• 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 Joshua Whitney House, c. 1755

This Old Norfolk House By Joseph Kelly Whitney is a storied family name in America. Think Eli Whitney and his cotton gin or the Connecticut company Pratt & Whitney. In worlds as diverse as art, aviation, film, finance, journalism, linguistics, politics and women’s rights, Whitneys have played prominent roles including, as it turns out, right […]

Matt Riiska Talks Trash

Text By Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto By Heath Hughes Historically, Connecticut has done well with its garbage. As a state, it buries the least amount of trash in landfills. “But now it’s going to get ugly quick,” said First Selectman Matt Riiska to a group attending his talk about trash at the Norfolk Hub on June […]

Local Landowners Rally to Protect Hemlocks

It’s Only Natural Text By Susannah WoodPhoto by Wiley Wood On a cool afternoon at the beginning of June, a dozen or so volunteers gathered around a short woman sporting hiking gear, several fanny packs and a long stave with a hook on the end. Carole Cheah of the Connecticut State Agricultural Experiment Station was […]

Beagles and Terriers and Hounds, Oh My!

Text By Janet Gokay MeadTop Photo By Kelly Kandra Hughes The evening of the second annual Norfolk Library Pet Parade on June 17 began as it did last year: with perfect early summer weather, bright and a bit breezy. Though 18 dogs had been preregistered for the event—which Library Director Ann Havemeyer has declared a […]

Art to Assist Ukraine Exhibit Opens at the Norfolk Hub

Local artists rally to raise money to provide support By Patricia Platt A remarkable, comprehensive show of art from the northwest Connecticut area can be found this month at the Norfolk Hub. The event, Art to Assist Ukraine, is a fundraising benefit put together by community members and 35 artists to support Assist-Ukraine, a nonprofit […]

New Lamps at the Norfolk Library Illuminate a Whimsical Walk Downton

Text By Michael Cummings KellyPhoto By Doug McDevitt To the number of reasons we already have for taking a leisurely walk through Norfolk’s anomalous, historic village can now be added the crooked pathway that courses down a gentle incline on the east side of the Norfolk Library.  Where daily for 50 years a dozen New […]

Norfolk Boards Consider In-Person vs. Virtual Meetings

Are hybrid meetings the new normal? By Andra Moss Following the May 1 expiration of the pandemic-related law giving emergency permission for remote meetings, the Connecticut legislature passed House Bill 5269 giving local boards and commissions the option to continue meeting remotely. The law does not require remote access to meetings; it allows the decision […]

Music Shed Hosts Premier of Kirk Sinclair’s American Discovery Symphony

A Musical Love Story Text by Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto by Heath Hughes The world premiere of the American Discovery Symphony, an orchestrated travelogue and love story, took place on May 24 at the Music Shed in Norfolk with a socially distanced crowd of about 150 people. Approximately 37 musicians took the stage under conductor Mark […]

Life in a One-Room Schoolhouse at the Historical Museum

On Sunday, June 5, at 3 p.m., Susan Webb will present “School Days with the Traveling Schoolmarm: A Chronicle of American Country School Images, Artifacts, Recitations, and Adventures” at the Norfolk Historical Museum. For the past 20 years, the Norfolk Historical Society has been hosting Webb’s presentations for children at Botelle School. She spends the […]

Norfolk Land Trust Acquires 235 Acres in South Norfolk

Strategic connector of multi-town forest expanse protected by David Beers Back in 2004, Norfolk Land Trust founder Colin Tait, had a vision to create a continuous corridor of protected forest from Route 8 in Winsted to Route 7 in Canaan. That vision just became ever more real with the recent acquisition of the 235 acres […]

Is the Fashion Industry Committing Hydrocide?

Norfolk environmental program highlights the need for sustainable fashion by Kelly Kandra Huhges Earth Day may be celebrated every year on April 22, but every day is a great day to consider how personal choice impacts the Earth. A recent joint program of the Norfolk Church of Christ and the Norfolk Library virtually welcomed documentary […]

Norfolk Ambulance to Initiate Administrative Support Groups

Friends needed to keep friends safe By Andra Moss When emergency strikes in Norfolk, a cadre of volunteers comes running. Usually, first on the scene of a medical emergency is the Norfolk Ambulance crew, an all-volunteer corps that provides community protection 365 days a year. Ambulance volunteers have proven their dedication to the community for […]