Daybreak Wednesday, 10/22/25

Showers, maybe some thunder. For various reasons (no “deep, anomalous moisture plume,” a shorter low-pressure visit) today’s rain won’t be as steady or plentiful as Monday’s, but even so, we’ll see showers this morning, tapering off by mid-afternoon, with a slight chance of a thunderstorm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy until later this afternoon, highs in the upper 50s, lows upper 30s.

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Birds, Foliage, and Birds in Foliage. That’s how Etna photographer Jim Block titles his latest blog post, and it’s truth in advertising. As he writes, “Earlier in the season the birds were plentiful but hard to see in the lush green leaves. Soon the trees will be bare and the birds will be easier to see, but there will be many fewer of them. This transitional season provides a unique opportunity to see and photograph birds in colorful foliage…” More varieties of birds than you can possibly imagine, plus full moons, sunrises and sunsets, breathtaking foggy landscapes… and, oh right, foliage.

A stretch of the Appalachian Trail near Mt. Cube gets a buffer. That’s thanks to the purchase Oct. 6 of some 2,000 acres in Orford by the Northeast Wilderness Trust, which has now created the Spruce Ridge Wilderness Preserve—and halted all logging on the land. As Amanda Gokee writes in the Globe’s NH newsletter (no paywall), the trust—which thanks to its purchase now owns more than 100,000 acres around New England and NY—aims to lay the groundwork for eventual old-growth forests. “We want to ensure that these landscapes have the time to heal and grow old,” says the Montpelier-based trust’s president, Jon Leibowitz. Map and more details here.

How two Advance Transit users made it most of the way around Vermont by public transit in a day—for just $2. Ironically, they didn’t actually take AT, but that wasn’t the goal, Leb’s Kellen Appleton tells Shaun Robinson in VTDigger. Instead, she and her housemate wanted to “kind of push the public transit system to its limits” by seeing how far they could travel, just by bus (and no Greyhounds, either). Their route: Williamstown, MA to Bennington to Manchester, Rutland, Middlebury, Burlington, Montpelier, and, finally, St. Johnsbury. The trip worked, Appleton says, but also underscored the “fragile” nature of some transit connections.

SPONSORED: Two nights of classic silent films with live music! It'll be fun for the whole family: Catch Nosferatu tomorrow at Rollins Chapel (burgundy link: showtime 8:30pm), or The Red Balloon (7:00pm) and The Phantom of the Opera (7:45pm) in a double feature on Friday down the street at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College. Both venues are right by the Dartmouth Green, and both nights feature live music improvised in real time by legendary Boston-based conductor and organist Peter Krasinski, professionally projected on a huge screen. No tickets required, and it's FREE! Sponsored by CCDC.

A riveting novel filled with “teetering characters who never level with the reader.” Katie Kitamura’s new novel, Audition, packs a lot of punch in a small package, writes Kate Oden in this week’s Enthusiasms. In some ways, the novel’s about how little we can actually know about one another—”Who's telling the truth, the first-person voice or her supporting characters?” Kate writes about the narrator, an actress who goes unnamed throughout the book. But, she adds, “Without giving too much away, I can repeat with more emphasis that this novel is a convincing portrayal of psychosis,” even if it’s never explicit. “For me, this is a mystery novel.”

Strafford’s not alone: Towns all over VT are trying to figure out how to balance safety and openness. You probably remember that back in August, the Strafford town offices were locked and appointments required after a town resident was busted for violating a protective order after sending hundreds of harassing emails. “This place was an open door—anybody could walk in, even just to say ‘Hi,’” laments selectboard chair Toni Pippy to VT Public’s Howard Weiss-Tisman. But last year for the first time, the secy of state’s office brought in an expert to teach town clerks how to handle someone threatening violence, and Weiss-Tisman talks to a variety of local officials about offering access while being aware, as one puts it, that “things may escalate.”

SPONSORED: Gather Fall’s Bounty Before It’s Gone! Honey Field Farm invites you to gather the season’s goodness through their annual Stockpile Sale, open online through Oct 26. Shoppers can fill their winter pantries with certified organic produce and hearty fall staples at great bulk prices. Then, on Nov 8, the farm hosts its lively Pop-Up Market in Norwich, featuring local produce, ethical meats, and seasonal delights from 30+ farms and artisans. Enjoy Vermont’s harvest while supporting local — stock up, save big, and celebrate the season! Sponsored by Honey Field Farm.

There’s finally at least an inch of snow atop Mt. Washington. Seems like it’s early, given that it’s still October, but nah—the mountain’s way behind. Here’s what the Mount Washington Observatory posted on FB yesterday: “After a soaking rain yesterday, the first one-inch snow event of the season occurred last night with 1.2" measured this morning. This brings the monthly snowfall total to 1.6", which is well below the October average of 19"!” But hey, it’s a start!

