GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY
Got a moment? See that maroon "Yes, I count on Daybreak" button down below? It's simple: Daybreak exists only because you keep it going. If you find your day or week doesn't feel complete without the photos or the Vordle or the news or the news quiz or the stuff to talk about with your friends and family and colleagues, and you'd like to see Daybreak persevere and grow, hit the burgundy link at the start of this item or the button below and check out the options. You've got time: The rest of today's Daybreak will wait patiently.Okay! Now, about today's weather... As you've probably heard, we're facing a Nor'easter that's due to last into tomorrow night and wind up Friday morning. The models have been all over the place on this, but at the moment, it looks like rain, snow, and maybe sleet could start up this morning and certainly by mid or late afternoon, with wind gusts building throughout the day. Temps will be a factor—we're due highs in the upper 30s—in what the mix will look like where you are. It turns to all snow tonight, and whatever snow falls will likely be wet; coupled with the winds, there could be power outages. If you happen to be in the mountains, things could get intense up there tonight.And what does all this add up to? The predictions are for total accumulations of 3 inches to two feet for the storm, with the low end to the south and in the valleys, and the high end along the spine of the Greens and in the Whites. With the snow and high winds, mountain passes tonight will be tough going. Here's what to expect overall:
You'll also want to keep an eye on the roads. Here's New England 511. And here's VT's plow finder.
And you might also want to spare a thought for the wood frogs. Yep, they were out chorusing early: On Monday, at least by Kendal in Hanover, where Jed Williamson got the goods.Bethel fire chief steps down, town in a tangle over firefighter's Facebook post. The tension began last month, reports John Lippman in the Valley News, after firefighter Thomas Gauthier's post disparaging the VT state trooper who was badly injured after hitting a fire truck March 8—and with whom he'd had a run-in in 2018. Fire Chief Dave Aldrighetti moved to dismiss Gauthier from the department, but was told by town officials that the post wasn't grounds for dismissal. “I’m too old school … it’s time for me to walk away,” Aldrighetti told a gathering Monday. Public support for him is building, Lippman reports.DH hospitals launch community needs survey. Every three years, Dartmouth Health members and partners conduct a community health needs assessment—a 10-minute survey that asks locals about their health priorities for the region. Last time around, over 1,800 people in the areas served by DHMC and APD took it, and the results spurred the two providers to continue focusing on substance misuse prevention, housing, and healthcare access. The new version just went live, and you can tell them what you think your community needs at the burgundy link (in English) or here (in Spanish).SPONSORED: The VINS Owl Festival is just around the corner! Visit the VINS Nature Center for our annual Owl Festival on Saturday, April 13 for a day of all things owly! Meet live owls that range from Vermont’s forests to habitats all over the world and discover their life stories. Join in a craft inspired by owls, and play games to test your own owl skills. Learn all about the amazing world of owls and how you can help the ones in your backyard. Sponsored by VINS."Nobody gets passionate about a screwdriver or a wrench or a couch or a lamp the way they get passionate about a book." When Arielle Feuerstein, a student in Sophie Crane's podcasting class at Dartmouth, decided to check out Cover to COVER Books in WRJ in search of something to read, what may have surprised her most was the rest of the COVER Store. It's all aimed at helping make COVER's affordable housing efforts possible, store manager Jamie Loura tells Arielle in her audio profile. But the bookstore, she adds, is accomplishing something else, too: helping to bring together the region's diverse community.The "slow wicked laughter of gulls." In her new retelling of the myth of Persephone—you know the one: abducted by Hades, six months of winter, six of sun—Rachel Lyon "creates a world of lush, poetic prose that feels at once modern and mythical," writes Left Bank Books' Rena Mosteirin in this week's Enthusiasms. Lyon's novel, Fruit of the Dead, sets the story in New England, and particularly on the private island of a rich, hedonistic stand-in for Hades. The issues are complex—power, drugs, the tug between mother and daughter—but Lyon "has crafted something new and wonderful," Rena writes.SPONSORED: Want to make a difference in your community? The Upper Valley nonprofit Vital Communities seeks new board members who share our commitment to a vibrant, healthy, and inclusive region. We seek to broaden the perspectives, backgrounds, and municipalities our board represents. Finance experience is a plus! Help shape the priorities for our work in housing, energy, transportation, food access and farms, early childhood education, economy, and civic engagement. Learn more and apply at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Vital Communities.It might not look like it out there today, but we're at a "seasonal tipping point." So writes Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast, and this first week of April there's been plenty of proof out in the woods: blunt-lobed hepatica already blooming amidst the leaves, along with the first spring beauty of the season. But, Elise writes, "nothing says spring like