Tobey Pond—From Glacial Kettle to Local Swimming Hole
By Christopher Sinclair Several thousand years ago a glacier inched its way through the southern Berkshires, and upon its retreat left the patch of land that would later become Norfolk, Connecticut, with a parting gift. Tobey Pond, the locally famous and universally beloved swimming hole, is that gift —nearly as pristine now as it was […]
Rebuilding the American Chestnut Tree
Rescuing a Forest Icon By Ruth Melville From Connecticut to Mississippi, along the Appalachian Mountains and into the Ohio Valley, the American chestnut tree, able to grow as big as 130 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter, once dominated the forest canopy. Although American chestnuts were almost wiped out by disease by 1950, […]
Property Taxes Drop Slightly
Town budget trimmed back By Wiley Wood Norfolk will spend less in the coming year, and the tax rate will be marginally lower. The budget presented by Michael Sconyers, chairman of the Board of Finance, at a special town meeting on June 10 was almost $200,000 lower than last year’s, a drop of 3 percent. […]
Tour of the Litchfield Hills Raises Funds for Cancer Patients
Local nonprofit hopes to reach one million dollar mark this year By Suzanne Hinman Imagine being told that you have cancer and have weeks, months or even years of treatment ahead of you. Coping with the physical and emotional challenges of cancer treatment is daunting enough, but the financial burden is often the most overwhelming […]
Scott Shaw: Running like the Wind
By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo Norfolkian Scott Shaw won the town’s annual Five-Mile Road Race in May with an all-time course record of 28 minutes and 23 seconds. The second place finisher, Brandon LeClair, set the course record last year with a time of 29 minutes and 59 seconds. LeClair beat that time by 44 seconds […]
The Gardener Is Moving On, But the Spirit of Her Garden Will Remain
Mary Ann McGourty Heads for Warmer Climes By Ruth Melville After almost four decades in Norfolk, Mary Ann McGourty, expert gardener and avid birder, is packing up her gardening tools and bird books and moving to Athens, Georgia. Mary Ann and her husband, Fred McGourty, were, until 2004, the proprietors of Hillside Gardens, a nationally […]
Mia Weiner Opens Pinacoteca Art Gallery in Bantam
By Ruth Melville Art lovers in northwest Connecticut now have a new and unusual gallery to visit. Norfolk resident Mia Weiner has recently opened Pinacoteca in Bantam, where she will show and sell European paintings and drawings from the 16th to 20th century. Although she has been a gallery owner and dealer for 35 years, […]
Human Remains Found in Norfolk Woods
Missing East Hartford Man Identified By Ruth Melville The story of the man who left his car in Station Place in March 2014, and then vanished, came to a sad end on April 26, 2015, when human bones were found in the Norfolk woods. Early that Sunday afternoon, a passerby found the bones in […]
New Head Chef at Infinity Bistro
by Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo John Welch took over as Chef de Cuisine at Infinity Bistro this spring. His brand-new menu hit tables in mid-May. A few of the old favorites are still there–lobster hushpuppies, the edamame burger and lobster roll, but the menu has otherwise been totally re-worked. Welch visited the first outdoor farmers […]
Lime Rock Park Gears Up for Seventh Decade
By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo Driving down sleepy Route 112 on a weekday afternoon in May, the average motorist would never know that Lime Rock Park is absolutely humming with activity. I, for one, expected the track office to contain one or two part-time workers and the grounds to be relatively empty. Not exactly–the small track […]
