Norfolk’s February 2017 Weather
Second Warmest February on Record By Russell Russ The month began with all ponds iced over, 5 inches of snow on the ground, cold temperatures and then several days with snowfall. Through mid month temperatures were running about 5 degrees below average for February, and we had already received our average snowfall amount for […]
Thorncrest Farm Magically Turns Milk into Chocolates
By Chris Sinclair When rare ability is married with a singular passion, the results can transcend the exceptional and wander into the realm of magic. Such a marriage is on vivid display at Thorncrest Farm, in Goshen, where Clint and Kim Thorn, along with their crew and beloved “girls,” make some of the finest chocolates […]
Norfolk’s January 2017 Weather
Another Warm January By Russell Russ Just when it seemed that winter had us firmly in its grasp we got a little break. We all thought last January was warm, but this January was over 3 degrees warmer. Snowfall was well below average, but it was several inches more than last year’s amount. The […]
Marchh, Persephone Returns
After spending the past four months searching for her missing daughter, Demeter (a.k.a. Mother Nature) will finally be reunited with the lovely Persephone on March 20, 2017, at 6:28 a.m. Persephone will be released from the underworld at the vernal equinox. This marks the beginning of spring and the reawakening of the earth in the […]
Ask Mrs. Washington
Dear Mrs. Washington: I have been living in my house near Norfolk’s downtown for over 10 years. My wife and I bought it when our daughter was in pre-K, and she is now in high school at Regional. But people still say: “Oh, you live in the So-and-so house,” and they mention a family that […]
Aton Forest Holds Annual Census of Early Winter Birds
By Wiley Wood Although she has been taking part in Christmas Bird Counts for over 50 years, when Ayreslea Denny describes her bird encounters on the morning of December 31 in Aton Forest, her voice is full of excitement. “The number of birds we got was just unbelievable,” she said. A small group, […]
Notables—Senator Frederic Collin Walcott
Businessman, Humanitarian, Conservationist, Statesman By Michael Kelly Frederic Walcott was born in 1869 to a prominent family in New York Mills, NY. His great-great grandfather established the first cotton mills in New York state and garnered a sizable fortune. Walcott’s father married Emeline Alice Welch, daughter of noted Norfolk physician William Wickham Welch, forging […]
Berkshire National Fish Hatchery
Volunteers work to preserve indigenous fish habitats By Michael Kelly It’s all about the water. At the Berkshire National Fish Hatchery (BNFH) in Hartsville, a hamlet of New Marlborough, Mass., 14 miles from Norfolk’s Village Green, 200 gallons a minute of pure 45-degree water from a deep underground aquifer course through 148 acres of […]
Norfolk’s November and December Weather and a Yearly Summary for 2016
A Snowy End to a Very Warm and Dry Year By Russell Russ After tracking a growing precipitation deficit and above average temperatures for the entire year, it was quite the twist in weather fate to have an early winter with snowy conditions before Thanksgiving. The closing months of 2016 were still a little […]
Through the Garden Gate
February, Precious Snowflakes By Leslie Watkins “Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated.”–Wilson Bentley Avalanches are sudden, unstoppable forces of nature. They gain mass, volume and momentum as they sweep down mountainsides. But even the mightiest of avalanches is made up of many small, harmless, fragile things—snowflakes. […]