a predacious diving beetle larva trundling across the melting snow in search of mud in which to pupate." Couldn't have said it better myself. And boy, check out how they eat!And whatever it's doing outside right now... in the greenhouses it's spring. As caught by VN photographer Jennifer Hauck with a very cool shot of Chris Clemson, owner of Frost Gardens in Ely, VT, watering a whole hanging garden.In response to NH Hospital shooting, state moves on arming security guards. Bradley Haas, the security officer at the state psychiatric hospital who was fatally shot last November, was unarmed—per hospital policy, writes Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin. The concern, as she writes, is that "a firearm in a volatile situation could exacerbate, not mitigate, safety risks to patients, visitors, and staff." Now, though, the state is looking for a private security company to provide armed officers. Guards would not be allowed to carry firearms in patient units. Timmins explores the issues.And speaking of security guards: Burlington will help pay for them at Decker Towers. You probably remember the conditions—open drug use, non-residents sheltering from the cold in stairways—facing residents of the city's public housing high-rise for the elderly and disabled. For months there's been a tug of war between the city and the housing authority, but as one of his last acts, former mayor Miro Weinberger and the housing authority agreed to split the cost of security guards, reports Seven Days' Derek Brouwer. "This will help, at least," says the authority's executive director."We evolved to find little red berries." There was a time, writes Rachel Mullis in Seven Days, when yards were for grass, vegetable gardens had their own spot, and berries were off in a sunny corner somewhere. Now, there's foodscaping—or maybe it's "edible landscaping." Whichever, landscaper and UVM Extension educator Jacob Holzberg-Pill is at the epicenter of a growing trend of planting berry bushes, fruit trees, medicinal plants, and all manner of edible flora on whatever land—or porch pot—a gardener's got available. Mullis tours his third-of-an-acre yard and its awe-inspiring foodscape.Now that's planning ahead: Some VT hotels started getting eclipse reservations back in 2017. That's one of the tidbits in Erin Petenko and Habib Sabet's VTDigger piece on the fact that there are almost no bookable rooms left in the state for Monday. "Almost all of the lodging properties in the path of totality have between 98 percent and 99 percent occupancy for the eclipse," they write; short-term rentals up there are at about 80 percent occupancy. Oh, and about 30 hardy souls have booked off-season campsites in state parks.What do you get when you leave your Nikon D850 camera on the ground in the path of a herd of elephants? Turns out, you get some remarkable photos. Though wildlife photographer Yarin Klein, whose camera it was, admits it was a risky move. He posted the results—taken in Kenya's Amboseli National Park—on Instagram.The Wednesday Vordle. If you're new to Daybreak, this is the Upper Valley version of Wordle, usually with a five-letter word chosen from an item in the previous day's Daybreak. A word game—but local!
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At 10 this morning, the String Queens will give a youth education performance ahead of tomorrow night's Lebanon Opera House concert (yes, that's still on). Violinist Kendall Isadore, violist Dawn Johnson, and cellist Élise Sharp are schoolteachers in the DC area during the week, performers at night and on weekends, with a repertoire that ranges from classical to pop to jazz. Today's one-hour performance is aimed at showing young people "how diverse string music can be, and how one can be a classically trained musician while staying true to other cultures, traditions, and styles." At LOH.
Today at 4:30, Dartmouth's Dialogue Project kicks off a three-year partnership with StoryCorps, the national nonprofit that records and, in a variety of ways, shares the stories of ordinary Americans. In particular, the collaboration is with StoryCorps' One Small Step project, which "brings two people with different political beliefs together for a conversation: not to debate politics, but simply to interview each other and get to know one another as people." The kickoff event features StoryCorps founder David Isay in conversation with Dartmouth President Sian Beilock, moderated by physicist and author Marcelo Gleiser. In Filene Auditorium.
Also at 4:30: If you're interested in efforts to preserve the Maxfield Parrish stage set in Plainfield Town Hall, fire protection expert Nick Artim will be talking about what will likely be needed to protect both the building and the set. Artim, whose company is based in Middlebury, has over the decades consulted on everything from Hearst Castle and Monticello to small bed-and-breakfasts. In Plainfield Town Hall.
This evening at 7:30, Phil Babcock of the NH Astronomical Society will give a Zoom presentation on the April 8 eclipse in a "Center at Eastman" talk. He'll include demonstrations and audience participation.
And for today...
Wonder what a trio of teachers-turned-concert-performers looks like? Back in 2021, The String Queens—at the Lebanon Opera House today and tomorrow night—provided the background music for ESPN's promotional campaign for the Wimbledon championships: their cover of Harry Styles' "Golden". It
sounded
exuberant—and then they produced the official video, dressed in blinding white in the midst of a topiary garden in Maryland.
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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