GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Chance of showers, especially after noon. And most especially this evening. There's a storm off the coast and rain is being drawn in our direction, with at least a chance of it falling as far west as eastern VT. It shouldn't need saying, but this would be a very good thing. It's likely to be cloudy all day and temps won't get much above 70, if that. Winds from the north, mid-50s overnight.Early morning light two ways...
Near the Union Village Dam in Thetford, by Barbara Woodard;
And through late-summer fog, in E. Thetford, by Robin Osborne.
Progress on restoring downtown WRJ block, but businesses remain closed today. Though there were four feet of standing water in some basement spots around the Gates Briggs Building following Monday evening's water main break, much of it had dissipated by yesterday morning, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak. Electricity was restored yesterday, as well. However, concerns about the structural integrity of the building's foundation has led town officials to keep occupants out for today. One bright spot: Electricians were able to restore power to upstairs coolers at the Tuckerbox and Piecemeal Pies.New housing co-op takes first step, aims to preserve E. Thetford housing. Livable Real Estate, formed last year by former selectboard member Nick Clark and several partners with an eye toward boosting housing in the region, has signed a contract to buy a mobile home, a single-family home and a three-unit home in E. Thetford, reports Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days. They sit on a parcel that includes Wings Market & Deli, though the grocery store isn't part of the deal. “If someone wanted to build a Dollar General and take down the triplex to increase parking, these units could be lost,” Clark tells Allen.SPONSORED: Did you click on last week’s ad for imp’s smart screening product for landline phones? Can you help us out by taking a brief survey on why you DIDN’T buy? Your feedback is important to us, and we will donate a can of spam (well, actually a canned good of any variety) to the Haven for each unique submission. Click here to take the survey →. Sponsored by imp.New Hanover town manager settling in, wants to prep town government for turnover. Over the weekend, the Valley News's Darren Marcy profiled Alex Torpey, who now leads what Marcy describes as "perhaps the smoothest-running municipal government in the Twin States." The 35-year-old has already launched a monthly podcast on town government and is eyeing ways to boost community involvement in town affairs. But unlike his predecessor, Julia Griffin, he's not sure how long he'll stay beyond his three-year contract—and believes town government will need to grapple with younger workers' shifting priorities.Now, here's a hike you might not think of: the old lift line at Claremont's Arrowhead Rec Area. First opened during the 1962-63 season, the volunteer-run ski area has had its ups and downs, and though the lower mountain's lift line is intact, these days the lift serving the upper mountain is abandoned. The slopes, however, are mowed, and have been turned into a series of hiking (and, in winter, skinning) trails. So recently, Ian Wood, who writes for the ski blog Unofficial Networks, decided to check them out."Forget the rules. Have fun with language! Play!" That's poet and Left Bank Books owner Rena Mosteirin's advice. In this week's Enthusiasms, she points us toward Float, a collection of chapbooks by experimental poet Anne Carson. Carson's work is "a great doorway into experimental poetry [that] broadens the scope of what we might consider poetic language," Rena writes. Case in point: a "translation" of a Greek lyric poem that starts with a straight-ahead translation, then pulls from John Donne, Bertolt Brecht's FBI file, the London Underground, and the owner's manual for a new microwave. Play, indeed!NH towns face new planning, zoning laws next week. The new requirements go into effect on Tuesday, reports Ethan DeWitt in NH Bulletin, and will change how towns throughout the state operate when it comes to growth and development. Among other things, they'll be required to be upfront about how much permits cost and to explain clearly why a project was approved or denied. They also face tighter deadlines and new incentives to build workforce housing. Perhaps most far-reaching, any incentives towns have created for senior housing must now also apply to workforce housing.