A TREAT TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Cooler, more clouds... but still unusually warm for March. Highs getting up toward 60, slight chance of showers late this afternoon and a likelihood overnight as a system passing to our northwest sends moisture our way. Down into the lower 40s tonight. The steady drip of change.
Or at least of sap. Quechee photographer Lisa Lacasse caught this the other day. "I wish the spigot was stamped made in Vermont," she writes, "but it's made in Canada... but the maple sap is pure Vermont!"
Meanwhile, Etna photographer Jim Block measures the passage of the seasons with photos of the setting sun, one over Okemo in December, the other over Pico in March.... Plus bird life: raven, nutchatch, turkey, leftover redpolls, and more.
Everyone Eats expands to Claremont. Starting tomorrow, the Vermont-based pandemic program to feed people in need of food will cross the river. Under the program, the Hitchin’ Post, Sunshine Cookshop, and The Common Man will each prepare 65 meals a week for 10 weeks for the Claremont Soup Kitchen. The effort, administered locally by Vital Communities, was able to expand thanks to a grant from the NH Charitable Foundation. NH Supreme Court punts on school funding ruling. The court yesterday affirmed Superior Court Judge David Ruoff's 2019 decision denying the state's move to dismiss a case brought by ConVal and three other districts—and supported by Mascoma, Haverhill, Claremont, and other districts around the state—but then sent it back to Ruoff for a full trial. That, writes the Valley News's Tim Camerato, puts the districts' argument that the state is failing to fund an "adequate education" in limbo. "They kicked the can down the road," says Timothy Josephson, vice chair of the Mascoma school board.Bradford VT man sustains life-threatening injuries in golf-cart mishap. Late yesterday afternoon, VT State Police report, they responded to "a single golf cart crash" on Goshen Road in Bradford. "Preliminary investigation revealed that the operator was traveling south on Goshen Road while in reverse," the police press release says, before the cart overturned and 48-year-old Kevin Hill was ejected. He was flown to DHMC by helicopter.Need to teach people how to identify a phishing scam? Turn it into a game. At least, that's the approach Dartmouth's taking, thanks to its IT division and students in the DALI tech lab. Every day, writes Aimee Minbiole for Dartmouth News, the college's system gets hit with about 10,000 scam emails. Most are caught by filters, but not all. Hence a tournament, which starts Monday, that includes quizzes, fake phishing emails...and lots of prizes. It's open to students and college employees. Maybe they could teach the rest of us what they learn?Forget Joe's Pond. The Upper Valley's got George. Sheesh. I was ignorant. Probably VT's most famous ice-out contest is up in W. Danville, where a cement block hooked to a clock determines the moment the ice melts. But for more than 50 years, Barnard has hosted George, a dummy tied to a high chair on Silver Lake, watched over and stored for most of the year by the Barnard General Store. $5 gets you a guess on the date and time George and the chair go through the ice—with proceeds split between the winner and Barnard Helping Hands. Co-owner Jillian Minerva's guessing April 14. (Thanks, BW!)NH Supreme Court takes up case of woman held for 17 days against her will in DHMC emergency room. The woman, known only as "Jane Doe," was eventually transferred to NH Hospital for mental health care, well outside what she and her lawyer, Gary Apfel, contend was the legal three-day window for her to get a hearing contesting her confinement. The case, points out NHPR's Todd Bookman, highlights the now-common practice of "emergency room boarding" in New Hampshire, as people in mental health crisis are forced to wait for beds to open up at psychiatric hospitals.Pittsfield NH shows how a recount is done; new dump truck loses again. On town meeting day, the voting machines had shown the article funding a new truck failing by one vote, 345-344. That triggered a hand recount—just to be sure, the selectboard said. So 10 people gathered in town hall—three recounters and assorted onlookers—and, writes Monitor columnist Ray Duckler, proved that "votes could, quite possibly, be recounted with warmth and a common goal and a procedure, not hostility and divisive chaos." Vaccine registration for 60+ opens tomorrow in VT; in April, Vermonters may be able to choose their vaccine. The state is seeing rising allocations from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, on top of its scheduled shipments, Gov. Phil Scott said at yesterday's regular pandemic press conference. In the meantime, the vaccination program seems to be helping older Vermonters, though case rates are rising somewhat among younger people. And health commissioner Mark Levine noted that just 25 out of 180,000 who've gotten at least one dose have contracted Covid, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko.VT broadband bill moves forward. “This can be our rural electrification projects for broadband; this can be a historic step forward for our state,” said Thetford Rep. Tim Briglin as the state House yesterday overwhelmingly approved a measure to provide $150 million to the state's communications union districts to expand broadband access. The bill, which gets a final House vote today before moving to the Senate, would also create a statewide authority to oversee the spending and broadband expansion as a whole.Vermont is so much more interesting than "foliage, skiing, and Ben & Jerry's." For over a decade, Erica Houskeeper has been writing—and, more recently, podcasting— about places, people, and things to do in VT that are off the usual tourist itineraries. On her travel blog, Happy Vermont, the former journalist and tourism marketer tackles subjects like the return of the Blue Benn Diner in Bennington, hiking in March, and Lake Champlain's Red Hot Chili Dippers. Seven Days' Dan Bolles profiles Houskeeper and how her blog has evolved, and gets suggestions for things to do now that mud season's here.And speaking of things to do—and eat... Seven Days food writer Melissa Pasanen also has some suggestions. They'll take something of a drive, but how else are you going to see the troll-in-a-tree at Shelburne's LaPlatte Nature Park (if you can find it) or snag fudge from the Shelburne Country Store? Or check out the granite quarries and intriguing carvings along Barre's Millstone Trails network—and then hit Rickie's Indian Restaurant in the Citgo in South Barre? We've got gas station Chinese. They've got gas station Indian. You suppose there's good gas station Vietnamese somewhere in the twin states?
