GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Back to early spring. Hey, it'll be sunny, at least, as high pressure builds in for a day or two. But last night's cold front is living up to its name: We'll reach highs in the upper 50s, maybe 60 today, and then tonight, under mostly clear skies, we'll see lows right around the freezing mark, with patchy frost.The wheel of the seasons. You may remember this from yesterday: "Phenology" is the study of the annual timing of biological events and how pretty much everything changes with the seasons. Here's an easy way to picture this: Brendan Leonardi, who works for the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, created a striking "phenology wheel" using images captured at the same spot in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest throughout the year.Just a reminder: I-89 Exit 19 southbound on-ramp closed today. NHDOT workers will be replacing a drainage culvert, and the on-ramp from Mechanic St. was scheduled to close from 6 this morning until 4:30 this afternoon. If you need to go south from Mechanic St. or the Miracle Mile, signs will direct you to take I-89 northbound to Exit 20, then reverse directions.Simultaneous Monday brush fires in W. Fairlee, Bradford VT. The West Fairlee fire burned nearly six acres deep into the woods off Beanville Road, reports Clare Shanahan in the Valley News. It was discovered by town fire warden Will Ordway, who saw the smoke on his way home that afternoon. Ten fire departments responded and took about three hours to put it out; the cause is unknown. Meanwhile, the Bradford and Piermont fire departments were busy on Upper Plain Road at the same time with a small backyard burn. Fire danger yesterday was moderate or high on the VT side, low or moderate in NH.Feds lay out their case against Mohsen Mahdawi. The Palestinian activist and Upper Valley resident's release hearing is this morning, and in documents filed Monday, reports VT Public's Sabine Poux, the government calls his activism a threat to US foreign policy goals, and cites a 2015 report by a gun shop owner who found Mahdawi "suspicious" and alleged he made violent remarks about Jews, as well as drugs found during a 2019 border crossing from Canada. Mahdawi's lawyers counter that the FBI investigated the gun shop allegations and cleared Mahdawi, and that the "drugs" were medication and vitamins—though Mahdawi accepted court diversion at the time.Oktays close Burlington restaurant. For a while it looked like the Tuckerbox empire could just keep expanding, with the Cappadocia Café in WRJ, the 13-year-old Istanbul Kebab House run by Tuckerbox co-owner Vural Oktay's brother, two Little Istanbuls, and the new Cappadocia Bistro, which opened in Burlington over the weekend. But Seven Days' Melissa Pasanen reports that the family has now closed the Kebab House and put the building up for sale "after receiving final notice that their appeal regarding 'essential employee' E-2 visas for specialized chefs from Turkey had been denied."SPONSORED: Cedar Circle opens this Friday, May 2! We can’t wait to welcome you back. The farmstand, greenhouses, and Hello Café open at 8 am, with weekend festivities and live music from Andrew Brozek on Saturday, May 3. The greenhouses are bursting with color—shop annuals, native perennials, and certified organic veggie and herb starts. Don’t miss farm-baked treats and local goods in the café and farmstand. Still need a CSA Card? Sign up by June 1 to save 10 percent! Sponsored by Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center.Fun fact: Dartmouth has had at least one current or former student on every US Winter Olympic team since 1924. That was when the first winter Olympics were held, in Chamonix, France—and John Carleton, who had captained the college's ski team, competed in xc skiing and Nordic combined. One key, NBC Sports' Nick Zaccardi reports in his piece: the quarter system, which "allows flexibility to take off the winter term to compete internationally, yet still stay on schedule with summer classes." Another, xc coach Cami Thompson says: Students can "walk out the door and get on a trail."Dartmouth PhD student back on campus—but his status remains unclear. Lawyers for Xiaotian Liu, the Chinese doctoral candidate whose student immigration status suddenly was revoked earlier this month, were back in court yesterday. Late last week, the federal government announced it was reversing its decision to terminate over 1,000 students' records in the database for international students—but as Jonathan Phelps reports in the Union Leader, ACLU attorney Gilles Bissonette said in a filing yesterday that they have received no “certain assurances” that the reversal applies to Liu.Goose Pond's going to get re-filled—but not in time for summer. Or fall. It's been a year and a half since the state mostly drained the Canaan/Hanover pond in order to replace its dam. Now, reports Clare Shanahan in the VN, it'll start getting re-filled soon, but since the water level depends entirely on snowmelt and rain, it's going to take many months. Though "nobody's throwing any tantrums," says Goose Pond Lake Association president Michael Riese, it's been a disappointment to lose "an entire year’s worth of snowmelt when we finally had a good old-fashioned winter.”A "252-page dash of a novel" about South Africa, truth and reconciliation, and revenge. In this week's Enthusiasms, Quechee/Wilder librarian Michaela Lavelle writes that Casualties of Truth, by Lauren Francis-Sharma, draws on the author's time in South Africa following the fall of apartheid. It shifts between Johannesburg in 1996 and Washington DC in 2018 as its two protagonists navigate the violent legacy of the past. "A fascinating question emerged for me that I can’t stop thinking about," Michaela writes. "What do I do when the answer to the question, 'How far would I go?' is Much farther than I think?""Imagine a cleft in the landscape, north to south, 410 miles long..." Since the start of the year, longtime Antioch U environmental studies prof Michael Simpson has been hosting a new books podcast talking to authors like Ethan Tapper, of How to Love a