livestreamed.
And a quick rundown for tomorrow:
The singer, songwriter, and all-around performer will be at the John Hay Estate at the Fells tomorrow, 6-8 pm. Bring your own picnic.
The poet, essayist, and activist is the author of
Gumbo Ya Ya,
was the 2022 Georgia Author of the Year in poetry, and received the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for bisexual poetry. Tomorrow at 5:30 pm in Dartmouth Hall 105.
Though not many. 7 pm at Blow-Me-Down Farm in Cornish.
Bennett, author of the graphic novel series
The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby
and the illustrator, translator, and editor of
The Most Costly Journey,
will give a demonstration of how "collaborative cartooning" helps "deepen our connections in our communities." 7 pm in the Draper Room in the Center at Eastman.
Josh and Rebecca Tickell’s 2023 documentary looks at regenerative agriculture through the eyes of a series of celebrities and farmers. Streams online starting just past midnight tomorrow morning.
And the Tuesday poem.
Though strictly speaking, it's more of a "found" poem...
Part of the afternoon had waned, but much of it was left, and what was left was of the finest and rarest quality. Real dusk would not arrive for many hours; but the flood of summer light had begun to ebb, the air had grown mellow, the shadows were long upon the smooth, dense turf. They lengthened slowly, however, and the scene expressed that sense of leisure still to come which is perhaps the chief source of one’s enjoyment of such a scene at such an hour. From five o’clock to eight is on certain occasions a little eternity; but on such an occasion as this the interval could be only an eternity of pleasure.
— From the first paragraph of
by Henry James.
See you Thursday.
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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