GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Today, we actually get some sun! Don't get too used to it, but for now, the north winds are dying down, clouds are breaking up (especially in the hours around midday), and temps climb toward 60. But. Two areas of low pressure, off to the west and off the coast, will eventually move northeastward, pulling moisture up our way, with a chance of rain overnight becoming likely by morning. Lows in the mid 40s. We'll talk rain and mountain snow tomorrow.A curious turtle. Not curious-looking, but curious about Ian Clark's new waterproof GoPro, which the photographer submerged in one of the ponds near Newbury, VT he frequents. In his latest post, Ian includes the video of that encounter, plus red-winged blackbirds, ducks, and a mini photo essay on a loon squabble. "The first stage of a territory dispute is circling and sizing each other up," he writes. "I’m convinced that the position of their heads is communicating something—probably just as well for the blog that I can’t translate it."In Hanover, a swap: a new Ledyard Park, but no more Allen Street closures. Currently a gravel pass-through that leads to Bean's Art Store and a back parking lot, the space next to Ledyard Bank is slated to become a venue for concerts, along with benches and tables, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News. The idea is to create an outdoor gathering spot—“Hanover doesn’t have a green like Lebanon,” says Town Manager Rob Houseman, noting that Dartmouth controls the green—to replace the summertime closure of Allen Street, which caused both delight and consternation for businesses.January shooting death in Quechee ruled a suicide. In a terse press release yesterday (here via FB), the Hartford PD writes that the "shooting incident on Fairbanks Turn has concluded. The State of New Hampshire Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the death to be a suicide earlier this month and investigators have closed this investigation." The victim, a 21-year-old man from Gardner, MA, was found after police responded to a report of a shooting on the road; their subsequent search of the house drew widespread attention.Revels North announces its December show—and that it's shutting down after. Facing federal and state funding cuts and decreased ticket sales since the pandemic, the nonprofit organization will close its doors after Midwinter Revels, it announced yesterday. Despite the tough decision, Artistic Director Alex Cummings says the final show allows his team a “final hurrah” and proper farewell to the Upper Valley after 50 years. Visiting performers and local Scottish dance and pipe schools will mingle in the company’s performance at LOH. “We're going to make sure, no matter what, to go out with a bang instead of a poof,” Executive Director Julia Hautaniemi says. More at the link.SPONSORED: Check out AT's updated service schedule and hop aboard! Advance Transit's fare-free bus service makes travel simple and stress-free. Now, our updated schedules are available online! Learn about the new Pink route, expanded service on the Red route, and the return of the Lot 9 Shuttle. Schedules will soon be available on board the buses, at our transit operations center, and through various community organizations (complete list of schedule locations is available online). And check out our helpful resources like how-to-ride videos and destination guides. Plan your trip today! Sponsored by AT.“I know its depth, but not in feet.” That was how the great Scottish nature writer Nan Shepherd described a mountain loch she once saw from above—but it is also, the Norwich Bookstore's Sam Kaas writes in this week's Enthusiasms, "how I felt as I read each page" of Shepherd's classic, The Living Mountain. As you might gather from the title, Sam writes, the book "explores the idea that a mountain—any place, really—is alive, that it can be known, like a family member, a friend, or a lover. It’s also a book about how a place cannot ever fully be known, about how there will always be mystery and power..."Hartford property revaluation leads to skyrocketing values. On average, reports Emma Roth-Wells in the VN, property values in the town have risen 86 percent since the last reappraisal, in 2017: The new value of the grand list is $26.2 million (pending grievances), compared to $14.2 million eight years ago. The pandemic and the cost of construction are both factors, town manager John Haverstock says. In all, some 240 residents have scheduled grievance hearings to challenge their new valuations.SPONSORED: REDCAN Restaurant in Downtown White River Junction is officially open for lunches on Fridays and Saturdays! Lunch is served from 11:30am-2:00pm, with a limited menu available between 2:00pm and 4:00pm, followed by dinner service starting at 4:00pm. Reservations for lunch can be found online, but walk-ins are welcome, too. Please contact us at [email protected] if trying to book a larger party for luncheon. And check out our website at the burgundy link or here for our sample lunch