GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Heating up, chance of showers. The pattern of recent weeks has flipped: Now we get showers all week, then it looks like sun and warmth this weekend. But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. Today, a mix of low pressure and various fronts brings us a daylong chance of rain with maybe some thunderstorms thrown in this afternoon. Temps and humidity are climbing: We'll likely get into the 80s today, only down to the upper 60s tonight. It's a little beyond our orbit, but you may never see this again. Up on Caspian Lake in Greensboro, VT recently, Valerie Rooney looked out and saw the setting sun reflected on the water... not once, but twice. "I have no idea what the explanation is," she writes. Me, neither. But it's very cool.Just a reminder: Hanover's Crosby Street closes today. And will stay that way for up to 18 months, as Dartmouth works on overhauling its heating system. Pedestrians are still okay.Rabid fox attacks two in WRJ. It happened on Saturday on Latham Works Lane, reports the Valley News; after the people involved (one was bitten, the other touched) called the police, a state game warden caught the animal and took it to the state health department, which confirmed a rabies diagnosis. The people attacked by the fox are undergoing rabies treatment. It was the first animal to test positive in the town this year, and on FB, the town says it's a reminder: "Never handle wildlife. Contact a game warden if you see sick or injured wildlife. Keep your pets and wildlife up to date on rabies vaccines."
In Springfield, VT, a gallery for art made "here." As you might suspect, the Gallery at the Vault lives in what used to be a former bank on Main Street in downtown Springfield. As Daybreak summer reporter Duncan Green discovered when he dropped in recently, it's part gallery, part museum, and all dedicated to work by locals (though some are a drive away). It's the sort of place, he writes, where "each piece has a story that goes with it" and a friendly staff happy to tell you about them (you’ll want to set aside some time when you visit). At the link, Duncan describes what you'll find. And why.AVA Gallery lands a new director. Lars Hasselblad Torres stepped into the role June 3, replacing Shari Boraz, who retired last November. Hasselblad Torres "has been a prominent figure in Vermont’s creative sector for more than a decade," writes Madeleine Kaptein in a Seven Days profile, serving a year-long stint at the state's short-lived Office of the Creative Economy, then in arts organizations in Burlington and Brattleboro. “We use this space as a platform to nurture and support creativity across all ages,” Hasselblad Torres tells Kaptein, lauding the staff's "fresh energy, connections, and ideas." SPONSORED: Get the dirt on the Willing Hands gardens. The Willing Hands Garden Walk & Talk series starts June 26 at our River Road garden! Join our Farm Manager and community partners over light refreshments as they give a behind-the-scenes look at how all that food grows, share a little history, and dish out the gardening tips. Attend just the talks, or stay afterward to get your hands dirty in the garden with a volunteer session. Learn more and sign up at our Events page. Sponsored by Willing Hands.Oh, well. WRJ cocktail bar Wolf Tree didn't get a James Beard Award for best bar at the awards dinner in Chicago Monday night. But as Susan Apel writes in Artful, "There are approximately 63,000 bars (not including restaurants that serve alcohol) in the United States. And Wolf Tree, far from any urban center in a village with a population of 2,878, was among 5— count ‘em— 5 finalists." The winner was Chicago bar Kumiko. As it happens, none of the VT or NH finalists (including May Day in Burlington and Super Secret Ice Cream in Bethlehem, NH) took home an award, but just being on the list was a triumph.Hopkins Center announces its first season back home. After a $123.8 million expansion and makeover, the performing and visual arts center is set to reopen this fall, and yesterday, it gave a look at what's ahead: a season of "immersive, technology-driven experiences that take advantage of the Hop's new spatial and technical capabilities," including "a dance installation of 500 recycled car taillights"; a musical series taking advantage of its new recital hall; Sunny Jain, Kishi Bashi, the Mark Morris Dance Group, and plenty more. Press release at the burgundy link, season details here.Claremont's Eagle Times sees three employees quit, suspends print version. There are radically different versions of what's actually happening at the struggling newspaper in Patrick O'Grady's piece for the Valley News. Owner Jay Lucas says he's building a new team, prepping to resume printing, and still has the bulk of a staff of 20. Katlyn Proctor, the paper's former general manager, and former circulation director Angela Melodia, who both resigned earlier this month, tell O'Grady it has just two employees left (one part-time) and has been missing payroll and vendor payments.Next time you reach for a book, try a play. In this week's Enthusiasms, Still North Books' H Rooker makes a strong case: "The much barer bones of a script force you to see the story more broadly and give you the chance to picture the story taking place however you like," H writes. "Once you get used to it you’ll find it enriches all of your reading, traditional novel or not." And H doesn't leave us high and dry, suggesting three possibilities: a summer afternoon's chat at the end of the world; Mark Rothko struggling with a major commission; and four boys on the verge of stepping into the world.Online DH community helps people deal with illness, caregiving, and loss. ConnectShareCare began as a chat forum for caregivers of people with serious illnesses, writes Elizabeth Wilcox in an article for the health