Welcome to “Dear Daybreak”, a weekly Daybreak column. It features short vignettes about life in the Upper Valley: an encounter, some wry exchange with a stranger or acquaintance… Anything that happened in this region or relates to it and strikes a contributor as interesting or funny or poignant—or that makes us appreciate living here.
Want to submit a Dear Daybreak item? Just go here!
Dear Daybreak:
It seems the meadow outside our kitchen window has become a nursery of sorts for the local wildlife. Aside from the usual assortment of turkey hens and their “turklets”, we had a doe and her young fawn visit about a month ago with the fawn racing up and down the sloped hillside with apparent glee when all of sudden it it spotted a wild turkey. It stopped, glanced over at its mama who was quietly munching away, and then cautiously approached the turkey with jerks, stops, and starts. Finally it stretched its neck, sniffed the turkey—which seemed totally okay with all of this—and then bounded back to mama.
The doe and her fawn appeared several more times and then last week they were grazing when all of sudden, they tore off into the woods. Behind them came a mama fox and her kit, with mama in the middle of the meadow hunting for the moles, voles, and mice that love the meadow too. Three days later, a big mama bear came trundling along with her now fairly good-sized cub waddling behind her. What a treat! We are careful about trash and compost so they do no mischief, at least to us. Having been born and raised in New York City, I continue to marvel at the beauty and tranquility, and uniqueness of life in Vermont.
— Bettyanne McGuire, Woodstock
Dear Daybreak:
I was driving to DHMC the other day, and there, in the middle of Medical Center Drive, lay a lone zucchini. It must be summer in the Upper Valley.
— Jennifer Rickards, Etna
Dear Daybreak:
A couple weeks ago, my husband called to me that a hummingbird had found its way into his open garage doors. We found this wee girl on the stairs, completely dehydrated and exhausted.
She let me pick her up, gently. I offered her sugar water in a lid but she was too tired to drink from the lid. So I got the idea to take a lantana blossom and dip it in the sugar water. Gently putting her beak into the blossom, she finally took drinks, her tongue finding the droplets as she rested in my palm. She sat with me for over 30 minutes, sipping and coming back to life. Finally revived, she shook her feathers and flew into the lilac bush above me, before taking flight. To hold such a wee creature was amazing.
— Kelly Hawes, Etna
Cover photo: Sunset at Mascoma Lake, by Ashley Arsenal