menu. Sponsored by REDCAN.Seeking clues to a red fox kit's age. On her Naturally Curious blog, Mary Holland offers a guide. Usually, by the time you see them, they've shed the dark gray coat they were born with, so that sandy coat you see means they're at least a month old. That coat, in turn, starts to give way to a mature fox's red coat after the five-week mark. Their eyes turn amber at about four weeks. All well and good, but really? You're there for the pic.In the real upper Connecticut River valley (to the north of us), a willow mystery. Satiny willow trees, which shine so brightly in the sun they can "look like headlights," retired forest service ecologist Scott Bailey tells NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian, require both male and female plants to produce seeds. But in Bailey's explorations of northern reaches of the river, he's found just two populations with male plants. Willows can reproduce asexually, but seeds are important. “Without a local seed source... there’s a much greater danger that we would lose the species regionally,” he says. So why are males scarce?Mow? No mow? Mullet mow? The first two are obvious. The last? "It takes a 'business in front, party in the back' approach to lawn maintenance," writes David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog, "by keeping stuff next to the road tidy and short...while letting the rest of the property run riot." Brooks believes that "the traditional suburban lawn has all the ecosystem benefits of a Dunkin’ parking lot," especially if it's treated with chemicals. But, he adds, "most of us like the look of a freshly mowed lawn. That includes me." As thinking about lawns evolves, he writes, maybe we'll actually become fond of the scruffy look.“If you were having a heart attack, would you want to have to drive three hours to receive medical care?” Nope. But as maternity wards have closed down all around rural New Hampshire—and especially in the North Country—long drives for obstetric emergencies have become more common, says Ali Willard, a high-risk obstetrics nurse and care coordinator at DH. She's part of a DH-led group working to improve access to maternity care in northern NH, reports NHPR's Paul Cuno-Booth. It includes connecting patients to care, obstetrics training for EMTs and ER docs, even finding transportation.Burlington city council directs mayor to relocate free lunch program. Yep, it's a Burlington-specific story, but also an intriguing window into current affairs in the Queen City. The program, Food Not Cops, has been delivering home-cooked meals for five years to people in need in a garage off Cherry Street. Earlier this month, a letter from 100 businesses in the city asked Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak to find it a new location, arguing its operation has hurt both business and foot traffic downtown. Monday night, the council voted 8-4 in favor of change. VTDigger's Corey McDonald follows the heated debate.It's dark out? Windy? The snow's deep? Let's ski! Or, as Evan Daigle's new four-minute short shows, ice climb. Few of us will ever do what the nighttime adventurers do in Night Shift, shot in VT and around Katahdin in ME, but that doesn't mean we don't wish we could. Mostly, though, it's just eerie and beautiful to watch.This week's Throughlines. A simple grid of 16 words, and it's up to you to connect four words at a time to create "throughlines" for three Daybreak items above or below. Four of the words are decoys, so watch out!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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The essayist, translator, Amherst prof, and Vermont Humanities regular
will explore the role of forgetting in art, literature, politics, and history, challenging the assumption that memory is always virtuous.
6:30 pm, both in-person at the library and online.
The African folk and jazz singer and songwriter headlines the organization's fundraiser at the Dartmouth Outing Club today starting at 4:30 pm. With food, drinks, and baskets from Zimbabwe—whose women's cooperative groups and orphans the foundation supports.
To start us off today, a joik.
That's a traditional form of song (pronounced "yoik") for the Sámi—the native reindeer-herders of Lapland and adjoining areas of the far north. Sámi tradition has it that
joiks
were handed down by arctic elves and fairies, and some have been around for hundreds of years—but the form is being revived by younger Sámi musicians. “I do not joik
about
something, I j
oik
someone or something," Elle Márjá Eira oncw told an interviewer. "It could be a person, an animal, a lake, or a mountain. I love to
joik
my great grandfather Orbona Aslat. His
joik
has been passed down within the family for more than 150 years.” So with that as background, here's another Sámi singer, Jon Henrik Fjällgren, born in Colombia and adopted into a Swedish Sámi village when he was little,
Filmed in northern Norway.
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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