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.
Dear Daybreak:
*Sipping scotch on the neighbor’s porch watching hummingbirds sparring like fighter jets as he recalls coaching the year the girl with cigarette burns and a hair-trigger temper tries out for the team but boy could she rebound
So for one big season those small-town girls become the family she never knew and together with a furious flutter of emerging wings claw their way clear up to All-State*
— “Hummingbirds” by Danny Dover, Bethel
Dear Daybreak:
A few Thursdays ago, walking around the corner of Court Street toward City Hall in Lebanon, two circles of light caught my attention. It was too cold and windy to stand there for long, watching the moon rise. I was shocked that my iPhone camera captured the sight of the Man in the Moon- who apparently would win the race to the top.
— Laura Harris Hirsch, Lebanon
Would you ever suspect that we have tundra in the Upper Valley?
From tamaracks to tawny cotton grass, the Philbrick-Cricenti Bog in New London is a true gem, showcasing one of the most spectacular biomes in our boreal locale. 10,000 years ago, glaciers transformed a small lake into this bog in which only few plants can thrive due to its highly acidic conditions. One such plant, peat moss, combined with stagnant water creates floating mats that form this tundra-like environment.
Back in November, I caught the yellowing tamaracks shedding their needles. They are a deciduous conifer, thus drop their plumage when other trees drop their leaves. The puffy balls of tawny cotton grass were bending in the wind. Remnants of flowering sheep laurel, pitcher plant and bog rosemary gave promise of color that will grace us in spring and summer. But at the time, the striking deep maroon of the peat moss dominated the landscape to complement the black spruce and autumnal sky. The red of winterberry and a few straggling blueberry leaves stopped me in my tracks.
Adequate parking on Newport Road (about a block from Hannaford’s) and newly renovated boardwalks make for easy access. The loop-paths are short enough for a quick stroll (less than a mile), but I highly recommend you take your time to read the educational signage, try lifting the 20-foot poles out of the mud, and pause for the views. You need not be a botanist to feel the softness of the tamarack needles and appreciate this geological wonder.
— Nanette Lee Babcock, Enfield
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And did you miss the last one? Here it is!
Banner photo above: Sunrise in Pomfret, by Greg Greene