• 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

Tom Hlas Has Signed, Sealed, and Delivered with Mail Art

Text by Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto by Tom Hlas Tom Hlas always knew he wanted to be an artist. Born and raised in Elberon, Iowa (population at the time about 100 people), Hlas remembers being four years old and playing with cars on his parents’ chenille bedspread. When his oldest sister, home from college, asked him […]

The Healing Nest Is a New Center for Wellness and Community

By Ruth Melville When Dianna Hofer was young, she was fascinated with the placebo effect and startled to learn that people normally use only 5 percent of their brains. In college, as she studied more about the mind, she began to think of it as “the greatest new frontier.” Four decades of continuing investigation into […]

Helping Hands Are Everywhere If You Know Where to Look

By Doug McDevitt Norfolk is a community, much like any other, where some neighbors are in great need but may not know where to go or whom to reach out to for help. The good news is that Norfolk has many avenues for people to discreetly receive help.  One such avenue is Norfolk NET, short […]

Conservation Commission Serves to Protect Norfolk’s Natural Resources

Town Boards, Commissions, & Committees by Ruth Melville Every town in Connecticut is empowered by the state to have a conservation commission, whose duties are to care “for the development, conservation, supervision and regulation of natural resources, including water resources.” To fulfill this mission, the Norfolk Conservation Commission (NCC) is active on several fronts, from […]

Growing Up Black in Norfolk

The Rev. Dr. Shelley Best Text by Kelly Kandra Hughes The Rev. Dr. Shelley Best has achieved a lot in her 59 years of life. She is currently the pastor of A.M.E. Zion Church in Plainville, Conn. She has raised over $10 million dollars for her uplifting and empowering ministries. She created The 224 Ecospace, […]

“A World Without Insects is a World Without People.” E.O. Wilson

Pollinators Imperiled by Susannah Wood The declining population of monarch butterflies, those champions of migration, has been well-documented over recent years, but has only become more dire. Between 1996 and 2020, 88 percent of the eastern population of monarchs has disappeared. In the western group the situation is even worse; only a few thousand remain. […]

Harmony Online

by Janet Gokay Mead During the pandemic, the Norfolk Library stepped up to the plate with a host of online programs: art shows, mindfulness classes, studio tours, book groups. In the dead of winter a group of six intrepid souls signed up for one of the library’s more unusual Zoom classes: Harmonica I. The results […]

Norfolk Kicks Off Summer

Mardi Gras: Move Over Text by Janet Gokay MeadPhotos by Sonja Zinke New Orleans may have its Mardi Gras parade. New York City can boast about its Macy’s Day—or its Gay Pride—parade. But, really, do any of them compare to the spectacle that the Norfolk Library inspired on Friday, June 12?  More than 30 pets […]

Coleridge-Taylor Had Norfolk Connections

by Andra Moss The glorious days of July usher in the return of the Norfolk Music Festival, albeit still in virtual format. This year, the program for July 23 will feature a special tie to the festival’s historic past, highlighting the work of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Although one of the best-known composers of his era, […]

From Norfolk to Broadway and Back to Norfolk

Ted Sperling’s career has come full circle by Michael Cobb Ted Sperling first became acquainted with Norfolk in 1981, while studying the viola at the Yale Summer School of Music. As a student, he had a front-row seat to the evolution of the Tokyo String Quartet, who were in residence that year, breaking in the […]

Greenwoods, 2058 Brings New Art and Artists to Norfolk

Summer residencies underway Text by Ruth MelvillePhoto by Andra Moss The Yale Summer School of Art may have been canceled for this summer, but a new artists residency program promises to keep Norfolk’s small but enthusiastic art scene active. Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and Fox Hysen moved to town about four years ago. Artists and teachers, they […]

Family Friendly Friday Night Fun

Summer Happenings by Kelly Kandra Hughes Now that pandemic restrictions are easing and the number of people vaccinated is increasing, Norfolk residents are excited to get more out and about this summer. When asked what they’re most looking forward to this summer in Norfolk, members of the Norfolk Connecticut Past & Present Facebook group enthusiastically […]