• Inside the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art

    A season of student and community activity By Patricia Platt For over 80 years, the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Trust has endowed Yale University’s summer music and art programs in Norfolk. The renowned Yale Norfolk School of Art opens the 2026 summer season on May 23, before the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival begins, and shares its […]

  • Trio Revives Local Farmers Market

    Northwest Farm to Fork launches at Norbrook By Andra Moss When Devin Grosso and her husband moved to Norfolk in 2024, she was disappointed to learn that the town’s farmers market had permanently closed just the year before. However, a chance meeting at the Botelle School garden with Lisa Auclair, who had managed the Norfolk […]

  • Tracing the Dudley Legacy

    Family history and the truth behind Dudleytown By Jude Mead The Dudley name, with roots stretching back to 14th-century England, carries with it a long and often dramatic history. For Susan Dudley of Winchester, that legacy has been a lifelong source of curiosity—particularly her family’s connection to Dudleytown, the long-abandoned settlement hidden within Cornwall’s Dark […]

  • Cultivars, Nativars and Natives: The Lowdown

    by Susannah Wood It’s May and gardening is in full swing. At nurseries and on gardening sites, beginners and enthusiasts often encounter plants labelled “cultivar” or “nativar,” as well as “native.” What is the difference between a cultivar and a nativar? If someone wants to support local ecosystems and biological diversity, are nativars a good […]

  • Noteworthy Natives: Arrowwood Viburnum

    By Jill Chase For some, a mass of viburnums in bloom on the woodlands edge rivals the beauty of any formal garden around. The fresh white flowers on green foliage let you know that the spring garden season is well and truly on. There are several good varieties of viburnum—some produce blooms like snowballs, while […]

  • A Town Hall Treat for Pollinators

    The Norfolk Nature Alliance sponsored a student native plant garden project at Town Hall. The Northwestern Regional 7 Agricultural Education Program/FFA arrived on a sunny Sunday to install the donated native shrubs and perennials.

  • Birds Now

    A view on the prose and poetry of spring By Cheryl Heller As I write, the red-winged blackbirds are partying outside my window. Goldfinches, in their bright almost-summer feathers, make yellow polkadots in the dogwood that will flower any day. The phoebe (or her daughter) who has nested on our hanging porch light for the […]

  • Happiness Is …

    Smiles and squeals greeted “Farmer John” Coston as he surprised the Merrymakers group of kindergarten and first-graders with a lamb visit at the Norfolk Library’s after-school program on March 23. Cuties and lambs—need we say more?

  • Greenwoods Puppet Festival Returns to Norfolk Library

    By Bina ThomsonThe Greenwoods Puppet Festival returns to Norfolk for a third exciting showcase of puppet magic. Children’s Librarian and Event Coordinator Eileen Fitzgibbons, who has coordinated the previous two festivals, is busy fine-tuning this year’s offerings. In addition to a full day of performances, a puppetry workshop for adults will also be offered. Festivities […]

  • Botelle Beat

    Power Goals and WIN Time Personalize Learning at Botelle By Lauren Valentino One of Botelle School’s SOAR expectations is to Achieve Your Goals. We believe that when students know their goals—what they are learning, why and what success looks like—they are more engaged and motivated. They are partners in the learning process and own their […]

  • Courtney Maum’s Comedic Take on Capitalism

    On June 2nd, Norfolk author Courtney Maum launches her new novel, “ALAN OPTS OUT” (Little Brown) at the Norfolk Library in conversation with WAMC radio’s Sarah LaDuke. The book is a comedy about an ad exec who bombs the biggest pitch of his career and decides to move into a backyard playhouse, opt out of […]

  • “You Shall Not Pass!”

    Gandalf and the state Department of Transportation have spoken. Mountain Road at Westside Road is now closed through November for the Spaulding Brook bridge replacement project. Traffic is being detoured off Route 44 via Westside Road. Cars can still reach the ball fields along the short stretch of Mountain Road.