network. But with the input of everyone from patients to researchers at The Dartmouth Institute, it's grown to include discussion boards for people who are grieving or dealing with Long Covid (and, soon, other illnesses), as well as in-person events, member stories, and crisis resources. “It is about people with lived experience talking to each other about their own frustrations or what has—or has not—worked for them," says its manager, Sandra Knowlton-Soho.This time around, NH ed leaders are full of praise for an education nominee. Last week, Gov. Kelly Ayotte nominated department veteran Caitlin Davis as commissioner to replace Frank Edelblut. Eight years ago, reports the Monitor's Jeremy Margolis (via NHPR), Edelblut drew criticism from the left as "a threat to public education." Not so with Davis. “People on all sides of the aisle really respect the work that she has done and her ability to bridge political difference and really work for a good outcome for New Hampshire kids,” says one Democratic legislator. The Exec Council could act next week.A "rushed, politicized and inconsistent piece of work [with] the potential to do real harm." That's how Norwich state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former VT education secretary, describes the big education reform bill that passed the legislature Monday night. In the VN, Alex Hanson reports that she and most of her Upper Valley colleagues voted against the measure—and some area school officials are unhappy about features they argue favor private schools and will likely force consolidation. Woodstock's Charlie Kimbell, who voted for the bill, counters there will be more restrictions on private schools. Hanson surveys the arguments from detractors and (sometimes lukewarm) supporters.
And since Gov. Phil Scott has said he plans to sign it, what's actually in the bill? Seven Days' Alison Novak gives a helpful rundown: the state's supposed to have fewer, larger school districts by 2028; there are class size minimums, which could force smaller schools to close; Novak explains the new school funding system, which is due to go into effect three summers from now, and how the bill treats independent schools; and plenty more.
On-again-off-again VT youth facility is off again. Remember how Newbury fought hard against a proposed facility for "justice-involved youth," only to lose in court, only to have the state say it was going elsewhere? That elsewhere turned out to be Vergennes, but now, report VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein and Charlotte Oliver, the state has withdrawn its plan after a “'shift in strategy based on project urgency' and zoning struggles," an official tells them. The state is looking for sites with fewer regulatory hurdles, Weinstein and Oliver write.What happens when an item gets left behind on moving day … in a goose nest? In Madison, WI, a family of sandhill cranes recently needed a new home fast when their nest flooded. Luckily, an abandoned goose nest nearby fit the bill. In a delightful post on FB, photographer Alan Ginsberg, who tracks events in those wetlands, discovered that the nest was not actually empty: one goose egg remained. Soon, out popped a gosling, who immediately bonded with the elegant cranes. The family—long-legged mom, dad, and sib cranes and stubby, fluffy little gosling—is inseparable. (Non-FB version here) (Thanks, CM!)This week's Throughlines. Challenge yourself! Facing a grid of 16 words, it's up to you to connect four words at a time to create "throughlines" for three of today's Daybreak items. The other four 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 it's not just some random word, but a word that actually appeared here yesterday.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
Like Daybreak tote bags, thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, 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!
The Upper Valley's own baseball team will be doing a meet-and-greet at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center today from 4 to 5:30 pm. The season's in full swing (they take on the Keene SwampBats tomorrow afternoon at Maxfield), and this is your chance to meet the players, get selfies with them, and talk baseball.
Lewis, a guitarist, storyteller, and Americana musician from Nashville, is on tour (next stop, Charlottesville); his latest album, out last year, is
Superposition
. It's the second in Artistree's summer-long Wednesday night series: 6:30 pm on the hill, no charge.
Whybrow's book is partly a memoir about restoring Knoll Farm, a worn-out 200-acre farm in the Mad River Valley. But it's also a meditation on shepherding, sheep, and "what it means to care for a flock and truly inhabit a piece of land." She'll be talking it all over with rower and Dickey Center staffer Dawn Carey.
And for today...
The effortlessly tight, sometimes hypnotic, and always inventive Manchester, UK trio GoGo Penguin has a new album due out Friday. They've always been instrumental-only, but this time one of the songs has a vocalist: British-Ugandan singer-songwriter Daudi Matsiko. "Originally, we weren’t thinking of having vocals on this track. We had the chords and the melodic idea, but we were thinking of using field recordings, samples or perhaps even some spoken word," bassist Nick Blacka explained recently. "One weekend around the time we were working on this track Daudi randomly phoned as he’d flown into Manchester from a gig in Slovakia. I went to pick him up from the airport and we sat in my garden and drank some beers. This is when I explained some of the overall concepts behind the album and he went away and wrote some lyrics. He completely understood where we were coming from."
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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
, or if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!