Torrington Yarn Bomb Brings Color, Art and Whimsy to the City
By Julie Scharnberg I read an article about yarn bombing that appeared in Yankee Magazine about four years ago and passed it around to some knitters, thinking, Who wouldn’t want to do this? How fun! Yarn bombing is a form of temporary street art where brightly colored yarn in any form—knitted, crocheted, woven, […]
It’s Only Natural—July 2016
Old Field Pines on the Norfolk Downs By Hans M. Carlson Many people have a perception of the precolonial New England forest as dominated by white pine. This is in part due to many early chroniclers using the name “pine” as a catchall for conifers—hemlock, fir, spruce. It also has to do with the […]
Norfolk’s May 2016 Weather
From Cool and Raw to Hot and Humid By Russell Russ This May was about average for weather. It was very unlike May 2015, which was near record dry and far and away the warmest May on record. This year the month started out cool and cloudy, and many days had that early spring […]
Through the Garden Gate
July, Berry Season By Leslie Watkins July is the beginning of the great berry harvest, keeping both people and birds busy as can be. Blueberries, red raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries all begin to ripen now, providing us with delectable and nutritious berries for pies, tarts, sauces and pancakes—if the berries make it back to […]
Thoughts Along the Chattleton Road at Great Mountain Forest
By Hans M. Carlson The road at Great Mountain Forest’s (GMF) west gate is a new spur off an older thoroughfare. Jean’s Trail is the intersection, and from there the old Chattleton Road once ran down behind where Rustling Winds Stables is now. It still goes south to Meekertown in the other direction, but […]
Through The Garden Gate
June, Full Tilt Gardening By Leslie Watkins June may be the busiest month in the gardener’s calendar. It’s time to get the tender vegetables into the ground. Tomato, pepper, and eggplant starts may be planted and melons, squash, beans and cucumber seeds can be direct sown. Water new plantings deeply and consistently as needed. […]
Norfolk’s Weather— April 2016
Springtime Snow and Cold By Russell Russ April’s weather was statistically fairly normal. Following a warm February and very warm March, one would have almost expected to be swimming in Tobey Pond by mid-April, but that was not the case. April’s temperatures began on a record warm note then quickly cooled off to near-record […]
Melville, the Mountain and Moby Dick
By Michael Kelly Only a writer with Herman Melville’s phantasmagorical imagination could look out his window in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts at Mount Greylock, 16 miles due north, and envision a great white whale surfacing for air in the remote seas of the South Pacific. Yet this is precisely what Melville did […]
Tobey Bog: The Centrality of Marginal Places
By Hans M. Carlson Many of the articles I’ve written for Norfolk Now have concerned the interconnectedness of the natural world and human communities. By highlighting stone walls, collier’s hearths and the remnants of early conservation work, I’ve tried to show that even the deepest woods here in the northwest corner of Conn. are […]