The biggest set of trauma injuries seen by rural hospitals like NH’s? Not crashes, but falls. And not dramatic falls by hikers, either, but falls from standing height, writes David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog: “They trip over a loose rug, slip in the shower, miss the first step on the stairs, roll out of bed or stumble on nothing in particular.” In all, Concord Hospital emergency room doc Steve DeWitt tells him, 40 percent of traumas seen in that system, which also includes Franklin and Laconia, are due to “falls from standing.” This is especially true as the state ages—which complicates diagnosis: “There are a a lot of subtleties that can be missed,” DeWitt says.

One VT math teacher’s voyage from helping kids learn multiplication facts to… helping more than a million kids learn multiplication facts. And division, too. Mike Kenny was a fifth grade teacher at the Thomas Fleming School in Essex Junction when he developed a set of slides connecting a basic multiplication fact with a helpful visual—and, writes Seven Days’ Alison Novak—”began to see rapid results.” Three years ago, he launched an app version, which has spread rapidly worldwide. Last year, the company he created for it brought in just under $1 million, and is on track to do much better this year. Kenny’s now got a team of developers—and a new full-time gig.

In latest who’s-an-Abenaki salvo, Abenaki leaders in Québec say they’ve proved VT and NH tribe leaders have almost no Abenaki ancestry. The contention is included in a 730-page report that members of Canada’s Odanak First Nation posted on Friday, writes Sasha Goldstein in Seven Days. The report is based on a study of thousands of documents dating back to the 1600s by a University of Ottawa political scientist, and is part of an increasingly bitter conflict as Odanak leaders press Vermont to re-examine its recognition of four Abenaki bands in 2011 and 2012. Not surprisingly, Vermont Abenaki leaders reject the findings.

In Randolph, “a civilized, safe place where love is evident.” That’s how radio producer Erica Heilman describes Joslyn House, which she profiled a few years back and has just reprised. “People often assume the Joslyn House is a nursing home, probably because a lot of old people live there,” she says. “But it’s not a nursing home. It’s not assisted living…It’s not licensed by the state. It’s a house. It’s a place where up to 20 older people live independently together…in a huge, elegant house furnished with their own things. It is a place where you don’t have to worry about cooking, where if you’re lonely at night there‘s someone to talk to, or sit with.”

Favorite recipes, written in stone. You know those people who refuse to share their prized recipe? Have patience. They (or their families) may well be more generous of spirit when they’ve gone to the great kitchen in the sky. Or so Rosie Grant found when she started researching unusual gravestones, writes Michele Herrmann in Smithsonian. Grant’s out with a new book, To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes. Cookies are especially popular, but bread, fried tomatoes, and meatloaf also appear on headstones, ensuring that the recipe will live on even when the cook is gone. 

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HEADS UP
Alan Berolzheimer at the Royalton Memorial Library on “River Memories: Exploring Settlement Patterns on Waterways in Vermont”. In this VT Humanities talk, Berolzheimer, the longtime director of the VT Historical Society’s book publishing program, will look at how the history of settlement patterns in Vermont has contributed to the problem of flooding in the state. It’s still a live issue in Royalton, which at town meeting in March defeated a proposal to restrict development on flood-prone properties. 6 pm.

Story JAM at Dartmouth’s Literary Arts Bridge. JAM’s monthly true-story-telling gathering shifts to Hanover this evening at 6 pm. As the organizers write, “All members of the Upper Valley community are invited to join the circle and share an unrehearsed 5-minute true story from their own life. No competition, no judgment, no lecturing, no ranting… Just share a story about something that happened to you and listen to other people’s stories.” The theme: Being Brave.

At the Howe Library, “Dia de los Muertos: Frida Kahlo in Mexican and World Culture” with Jorge Quintana Navarrete. The Dartmouth Spanish prof, who specializes in Mexican culture, will offer “an overview of Kahlo’s life and artistic legacy, emphasizing the elements of her work that continue to engage and inspire in today’s complex global context.” 6:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.

Tim Lewis at the Center at Eastman on the history of the Mt. Washington Cog Railway. Lewis is the son of engineer Norman “Jitney” Lewis, and back in 1962 the two of them began identifying the railway’s 3,150 former employees and collecting their stories. Lewis’s talk “goes beyond the well known milestones to highlight the everyday people who kept the railway alive.  Blending history, memoir, and community memory, Lewis shares rare photographs, personal insights and the stories of local men and women who made the Cog a living legend.” 7 pm in the Draper Room.

And for today...

Back on Oct. 9, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado hosted the great New Orleans-based rockers The Revivalists. Opening for them? None other than Norwich-raised, New Orleans-based singer-songwriter and rising rocker Hans Williams, who’s been touring with them. Here’s his half-hour set that night.

And heck, while we’re there, here are The Revivalists as they opened their set, with “Wish I Knew You”.

See you tomorrow.

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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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