Botelle Students Take On the National Great Kindness Challenge
By Lauren Valentino At the end of January, Botelle’s Student Council took on a new challenge, the Great Kindness Challenge. This weeklong event is designed to promote a positive community, with students, staff and families completing many different acts of kindness. The Great Kindness Challenge is a yearly program for schools and families across the […]
December, Winter Greenery
By Leslie Watkins This year the astronomical first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere falls on Friday, December 21. We will experience about nine hours and 15 minutes of sunlight on this shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice. The word solstice comes from the Latin for “sol”, meaning sun and sistere, […]
Norfolk’s October 2018 Weather
An average October By Russell Russ Many recent months have been high-ranking for temperature or precipitation, or both. Something we have not seen much of lately is an average weather month, but that is just about what October was. The month started out warm with some late summer-like weather. That all changed by the […]
Education at Botelle—Building Well-Rounded Students
By Lauren Valentino If you ask 50 people what the purpose of public education is, you are likely to get 50 different answers. One reason for this is that people have different priorities: the arts, technology, world languages, raising test scores, the list goes on and on. Differences in priorities became apparent at the […]
Whiting Mills: An Old Sock Factory Stuffed With Surprises
By Sally Quale Inside a former mill building tucked behind the community college in Winsted there is a warren of artists’ spaces, craftsmen’s workshops and miscellaneous businesses. This is Whiting Mills. On any given day, a ceramicist might be glazing her pots for the kiln, a painter scrubbing his canvases, a weaver laying out […]
November, Winter Is Coming
By Leslie Watkins Along with signs like the early migration of birds and butterflies, pigs collecting sticks and an abundance of acorns, banded woolly bear caterpillars are thought to forecast a long, cold winter when they sport a narrow band of orange and are especially fuzzy. Woolly bears hatch in the fall and eat […]
Squirrels: They Are Everywhere
By Jude Mead On a good day it seems like there’s an overpopulation of squirrels this year, but the professionals disagree. According to Michael Gregonis, a wildlife biologist at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the number of squirrels racing about in our backyards is actually lower than last year. “There has […]
Norfolk’s September 2018 Weather
Warm and Wet By Russell Russ September weather in Norfolk this year was mostly cloudy and humid for much of the month. Temperatures and rainfall were both well above normal. September is prime hurricane season, and the Carolinas were hit with a devastating rainstorm when Hurricane Florence made landfall Sept. 14. Remnants of Florence […]
October, Thinking Ahead With Ornamental Bulbs
By Leslie Watkins Planting flower bulbs in the fall is like giving yourself a surprise present in the spring. Winter lasts just long enough to make it easy to forget exactly what and where you’ve planted. Squirrels and chipmunks add to the suspense by moving things around. No matter where the bulbs end up, […]
Catching the Annual Fall Migration of Hawks
By Jude Mead Witnessing firsthand the sight of hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of hawks flying overhead during their fall migration to South America is an extraordinary experience. Those that have seen this spectacle say it is the event of a lifetime, and Ayrslea Denny can attest to that. Denny has been […]
