• 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

The Connecticut-Asian Cultural Center Opens on Westside Road

Celebrating Art and Culture Text by Patricia PlattPhoto Courtesy of The CT-Asian Cultural Center Celebrating its motto “Love, Mutual Support and Peace,” the Connecticut-Asia Cultural Center held its grand opening on Aug. 6 at 207A Westside Road, the large stone estate built by Dr. Michael Pupin in 1907. For many years, the site was occupied […]

Norfolk NET Program Encourages Acts of Kindness in the Community

Paying It Forward Text By Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto by Henry Perrault Norfolk has a new Little Free Library! Located on Winchester Road, the wooden box filled with books sits on a pole with a sign that encourages passersby to “Take a Book, Leave a Book.” Under this directive is one more sentence: “Made possible by […]

A Bounty of Cultivated and Wild Mushrooms Can Be Found at Husky Meadows Farm

Mushrooms on the Menu By David Beers The old Curtiss dairy farm was quiet for many years. Then in 2015 an organic vegetable farm took root, called Husky Meadows Farm. Over the past seven years, the farm has diversified more each year. It is remarkable to see all that is going on. The farm now […]

Station Place Café to Close After 12 Years in Business

Station Place Café, based in the historic former Norfolk station of the Central New England Railway,will close its doors at the end of September, says owner Stefanie Gouey. She cites Covid-19, rising food costs and decreasing walk-in business as factors in her decision to close the well-reviewed eatery. Gouey first started serving fresh breakfast and […]

Revamped Town Website Launched

By Susan MacEachron As of July 1, the town website has been redesigned and is under town management for the first time. Before now, the website had been managed by various members of the community for the benefit of the town. Now the Website Committee is a town committee, and notices of monthly meetings will […]

Keeping Vital Supplies Flowing to Ukraine’s Front Lines

Two men with local ties send equipment where it’s needed most Text By Andra MossPhoto Courtesy of Evan Platt On May 1, barely two months after the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine, Evan Platt boarded a plane in Salt Lake City, Utah, bound for Warsaw. His friend and former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) […]

Babs Perkins Uses Intentional Movement to Produce Ethereal Photograpys

Text by Jude MeadPhoto Courtesy of Babs Perkins Photography has the power to inspire and the ability to invoke an emotional response in people. It is a visual tool that allows photographers to show how they see the world. For professional photographer and writer Barbara “Babs” Perkins, photography is a passion. She uses it to […]

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to Take Place During WIN Weekend

by Jeremy Withnell The long-awaited end to the second phase of the City Meadow project is nearly at hand.  According to Molly Ackerly, chair of the City Meadow committee, the finishing touches are being put in place and a ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled to coincide with Weekend in Norfolk on August 7 at 1 […]

Norfolk Church Sends Work Camp Group To Upgrade Homes and Uplift Hearts

Photo by Sarah Foster After a two-year break, Church of Christ Congregational resumed its tradition of Work Camp trips. This year, 16 volunteers loaded into cars and headed back to Camden, N.Y. to resume their partnership with Cluster 13 Ministries.   Under the leadership of Pastor Erick Olsen and his wife Tina, seven adults and nine […]

Former Norfolk Resident Publishes Her First Children’s Book

Finding Inspiration in the Words of a Child Text By Colleen GundlachPhoto by Laura Roehl A few years ago, there was a grandmother whose little grandson ran to her and said, “Grammy, Grammy, there’s a fish in the tree,” to which she replied, “A fish in a tree? How could that be?” That simple, spontaneous […]

Local Hero Recounts Grueling Guadalcanal Campaign

Text By Patricia PlattPhoto Courtesy of the Marolda Family The Battle of Guadalcanal, a six-month campaign for control of a strategically important Pacific island airfield, marked a critical turning point in World War II for the Allies. If the Japanese controlled the island, they could cut off the sea route between Australia and America. From […]

Preparing in Norfolk to Fight Wildfires Across North America

Interstate fire crew trains locally at Yale Camp By David Beers During the first week of June, 26 students and 10 instructors were cut off from the world at Yale Camp at Great Mountain Forest for four days of wildland fire training. The instructors were seasoned wildland fire fighting veterans and the students were new […]