• 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 Poetry of Sarah Anderson: A Book Launch Celebration

Text By Andra MossPhoto by Babs Perkins The old red barn on Colebrook Road was an ideal setting for the reading by Sarah Alcott Anderson from her first published book of poetry, “We Hold On To What We Can” (Loom Press). On an early August afternoon, the large crowd of invited guests, distributed in folding […]

Authors, Audiences to Reconnect at Haystack Book Festival

by Jude Mead Have your Covid-19 proof of vaccination ready because you won’t want to miss the lineup of authors at this year’s Haystack Book Festival in Norfolk. The festival was canceled last year because of the pandemic. This year it will follow the state and CDC guidelines and will be live in-person, with proof […]

Creating Music from Start to Finish

By David Beers Andrew Thomson distinctly remembers a pivotal moment in his life: it was the 90s and he was singing in the Chorus Angelicus children’s choir at the Norfolk Music Shed. Also onstage were professional adult instrumentalists accompanying the choir.  Thomson was awed by their musicality and got his first glimpse of his future […]

Artist’s Workshop Coming to Town

By Jude Mead When Hilary VanWright sees an opportunity that will benefit her community, she goes after it. That is exactly what happened when she learned about a grant from the Artist Fellowship Program. Fellowship awards provide recognition and funding support for Connecticut artists and are highly competitive. VanWright, however, was confident in her idea […]

The New Tobey Pond Shed Has Arrived

Norfolk Benefits from Eagle Scout Project By David Beers Only 4 percent of scouts ever achieve the highest rank—Eagle Scout. Ethan Perlman is now part of this select group by completing his community service project: a new Tobey Pond lifeguard shed. A year ago, Perlman had hit a roadblock in getting town wetlands and zoning […]

New Accordion Museum Has a Tight Squeeze on History

by Andra Moss “Whoa!” This is the delighted response of visitor after visitor upon stepping inside the New England Accordion Connection & Museum Company (NEACMC), newly opened in the historic Canaan Union Depot railroad station alongside the railroad museum and Great Falls Brewing Company. The word does pretty much capture the experience: the museum’s large […]

Mapping the Future of Norfolk’s Public Trails

Project will consolidate data on every hiking path in one online site Text by Andra MossPhoto by Dawn Whalen Looking for a great public trail in Norfolk? Hikers are definitely spoiled for choice, with dozens of miles of wooded paths, former carriage roads, logging trails and railway beds silently beckoning. Whatever one’s perambulatory mood, be […]

Freund’s Farm Offers Stroll & Graze for Enjoyment and Education

by Colleen Gundlach Combining the beauty of 200 contiguous acres of cropland with an understanding of how this land can be part of the climate change solution, Freund’s Farm in East Canaan is an example of how local farmers work for farmland preservation while protecting the environment. To share both the beauty and the science, […]

New Gateways Welcome Visitors to Town

By Doreen Kelly “Village Improvement Together!” is the motto of the Norfolk Community Association (NCA), and there couldn’t be a more fitting description of its most recently completed undertaking—the Welcome to Norfolk beautification project, made possible by a grant from The Evan Hughes Charitable Trust and in partnership with the Norfolk Economic Development Commission (EDC). […]

Winchester Youth Services Bureau Assists Young People in Area Towns

Health and Welfare in Town Budget by Colleen Gundlach Through the town budget, Norfolk residents support several nonprofit social service organizations, some of which have been featured in past issues of Norfolk Now. With pandemic-related lockdowns and social isolation, these agencies have proved to be more important than ever before in maintaining the mental and […]

Suffragists Hit the Road to Norfolk

by Andra Moss Something special was in the air in August 1911. It was the sound of women’s voices rising, once again, to demand their right to vote. Decades of unsuccessful advocacy for women’s suffrage in Connecticut had left many discouraged at the turn of the 20th century, but by 1911 fresh winds were blowing. […]

Combating the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

by Mattie Vandiver The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) is an insect native to Japan that was first noted in Connecticut in 1985 when a foliage sample was brought to the research station in New Haven. Since then it has been an ongoing issue in Connecticut as well as many other states, although Norfolk has barely […]