Daybreak Wednesday 9/22/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Well hey, nothing can take the memory of the last few days away from us. But, you know, weather. That high pressure's moving off to the east and there's a low pressure system meandering our way from the west. The upshot: Mostly cloudy today, chance of showers all day but especially in the afternoon, temps reaching the low 70s. Winds from the southeast, only into the low 60s tonight.Though before we forget... Quechee photographer Lisa Lacasse has been wandering the back roads of Newbury, Barnard, and other spots, capturing the fledgling season and its atmosphere. "This magical mystical light is what gives the images that wonderful painterly feel and makes you feel as though you are there, watching the sun work its magic," she writes. Link goes to a single spectacular shot, but just hit the right or left arrows to see the rest.Enfield Selectboard opts against mandating masks, will ask instead. The move came Monday evening, reports Tim Camerato in the Valley News, as town officials noted that compliance with mask mandates in Hanover and Lebanon appears to be spotty and worried that Enfield police wouldn't be able to enforce a mandate. “I think that an ordinance creates more animosity toward the town of Enfield and the government of Enfield than it’s going to do good,” said Police Chief Roy Holland.Off-roaders converge on Royalton. Usually, the annual "Pilgrimage," which draws vehicle owners who like to explore VT's Class 4 roads, is held in Reading. But, writes Claire Potter in the VN, that town's zoning board denied the event a permit after neighbors raised concerns about traffic, dust, and the environmental impact. So organizer Derek Chace moved home base to Henderson's Hideaway Campground in S. Royalton. Where, Potter reports, residents last week raised concerns about traffic, dust, and the environmental impact. Chace has set ground rules about cleanup and road etiquette.SPONSORED: Attend a Small Group Open House at Willing Hands! To celebrate the successful completion of our Capital Campaign, Willing Hands invites you to take a tour of our Norwich facility. Come explore our expanded warehouse, walk-in coolers, barn, and greenhouse, and learn how these improvements allow us to grow, glean, recover and distribute more fresh, healthy food than ever before. Tours are available 9/28, 10/1, 10/5, and 10/8. Thank you to the hundreds of donors and volunteers who make our work possible! Sponsored by Willing Hands.Oh, wait, say two NH executive councillors about family planning contracts. As you'll remember, all four GOP members of the Executive Council voted against state funding for Planned Parenthood of NH and other clinics. Now, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, two of them say they voted as they did because of insufficient information from the state health department—a claim the department yesterday rejected. Regardless, Gov. Chris Sununu's office says he's willing to bring the contracts back for a revote "if the councilors believe their concerns can be addressed even further.” Windham ballot-fix suggestions draw lukewarm response. Bear with me, this is interesting. As you may remember, the highly charged audit of Windham, NH's balloting last year found that the counting devices were flummoxed by where a crease fell. The auditors have suggested programming them to notify officials if a ballot seems to have too many votes—which would have caught the problem early, reports NHPR's Casey McDermott. But neither the AG nor the Secy of State is on board: They argue it would violate voter privacy and treat machine-counted ballots differently from hand-counted ballots.VT plans boosters for 130K. The rollout could come as soon as this week, state officials said at a press conference yesterday, pending final federal guidance. It would give priority to the state's long-term care facilities and high-risk residents who got their second Pfizer shot at least six months ago, reports VTDigger's Liora Engel-Smith. Long-term care facilities are working with pharmacies to distribute the vaccines to residents; human services secretary Mike Smith recommended that other adults get their boosters wherever they got their first two shots.VT's motel housing program extended. The state-subsidized emergency housing, put in place at the start of the pandemic, was due to expire tomorrow, leaving some 500 households unsure of where they'd live. On Monday, housing advocates urged that it be continued, especially in the face of the Delta surge. At his press conference yesterday, reports VPR's Peter Hirschfeld, Gov. Phil Scott said he'd go along. "We thought we were all on the same page, we all had the same goal, but that seems to be fracturing as we get closer to the date," he said. "So I thought it was a good idea to just pause this for 30 days.""99.9 percent sure is not enough." When it comes to mushroom foraging, you can’t be too careful. Melissa Pasanen writes in Seven Days about a Richmond, VT couple helping the fungi-curious among us to more “safely and fruitfully” scope out edible mushrooms. And Pasanen tags along on one of their Mushroom Forager workshops at Shelburne Farms, where we learn the subtle differences between a tasty porcini and its bitter lookalike, and that the wrong chanterelle can make you pretty sick. But nature’s clues can also lead you to a hen of the woods 100 percent delicious.“I try to keep an element of play in everything." In the mood for an excursion north? Since the 1970s, artist (and one-time Dartmouth student) David Stromeyer has been making large sculptures on a former dairy farm in the foothills of the Cold Mountains in Enosburg, VT, a few miles south of the border. He's got something like 70 of them across the landscape now, in steel, concrete, stone, and other materials. On her Happy Vermont blog, Erica Housekeeper profiles Stromeyer and the Cold Hollow Sculpture Park, which is open to the public (through Oct. 11). Meanwhile, you don't have to travel anywhere to get a fresh look at NH. Writer, former state senator, and 1994 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wayne King has a new book of his photos of the state—and an online portfolio of the work: photos, "manipulated" photos, and mixed media. They're for sale, but there's nothing stopping you from just looking—and seeing the Granite State through different eyes. Have you ever stood in the shade of kale? On 19th-century Jersey, a British island off the coast of France, it was found to be growing up to 12 feet tall, towering like young palm trees, writes Amelia Soth in Atlas Obscura. Not your ordinary super food, this “skyscraper cabbage” was cultivated primarily to feed livestock on the island—that is, until English tourists discovered how local craftspeople were repurposing its long, sturdy, leftover stalks. And so “walking-stick kale” became de rigueur on the streets of 1890s London.

Swimming pool? Irrigation tank? Whatever, it gets very dramatic when lava hits it. You may have read about the volcano that erupted the other day on La Palma, the Spanish island that's part of the Canary Islands. This is footage posted Monday from an island news agency that begins with images of lava flowing into a seething tank of water, continues with views across the island, and eventually gets to what is unmistakably a backyard swimming pool. You kinda don't want to watch, but also, you do.

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The Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp (Almighty Marcel Duchamp Orchestra) must have one of the greatest names in music. It's based in Switzerland but pulls its dozen members from all over, growing and shrinking as the songs demand. It's hard to define, equally at home in some dingy punk club and the concert hall, blending electric and acoustic, a rocking percussion section, strong brass and strings... and a devil-may-care friskiness. Here's "So Many Things (to feel guilty about)."

See you tomorrow.

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         Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter    Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                    About Tom                                 About Michael

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