“It baffles me that they could come up with tests so quickly for COVID, and we’re still struggling with tests for Lyme." The tick-borne illness, after all, was first identified more than half a century ago, but it took years for Sue Fortier, who runs the YMCA in Bellows Falls, to be diagnosed. Writing for the Keene Sentinel (via NHPR), Roberta Baker explores why so many patients suffering from Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses—even in New England, a national epicenter—often go so long before their fatigue, muscle and joint pain, neurologic issues, sleep disturbances, and cognitive problems go diagnosed.Final certification of Vermont primary results delayed. Secretary of State Jim Condos yesterday said that, although his office is confident that the vote totals reported by town clerks around the state are accurate, tech problems at a state software contractor have kept the office from producing reports based on those vote totals. The state used the same system in the 2018 and 2020 elections with no problems, reports VTDigger's Lola Duffort, but legislative redistricting this year "confused the state’s election software," Duffort writes.Unveiled this summer, Burlington's "Lost Mural" followed a long road back to light. It was painted in 1910 in a synagogue in the Burlington neighborhood then known as Little Jerusalem, by a Lithuanian immigrant, in a style common in Eastern Europe but non-existent here. "There is nothing like this elsewhere in this country," the curator of Philadelphia's National Museum of American Jewish History tells the AP's Lisa Rathke. Hidden behind a wall for decades, the mural was moved to a new synagogue in 2015, and painstaking work by conservators since then has just come to an end.Vermonter becomes first woman to hold on-ice position for the Boston Bruins. There are just a handful of women with leadership roles in the NHL, and Danielle Marmer, who grew up in Dorset, then played hockey and directed operations for Quinnipiac U's women's hockey team, recently joined them; she's the scouting and new player development assistant. Vermont Public's Mitch Wertlieb, a Bruins fan, talks to Marmer about what she's looking for—skating style, hockey IQ, work ethic, how fast a player thinks on the ice—and about opening doors for girls and women in hockey.“When you take in a (stray) rabbit, you don’t know if you’re taking in one or if you’re about to have 13.” That’s Avery Erdogan, who runs an animal rescue in Burlington, describing the occupational hazard of bringing in unfixed, unhoused rabbits. The bigger problem, reports VTDigger’s Juliet Schulman-Hall, is that the number of stray rabbits across the state appears to be growing. And if not dealt with, given rabbits’ short gestation period, “It can multiply and get out of hand very fast,” says the director of Chittenden Co.’s humane society. Unfortunately, many shelters are already beyond bunny capacity.A sunflower rises from a trash heap in a thunderstorm. When a picture could just as well be a poem, you know it’s special: that sunflower in Bertus Hanekom’s image “Nature Fights Back” earned him top prize in the Landscapes category of the 2022 Nature TTL Photography of the Year. The theme of nature reclaiming space—and our attention—runs through the list of winners: fireflies envelope a tree in India, a river of lava overflows an Icelandic crater, a lion feasts on quite the catch, and glow worms by the millions light up a derelict tunnel. Oh, and the entire category “The Night Sky” is sublime.The Wednesday Vordle. If you're new to it, this is the Upper Valley version of the Wordle puzzle, using a five-letter word related to an item in yesterday's Daybreak.Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
Today at 3:30 pm, DHMC hosts Geisel professor and NH Deputy State Epidemiologist Dr. Elizabeth Talbot for an hour-long Zoom webinar on Monkeypox. She'll be talking about what it is and how the disease is transmitted, and will offer up-to-date public health information about reported cases.
This evening at 6 (for food -- music starts at 7), the Enfield Shaker Museum continues its Stone Mill Music Series with veteran Enfield-based bluegrass band Cardigan Mountain Tradition. There'll be beer, hard cider, and food available to buy both before and during the music. On the lawn of the Stone Mill, so bring blankets and chairs.
Also at 6, Artistree's Music on the Hill series continues in S. Pomfret with singer, multi-instrumentalist, and acoustic and electronic musician Jack Snyder, who grew up around Woodstock and performs as Leyeux.
At 7 pm, the Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival brings the Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet to the main stage at the Chandler, in Randolph. The quartet features some of the most prominent musicians in the tango world, including Giraudo himself, who has become a worldwide tango trailblazer; Nick Danielson, who's assistant concertmaster of the NYC Ballet Orchestra; bandoneonist Rodolfo Zanetti; and pianist Ahmed Alom. You can get tix ($20) at the door.
Kolinga began as a collaboration between Rebecca M’Boungou, who grew up in southwest France with strong Congolese roots, and French gypsy jazz guitarist Arnaud Estor. The band expanded eventually, and its breakthrough came in 2018, when Rwandan-French singer and rapper Gaël Faye
M'Boungou's bright, extremely hummable tribute to her ancestral land. They've since gone on to build a following around France and in the Francophone world. If you happen to be in Biarritz in September...
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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