Forest, and Duncan Watson, who wrote Everyone's Trash. This week, he's up with a conversation with Ted Levin about Ted's new book, The Promise of Sunrise. That headline is Ted setting the scene by describing the Connecticut River Valley. They go on to talk about Ted's daily observations and, in particular, chickadees, bobcats and other animals.From a single model of "very fat hat" to turning out over 30,000 garments each year: Quechee's F.H. Clothing. In Artful, Susan Apel offers up a profile of the business Joan Ecker began 46 years ago, first with the hat, then with ponchos, now with clothing it sells through 140 boutiques around the country and its own retail spot at Route 4 and Quechee Main Street. "Many’s the time when I have emerged from a dressing room under Joan’s or a salesperson’s discerning eye, to be told (with honesty) everything from 'That looks great on you,' to 'No, this style isn’t working for you,'" Susan writes.NH: high in per-pupil spending for public schools, dead last in state support. The state spends $22,252, on average, more than every state but NY, VT, MA, NJ, and CT. But what really sets it apart, writes Ethan DeWitt in NH Bulletin, is that it "contributed the smallest proportion of state dollars and the largest proportion of local dollars per student of all 50 states in the same school year," according to a new report by the NEA. In other words, it relies more than any other state on education funding from towns and cities, which in turn places more of the funding burden on local property taxes. DeWitt explores the fallout.Judge signs off on Burke sale. Last Thursday's move by US District Court Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Miami means that the group that includes members of the Graham family, which once owned the resort, and Burke Mountain Academy, will take the mountain out of federal receivership after nearly a decade of slow decline. They expect to close the $11.5 million deal in early May, writes VTDigger's Habib Sabet—and have pledged $30 million in investments in lift infrastructure and the hotel at the base of the mountain. "A botanical treasure." That's how Happy Vermont's Erica Houskeeper describes Eshqua Bog in Hartland, what with its labrador tea, cotton grass, pitcher plants, showy lady’s slippers, larches, buckbean, and more—all bursting "with color, texture, shapes and scents" in spring. In her latest post, Erica highlights a variety of wildflower walks and guided hikes in the state, including a guided wildflower walk at the Park-McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion in North Bennington, the West River Trail in Brattleboro, and more. She's also got a set of upcoming guided hikes, including two in Strafford.Market Basket: Italian subs, store-brand soda... and a music playlist that has customers dancing in the aisles. Okay, apologies, this is a Boston Globe article behind a paywall, but it's too much fun not to mention. There's this guy named Bob Hoyt, writes the Globe's Beth Teitell. He's a former Market Basket bagger. And the beloved grocery chain's playlist, it turns out, has a style. “It’s a collection of songs that you would never pick to listen to,” says Hoyt, “but once it’s on, you sing along.” We're talking "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)". So Hoyt's compiled a Market Basket playlist on Spotify. 361 songs and growing.This week's Throughlines. Did you follow along above? Test your memory (or reading ability) with a simple grid of 16 words.The Wednesday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak. If you're new to Daybreak, this is a puzzle along the lines of the NYT's Wordle—only different, because it's not just some random word snatched out of the ether, but a word that actually appeared here yesterday.
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Daybreak tote bags! Thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, the usual: sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
Former US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver will discuss recent developments in US-China affairs affecting trade, Indo-Pacific security, and Taiwan's future, and what lies ahead. 4:30 pm Haldeman 41 and online.
College of the Atlantic research associate Susie O'Keeffe will blend images, poetry, and prose to explore "the four fundamental practices of the reciprocal relationship [between humans and nature]...and how indigenous scholars and cultures, environmental advocates, artists, philosophers and others articulate, advocate for and practice reciprocity." 5:30 pm Mayer Room and online.
Novelist and NH Humanities presenter Mary Kronenwetter will talk about the early 20th-century conservationist, who helped establish one of the country's first bird sanctuaries, oversaw the bison herd at Corbin Park, lay behind the creation of the American Bison Society, and shared his home with tame bear, fox, bison, and others. 7 pm.
It's part of a series of films for the college's Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month: a Bollywoodesque film set in Trinidad & Tobago, where the daughter of an indebted Indian businessman seems all set to marry a wealthy suitor—but then falls for a rasta singer. Soca, Bollywood drama, American rom-com: all together in Todd Kessler's 2015 film. 7 pm in the Loew, no tix needed.
In this memoir and exploration of her relationship with her mother as her mother's dementia progressed, the Lyme short-story writer and novelist writes of the illness, "It finds its fuel in the things that make us human.” 7 pm.
We'll stick very close to home today...
Upper Valley Music Center's Sing & Play weekend is coming up in a few weeks, and as a teaser, local musician Jes Raymond directed a short film featuring singers
Lisa Piccirillo and Macy Bettwieser, the Upper Valley Symphony Orchestra as well as UVMC's community chorus and children's chorus, and a cast of thousands—well, 600, anyway—from schools, arts organizations, music groups, the Leb libraries, ensembles, and others all over the Upper Valley. Here's "I've Got the Music In Me".
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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