Articles

This Old Norfolk House

The 1764 Stevens House, Part 2: A Hatter’s Norfolk Legacy By Joe Kelly When Nathaniel Stevens came to Norfolk in the mid-1700s to set up his business as a hatter and build the house that still stands on Old Colony Road—and which the Stevens family would occupy well into the 20th century—he would become one […]

Off the beaten path

Ashley Falls Offers A Lot to Explore By David Beers The beaten path is Route 7. If you are heading north on Route 7 from North Canaan, just past the Connecticut police barracks, there is a road that veers left at a slight angle. This is Ashley Falls Road (Route 7A), and if you take […]

Know Your Neighbor

Christopher Keyes With this piece, Norfolk Now is launching a new series to get to know our neighbors better and to find common ground by talking about our relationship to our exceptional town. How did you come to Norfolk? I came to know Norfolk through friends in the late ’90s. I recall a walk up Dennis […]

Norfolk Remembers: Elizabeth Ann (Poll) Leifert

Elizabeth A Leifert, 80, passed away March 28, 2024. She was the wife of 60 years of Lawrence A. Leifert. Born in Torrington on Feb. 3, 1944, she was the daughter of Armand and Katherine Killiany Poll and a graduate of the Hart School of Music. She worked for the State of Connecticut Department of […]

Norfolk Remembers: Eleanor Curtiss Ellert

Eleanor Curtiss Ellert passed away on February 23, 2024, at the young age of 96. She was born in Norfolk, in 1927 to Albert H. and Elizabeth (Manville) Curtiss. Although she moved away from Norfolk during her marriage to her first husband of 14 years, she returned with her son, Clifford Bell, after her divorce. […]

Local Farmers Navigate Shift in Weather Patterns, Hardiness Zones

Norfolk reclassified as zone 6 By Jude Mead Gardening and farming have always been important in the Northwest Corner, and those involveddepend on the Plant Hardiness Zone Map released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to helpthem determine the best practices in these activities. Growing zones help identify the types of plantsand crops that […]

New Choral Union Director Plans Multigenerational Rebuild

Singers of all ages invited to join LCCU By Patricia Platt“When the Litchfield County Choral Union sings, our love of music and Mozart fills the air,” announcedGabriel Lofvall, the LCCU’s new musical director. Rehearsals will start in late May for an August concertwhich will include Mozart’s “Mass of the Sparrows (Spatzenmesse),” a selection of pieces […]

Can wildlife safely cross Norfolk’s Roads?

By Shelley Harms Where are animals crossing Norfolk’s roads? Are they making it across? Is it possible to make theircrossings safer? Julia Rogers, Senior Land Protection Manager at the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA), helped agroup of interested Norfolk residents explore these questions at a training session sponsored by theNorfolk Land Trust on March 22 at […]

Great Mountain Forest’s New Executive Director Returns to His Connecticut Roots

By David Beers Mike Zarfos started his new position as executive director of Great Mountain Forest (GMF) at the end ofFebruary. It has been a lively time for Zarfos and his family; in addition to moving from Washington,D.C., to Connecticut, they are expecting a baby in April. Zarfos grew up in Deep River, Conn., where […]

A Norfolk Library Card Unlocks a World of Digital Collections

Apps offer readers free access to e-content By Andra MossThe Norfolk Library may be filled with history (and books), but it is also an outstanding resource fordigital media. Thanks to several easy-to-use apps, the library provides 24/7 access to a universe of freedigital collections via the power of a library card. Tired of watching that […]

Focus on New Firehouse shifts to funding

Costs likely to rise beyond initial $5 million estimate By Joe Kelly After months of sometimes contentious public hearings, plans for a new Norfolk firehouse are nearing the end of the wetlands/zoning part of the approval process and heading into a decisive new phase: finding the money to pay for it all. The Planning & […]

Pig Iron Films

East Canaan Landmark Was Inspiration for Filmmaking Business By Michael Cobb Perotti is a name well known throughout the northwest corner of Connecticut. Though he has worked as a plumbing apprentice for the family business, Perotti & Sons, Inc., Ted Perotti’s vocation has led him in a different direction –  filmmaking. A native of East […]