• 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

Seasonal Foraging

In Search of Spring Wild Edibles  By Tracy Hayhurst  While we eagerly await the first lettuces, spinach and arugula from the garden, Mother Nature has provided us with many nutrient-rich wild greens and herbs to sample now.  Stinging nettle, garlic mustard and dandelion, for example, are often maligned as weeds but can be used in […]

New Residence Awaits Arriving Summer Artists

Eldridge Barn renovation nearly complete Text By Andra Moss  Photo By Peter Chaffetz The Yale Norfolk School of Art is set to receive an impressive present for its 75th birthday in May. When the 26 students and seven faculty arrive in Norfolk on May 20, they will find a completely new residence building on the Ellen […]

Spring Snowstorm Surprise

By Russell Russ The first two weeks of March were fairly normal, with normal temperatures and even several days with snowfall. Due to this winter’s prevailing weather patterns, southern New England had not seen any big nor’easter-type storms. That all changed on March 13.  The storm began slowly with light snow showers during the day […]

Gas Spill Repercussions Month Five Months On

Disruptions, disputes and microbes By Joe Kelly Five months after a tanker truck crashed on Route 44, Norfolk continues to grapple with the impact of the 8,200-gallon spill that drenched the center of town. The disruption and dislocation that began in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 2022, also continue for residents closest to […]

Lost Ruby Farm Has Found a Worthy Successor for Its Cheese-Making Business

Supporting Local Farms Text By Avice MeehanFeatured Image by Ashley Skatoff It’s a cold, rainy March afternoon just before Antonio Guindon’s 60th birthday and he’s having fun: Irish music coming from a speaker, a stove burning bright, and maple sap boiling in a small evaporator.  “Every spring, sap fever hits me, and the beauty of […]

Wayne Jenkins Recalls Almost 60 Years of Syrup Making

A Labor of Love Text By Jude MeadPhoto by Scott Whalen The maple syrup season is once again wrapping up for the year. For most producers, the season started off strong,  one of the earliest ever noted in the area according to ACSERnet, an international network of scientists studying the maple tree’s ecology. Maple syrup […]

Norfolk Library Opens New Teen Alcove in the Great Hall

Dedicated space for teens to study and hang out Text By Kelly Kandra Hughes  Photo Courtesy of the Norfolk Library  After two years of planning, design and construction, the Norfolk Library’s new place for teens has opened. Community discussions on teen mental health had suggested that teens didn’t have any place of their own in Norfolk. […]

Connecticut-Asia Cultural Center Reopens for 2023 Season

Text By Patricia PlattPhoto Courtesy of the CT-Asia Cultural Center Norfolk residents and visitors will want to add the Connecticut-Asia Cultural Center to their list of local places to visit this spring and summer. On April 1, the center, at 207A Westside Road, reopens for a new season. The museum will be open to the […]

Local Inn Reopens as Luxury Bed and Breakfast

Welcome to the Wildwood1880 By Andra Moss It was, virtually, love at first sight. From her kitchen table in Northern California last July, Sarah Dreyer followed intently as her realtor used a mobile phone camera to walk her room by room through the Mountain View Green Retreat in Norfolk. Dreyer definitely liked what she saw. […]

Children’s Foundation Works to Enrich Lives of Local Students 

By Avice Meehan Thirty-five years after its founding, the Norfolk Connecticut Children’s Foundation is now led by Babs Perkins, whose father, Roderick J. Perkins, helped create the foundation following the closure of the Laurel School. The foundation’s mission is straightforward: to enrich the lives of Norfolk’s children by supporting cultural and educational experiences, camps and […]

Yarn for Good (and Food)

By Janet G. Mead When the Norfolk Knitters were asked to participate in WIN weekend at the end of February, several came up with a brilliant idea: let’s sell all that yarn that’s been sitting in a closet, reserved for projects that never inched beyond the concept stage, and donate the funds to the Norfolk […]

Canaan Couple Is Passionate About Coffee

Colombian growers of Ilse Coffee’s beans are carefully chosen By Colleen Gundlach    When a person has a cup of coffee that actually “tastes like something,” they will never go back to drinking ordinary coffee again—the belief on which Rebecca Grossman and Lucas Smith have built their gourmet coffee-roasting business, Ilse Coffee. The couple, who have […]