Norfolk’s May 2015 Weather

Warmest May on Record By Russell Russ Last year’s title for the May weather article was Nothing Special, that was not the case this year. We all heard how dry this month was, but what snuck up on many of us, including yours truly, was how warm it really was. This month was the warmest […]

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, […]

Through The Garden Gate

July—The Bugs Have Arrived! By Leslie Watkins Gardens are looking lush and beautiful and attracting plenty of admiring glances from garden tour groups and now, pests. Cabbage white butterflies, tomato hornworms, red lily leaf beetles, Japanese beetles, slugs and snails to name a few. Hand picking, applying nontoxic pesticides, and setting baits are all useful […]

It’s Only Natural—A Walk Up Stoneman

Merging ecology and history By Hans M. Carlson A black squirrel runs across Canaan Mountain Road as I walk north toward the intersection of Steep Road and toward the Iron Trail up Canaan Mountain. I see this squirrel regularly, just north of the Great Mountain Forest (GMF) offices, and it always surprises me a little. […]

Through the Garden Gate

by Leslie Watkins   “What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade”. –Gertrude Jekyll, On Gardening    If you have been keeping on top of your gardens […]

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 […]

Botelle Spring Concert and Art Show

Botelle School’s spring concert tok place on Monday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. and Tuesday, May 19 at 10 a.m. Al fourth, fifth and sixth grade students have the opportunity to join in the performing groups. This year, 42 out of 46 eligible students chose to participate. Pictured above is Ashley Bianchi instructing the woodwind, […]

Botelle Beat—June 2015

by Matt O’Connell The Botelle sixth graders enjoyed a four-day trip to Cape Cod during the first week in May that included a whale watch, and visits to Nauset Lighthouse, Coast Guard Beach, Monument to Our Forefathers and Plimoth Plantation. In addition, they explored a Coast Guard base, the Coast Guard Heritage Museum, and the […]

Norfolk’s Weather—April 2015

From Deep Snow to Black Flies By Russell Russ   Spring finally arrived in April. It’s amazing to think that in just this one month we went from maple syrup season, 16-inches of snow on the ground and all ponds fully iced over to springtime warmth with peepers and black flies. Syrup season was over […]

Ellen Griesedieck’s Mural Project Celebrates the American Worker

By Ruth Melville Ellen Griesedieck thinks big. Her latest project has been 15 years in the making and is five stories tall. Griesedieck is the artist and driving force behind the American Mural Project. The three-dimensional mural, designed as a tribute to the working people of the United States, will eventually be 120 feet long, […]