But how do you fold everything so it fits in those little boxes? Just a joke. But you know the tiny free libraries you see around? Inspired by the idea, Caley Mehs, who lives in Fife Lake, MI, has created a "Love Locker" filled with donated clothing outside the library in town. She started with coats, boots, hats, and other winter clothing, and will shift over to warm-weather wear when the time's right. A local carpenter donated his time for the first 4' X 2' locker (which, yes, is bigger than a tiny library). And no, you can't just drop off a bag. "We’re trying to keep it looking nice and simple because it’s at the library," Mehs says.
Roads are drying out, cyclists are back... You know that (hopefully rare) adrenaline-filled feeling when you're riding along and suddenly a dog takes out after you? So imagine you're tooling down a road and look back and see... an ostrich. Those things can run! This is from South Africa in 2016, but once you see it, it sticks with you.
And the numbers.
Dartmouth is at 9 active cases among students(down 1) and none among faculty/staff. There are 5 students and 2 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 9 students and 7 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
Colby-Sawyer is down to 32 active cases among students, none among faculty or staff. In all, 32 people are in isolation, 82 in quarantine.
NH reported 386 new cases yesterday, for a cumulative total of 81,132. There was 1 new death; they now stand at 1,218. Meanwhile, 64 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 8), and the current active caseload stands at 2,476 (up 142). The state reports 106 active cases in Grafton County (up 9), 31 in Sullivan (down 4), and 204 in Merrimack (up 9). In town-by-town numbers, the state says New London has 19 active cases (down 4), Hanover has 14 (up 5), Claremont has 9 (no change), Sunapee has 6 (down 1), and Lebanon has 6 (up 1). Haverhill, Rumney, Orford, Lyme, Canaan, Enfield, Plainfield, Grantham, Springfield, Grafton, Cornish, Croydon, Wilmot, Charlestown, Newport, Newbury, and Unity have 1-4 each.
VT reported 89 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 17,933. It reported 1 new death, bringing the total to 220. Meanwhile, 27 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 2). Windsor County gained 1 case and stands at 1,135 for the pandemic, with 58 over the past 14 days, while Orange County also added 1 new case and is at 538 cumulatively, with 12 cases in the past 14 days.
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At 6 pm, the Green Mountain Club presents "Backpacking 101," an online class on the basics, from from gear selection and trip planning to first aid and nutrition. $8 goes to support the Long Trail.
At 6:30, the Hartland Library hosts teacher and writer Phil Holland talking about "The Black Presence at the Battle of Bennington." He'll focus in part on Sipp Ives, who was Black and one of the 130 Green Mountain Boys who fought at the battle, and on the historical detective work that went into tracing his presence and fate. Link takes you to the library calendar, where you'll need to click on the event for more details.
At 7 this evening, the Hanover Historical Society hosts two local women talking over personal history via Zoom: Grace Hope Hill on bringing classes for women in movement, fitness, and dance to the Upper Valley in the late 1960s; and former state Sen. Martha Hennessey talking about her mother, Jean Lande Hennessey, who helped to develop Hanover's green belt as a member of the planning commission in the late '50s and early '60s, then went on to become the first director of the NH Charitable Foundation, Gov. Hugh Gallen's budget director, and then the first director of Dartmouth's Institute on Canada and the US.
There are dozens of versions of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Waters of March," but
. A fixture on the Manhattan cabaret scene, McCorkle—who died in 2001—recorded it in 1993 in both Portuguese and English (with her own translation, more idiomatic than Jobim's original English version). It was one of her favorite songs—she often used it as an encore—and in 2001 several hundred Brazilian journalists, musicians, and other artists agreed, declaring it Brazil's "all-time best."
And the riverbank talksOf the waters of MarchIt's the promise of lifeIt's the joy in your heart
See you tomorrow.
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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