GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Foggy, then cloudy, then sunny, then cloudy. Yesterday's and today's high pressure will slide off as a warm front moves into the region late in the day. Highs getting up around 70 or higher. Showers probably won't reach us until tonight or tomorrow. And just in case you're planning on climbing one of the Greens today: Wind gusts could get strong late in the day (same deal for the Whites late at night).Woodstock has a new municipal manager. Frank Heald, who spent 15 years as town manager in Ludlow, has taken over as interim manager after the death of Phi Swanson in July. Heald, who managed Pico Mountain Ski Area before taking on his Ludlow job, was known in the town for his volunteerism and community spirit, and the municipal auditorium was named for him back in May. (VN)Speaking of Woodstock, did you know the Inn has a "tomato whisperer"? Ben Pauly, the former concierge, for the last few years has been running a vegetable garden that supplies the inn's restaurants. Kelly Way Gardens grows all sorts of vegetables and has a gourd tunnel, but Pauly has made tomatoes his calling card: 55 varieties every year. As for the "tomato whisperer" label, he tells WCAX, "I didn't give myself that name but it probably sounds a little better than 'the guy who walks around the garden and talks to himself.'"Hanover Conservancy will dedicate stone seating area in Mink Brook Preserve to Bob Norman. Norman, a former Dartmouth math prof who's in his 90s now, was one of the organization's founders in 1961 — a year before Silent Spring kicked off the environmental movement in this country. “He was completely ahead of the curve," Conservancy director Adair Mulligan tells the VN. “He understood it was not only about protecting the land, but it was about helping people understand how important it was to do that." (VN)"Science can tell us so much about the body and the brain, but not what it's like to be a person." That's Katie Runde, Bethel/WRJ painter, musician, and sometimes preacher, who's the subject of VPR's latest "Young at Art" profile. She plays sax with a local band in Bethel, supports herself through her paintings, and — it's possible you've seen her on the street with this — recently finished a 16-foot-span set of wings for a project on Icarus. Want to run a newspaper? Vermont Woman is for sale. The paper, based in South Hero, got going in 1985. It doesn't circulate much down here, but has a definite presence north and west of us. Now Sue Gillis, who founded it and has run virtually every aspect of it over the years, is letting go. "This is a time when women’s opinions, point of view and public engagement...are more important than ever," she writes. "A newspaper and website that connects women and business and policy decision makers is a powerful tool in the media mix."Proposed change would cost thousands in VT, NH their SNAP benefits. Right now, states can raise eligibility limits for SNAP (that's food stamps) from what the feds allow so that low-income working families can still put food on the table. The USDA has proposed eliminating that ability. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation estimates that 1.9 million households nationally, or 9 percent, would lose their benefits. In VT, that's about 6,000 households (14 percent of current recipients); in NH, 3,500 (8 percent). Interactive map at link. (Thanks, NS!)This seems a good moment for a pic of VT at its late-summer finest. The sky, the hills, the mist, the dog.... Just ignore the goldenrod. Monarchs are back in a big way — at least for this year. The Concord Monitor's David Brooks writes that this has been an unusually good year in the region for monarch butterflies and migratory species in general. The cold, wet spring then hot summer seems to have kept monarchs around to lay their eggs and produce caterpillars, rather than sending them north to Canada. Unclear whether it'll last, though. "[A] few bad weather events and the population could be down again," the Caterpillar Lab's Sam Jaffee tells Brooks.It's "Drive Electric Week" next week, and plug-in electric vehicles will be all over Vermont. There'll be a bunch of events where electric-car (and bike, and bus) owners will show off what's possible. They kick off Saturday at Dothan Brook School, where you'll be able to check out and test drive a Chevy Bolt, a Jaguar I-Pace, a Tesla 3 (man, no S?), and others. If you miss that, Bethel's show will be the following Saturday.The best Israeli restaurant in the US is in Brattleboro. That's Haaretz, no less, Israel's longest-running newspaper, talking about Yalla Vermont, the blink-and-you-miss-it year-old falafel/shakshuka/hummus joint on Main Street. It's run by Zohar Arama, who took a break from selling hiking equipment in Israel to hike the AT, met his future wife there, and after some time back in Israel wound up in Vermont in 2012. Eventually, he started making hummus to sell at farmers markets. “My mother is Yemenite and my father is Greek, so from a young age I grew up with a passion for food, in a house with pots that were always full,” he says."The true heir to Guy Waterman." That's from a profile in Backpacker of Gilmanton, NH's JR Stockwell, a 58-year-old carpenter who leaves no trace of himself online in an age when the slightest little ramble gets plastered all over the web. He hasn't just climbed, he's bushwacked all of the 48 4000-footers in every season. "It’s not hyperbole to say he knows the forested, 800,000-acre range like other people know their backyard," writes Bill Donahue. "Once, when a fellow bushwhacker ran into him and reported that she’d just seen a moose carcass, JR already knew precisely where it lay rotting."If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
IT'S A GOOD NIGHT TO GO OUT AND LEARN STUFF
Both savory and sweet, with natural and commercial pectins. You'll get some samples to take home, as well. From 6 to 8:30.
Early this year, the state geological survey launched an online tool, the “New Hampshire Stone Wall Mapper," that essentially crowdsources a map of the state's many miles of old stone walls. Stephen Alden, president of Lyme Historians, will be down in Newport talking about the project and how to get involved. Starts at 6:30 at the Richards Library.
Liz Tentarelli, president of the NH League of Women Voters, will be in Grantham talking about what it took for women to get the vote in this country, from the 1848 women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY, to the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. At town hall starting at 7 pm.
Have a fine day out there. See you tomorrow.
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! You can subscribe at:
Thank you!