RABBIT RABBIT, UPPER VALLEY!
Bring an umbrella. At least, later in the day. The remnants of a storm system from the Plains could bring us periods of rain throughout today, especially this afternoon and evening. Thanks to cloud cover and yesterday's cold front, temps will be much cooler—highs around 60 today. Mid-50s overnight."Fast, powerful, and determined in their fishing." That's how photographer Lisa Lacasse describes bald eagles, and at a lake near Newbury, VT, she managed to catch one just as it's rising from the water after a successful catch.Looks like Claremont won't be getting a city manager anytime soon. Guy Santagate served the city for 15 years. Each of his replacements lasted just a couple. And now, reports Patrick O'Grady in the Valley News, the city council has rejected all four finalists for a permanent slot. With current interim manager John MacLean taking off to travel, the city will hire former Portsmouth City Manager John Bohenko for up to 30 hours a week. "It is unclear when the search for a permanent manager will begin again," O'Grady writes.With new zoning district, housing in Hanover will expand. The article creating it, approved by voters at Town Meeting last month, allows for denser occupancy and taller buildings along West Wheelock, writes The Dartmouth's Parker O'Hara. At least one private owner is already planning to demolish and rebuild, and the college, which also owns properties in the district, is hiring a firm "to help us understand the redevelopment potential...and to develop a long-term plan," spokesperson Diana Lawrence emails. She adds, "It is unlikely that the opportunity will fill the same need as the Lyme Road project."SoRo underpass to get ready for prime time. You know it if you go to Worthy Burger—the Safford Street pass under the train tracks is what you take to get there. And for a long time, writes Susan Apel in Artful, the "craggy old railroad underpass with scuffed and faded remnants of an old mural" has gone unchanged, despite plans for a public art project that's been in the works for over a year. But now, she writes, "Progress! Disappointed no more." Resurfacing of the underpass gets under way next Monday.SPONSORED: The Mascoma Community Healthcare Center needs your help next week. The Center opened in 2017 with no patients. It now serves 5,800 enrolled adult and pediatric patients—and provided $288,000 in free and reduced-rate health and dental care during the past five years. Next week, on June 7 and 8, your gift through NHGives.org will help the Center continue its commitment to providing care regardless of one’s ability to pay. Thank you. Sponsored by a friend the Mascoma Community Healthcare Center."If you name it, Boland probably collected it—or 27 of it, or maybe 127." If you live around here, it's easy to take the Experimental Balloon & Airship Museum at the Post Mills Airport—or the Museum of Rusty Dusty Stuff, take your pick—for granted. So it's a pleasure to see it through a visitor's eyes, which is what Seven Days' Sally Pollak offers up in a "Staytripper" profile of the collection amassed by the late Brian Boland, from cars to balloon baskets to all the "interesting stuff, unexpected stuff, weird stuff and stuff people had made" that caught his eye, as his partner, Tina Foster, puts it."We’re as close as otters, and huddled together, we make our way in the world.” Dara McAnulty and his family—except for his father—are all autistic, and McAnulty, as Jared Jenisch writes in this week's Enthusiasms, "lives at a fever pitch of sensation." His balm is the natural world, and McAnulty, still just a teenager, has emerged as a leading environmental activist. His new book, Diary of a Young Naturalist, is a "beautifully observed" chronicle of the changing seasons around his home in Northern Ireland, Jared writes, and "even more [is] the story of a young man learning to manage his inner storms."Why Wentworth Cheswill doesn't get a portrait in the NH State House. Cheswill (sometimes spelled Cheswell) lived in Newmarket and is "considered to be the first African American elected to public office in the country when he became a town constable in 1768," writes Amanda Gokee in NH Bulletin. A bid this year to make him the first known person of color to get a portrait on the State House walls fell short after senators argued that, because no known image of Cheswill exists, a plaque would be better than "an invention," while House members argued that only a portrait would have the appropriate stature.Here's a surprise: NH guv vetoes bill limiting his powers. The bill would have limited a governor's ability to renew the declaration of a state of emergency every 21 days without the approval of the legislature. Lawmakers had already given themselves the ability to override a state of emergency in the state budget, writes NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt; in his veto message Friday, Gov. Chris Sununu wrote, "It is irresponsible to further bind a future governor’s ability to address and respond in a crisis." Meanwhile, NH has a new congressional district map. Among his vetoes on Friday, Sununu axed two redistricting plans passed by the legislature. So the NH Supreme Court yesterday stepped in by approving the plan drawn up by its special master. As you may remember, it moves five towns from the 1st to the 2nd District, but otherwise leaves things largely intact. The Court's move goes into effect immediately, so the filing period for congressional candidates, due to start today, will go ahead as planned, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman.Don't put those skis away yet! For the first time since 1997, Killington will be open into June, thanks to snowmaking that began on its Superstar trail back in October. The rest of the mountain may have greened up, but the run will be open at least through Saturday and, "if conditions allow," Sunday as well, reports Patrick Thorne on InTheSnow.com. And hey, if you're really desperate? Ski areas in Australia, New Zealand, and Lesotho open this weekend.Paddle indigenous routes along the 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail. From Old Forge in upstate NY, across northern Lake Champlain, briefly into Quebec, and up a vast stretch of Maine, these interconnected waterways sound like a fine way to see the best sights of New England—from “placid rivers, whitewater, glacial lakes, and portages," writes Seven Days’ Sally Pollak, to “farmlands, forests, wetlands, and small towns.” Established in 2006, the trail is maintained by a VT-based nonprofit, which oversees upkeep of campsites every few miles and a GPS-enabled app loaded with waypoints."You’re hiking...and the path is getting denser and brushier. What should you do to protect yourself from a tick bite? (Select all that apply.)" We're well into tick season (well, actually, there is no tick "season" any more), and the NYT has a handy little "How to Stay Safe" quiz that doubles as an educational guide to ticks and the risks of Lyme disease. You're all masters at this, so you don't need me to tell you that one of the answers to the above question is not "Yell loudly and bang pots and pans." (Gift link, so no paywall.)How Beethoven transformed darkness into the luminous “Ode to Joy.” It was the centerpiece of his ninth—and final—symphony, but one could say Beethoven had waited his whole life to write “Ode to Joy.” The inimitable Maria Popova of The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) tells the story of how the legendary composer, inspired as a boy by Friedrich Schiller’s poem of the same name, took “the transcendent torment of his creative life,” including his hearing loss, and created “something superhuman”—and widely considered his masterwork. It’s a story of resilience, redemption, and hope.The Wednesday Vordle. Just to get your day started right.
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Or on the placa de Sant Roc in Sabadell, Spain, all started by a busking double bass player and a girl tossing a coin in his hat.
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 and writers who want you to 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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