• Work to Resume on Route 44 and New Firehouse

    Warmer temps ensure concrete quality By Avice Meehan Two significant Norfolk projects that were put on hold because of below-zero temperatures this winter are expected to resume by mid-March: Reconstruction of two retaining walls along Route 44 and the construction of a new firehouse for the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department. Engineers for the state Department […]

  • Richard Byrne Retires as Active Firefighter

    After 58 years, veteran status By Joseph Kelly He was a young Navy veteran, about to be married and ready to start a family in his hometown when, in February 1968, his older brother convinced him to join the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD). For Richard Byrne it was the start of an association that […]

  • Rock ‘n Roll House Party Circus Will Benefit Local Food Banks

    Three Grammy nominees to perform at Infinity Hall By Colleen Gundlach On April 11, Infinity Hall will be the setting for Rock ‘n Roll House Party Circus, a concert that will benefit Stock the Shelves, an outreach of United Way of Northwestern Connecticut. The Rock ‘n Roll House Party Circus will feature three Grammy nominees […]

  • Rom-Com Curling Film Released With Olympics

    To get the ice just right, filmmakers tapped Norfolk expertise By Joseph Kelly The underdogs who battle the odds—the washed-up boxer, the outclassed football team, the aging baseball slugger with one last homerun in him—are all Hollywood standbys. Ronald Reagan may be remembered as much for “win one for the Gipper” as he is for […]

  • How Botelle (Carefully) Uses AI for Learning

    By Avice Meehan For more than three decades, children visited the fictional town of Frog Creek, Penn., home to two children named Jack and Annie. With the help of a magic tree house, the pair are whisked away to distant places where they have adventures, solve problems and, perhaps, learn a thing or two. Like […]

  • Choral Singing Meets Bluegrass

    LCCU welcomes all ages to sing new styles By Andra Moss The Litchfield County Choral Union (LCCU) is entering its 127th concert year with decidedly youthful energy. Under the direction of Music Director Dr. Gabriel Löfvall, the LCCU will convene a youth choral festival in Norfolk in late spring; offer a series of choral seminars […]

  • Winter Weekend In Norfolk

    It was a cold and blustery weekend, but that didn’t stop the hardy from coming out on Feb. 21 and 22 for Winter WIN, the weekend for enjoying all things Norfolk in the winter season. The photos below show a story of a town that came together to strut its stuff for the world to […]

  • From Freeze to Flow: Extreme Temps and the Maple Syrup Season

    Reaching that ideal mix of natural conditions By Jude Mead The extreme cold and heavy snowfall this season has raised some concern among maple syrup producers. Reports of loud, cracking noises in wooded areas have set the stage for a phenomenon called “frost cracking.” During these periods of intense cold, the water and sap inside […]

  • Sit Right Back and You’ll Hear a Tale

    With Jude Mead at the guitar and with great enthusiasm, members of the Isabella Eldridge Club defied a threatened winter storm and entered Battell Chapel on Feb. 10 for a memorable performance of an episode of “Gilligan’s Island,” a daft 1960s television comedy. Despite the best efforts of the Professor (played by Marinell Crippen, left) […]

  • Cook For Goodness Sake

    America The Melting Pot By Linda Garrettson In celebration of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, it seems appropriate to dedicate my food column this year to America, who we are, and what we eat. Get ready for some history lessons, and perhaps surprises that might enlighten you to what we call American […]

  • Be Careful, Very Careful

    An expert team from the Glass Source Stained Glass Studio spent nearly six hours in cold mid-January weather care-fully removing a cathedral stained glass window from Battell Chapel at the United Church of Christ before transporting it to their studio in Seymour for restoration. In this photo, Michael Skrtic balances one section of the window […]

  • The Week that Was

    First, frigid temperatures forced the relocation of Norfolk’s valiant Post Office staff to Winsted because of scheduled asbestos remediation, leaving box holders temporarily puzzled. Then, the big snow arrived on Jan. 25 and 26. Estimates vary widely: Russell Russ reported the official tally at the Great Mountain Forest weather station as 15.2 inches, but others […]

Articles

Greenwoods Puppet Festival Comes to Norfolk

From Inspiration to Reality  By Jude Mead For the first time ever, Norfolk residents and visitors will celebrate the craft and magic of contemporary puppetry with some of the best-known artists in the field when the Greenwoods Puppet Festival comes to town. The festival will run from September 13 through 15.  So how does a […]

Seacocks Opened on Thomson Canoe Works

Schuyler Thomson aims to retire from his craft By Doug McDevitt  The year was 1969. The Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon, 400,000 people descended on the sleepy hamlet of Bethel, New York for Woodstock, and Schuyler Thomson embarked on a journey that would eventually lead him to Norfolk.   1969 was also the year […]

City Meadow Park: Mire to Marsh

Connecting the village center with improved access and amenities By David BeersPhoto by Christopher Little The town’s storm water runoff takes a circuitous route through the soils and vegetation of City Meadow Park, which allows the water to be filtered of sediment and contaminants. In a very similar meandering fashion, the process of creating the […]

Pittsfield Rye, Baking Quality Bread for 90 Years

Faces at the Farmers Market By Ruth MelvillePhoto by Bruce Frisch Every Saturday morning during the outdoor market season, the Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads Company pulls its van up in front of Town Hall and starts to unload a cornucopia of freshly baked bread. There is a bread for every bread lover’s taste: seeded, […]

A Provençal Summer Evening With Friends

Notes From a French Kitchen By Marie-Christine Perry The farmers market beckons, full of this summer’s bounty, and conjures Provence, France, where every small village market on the hills offers an abundance of the local favorites – shiny purple eggplants, large juicy tomatoes, pale green and yellow zucchini, and sweet peppers in a variety of shapes […]

Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation

The Norfolk Food Pantry Is Running Low on Supplies According to Lynn Deasy, one of the volunteers who manages the Norfolk Food Pantry, more than 40 million Americans live in households that don’t have the resources to buy good, nutritious food. Even in Norfolk, 20 to 30 percent of the children at Botelle Elementary School […]

Revamp of Norfolk Website Offers Visuals of Town

Subscribers can get weekly email update of town events By Wiley Wood Last month, visitors to the town website saw a video showing a little boy, Calvin, climbing the stairs to the viewing platform on Haystack Mountain with his parents’ encouragement. But when Calvin gets to the top of the stairs, he finds himself staring […]

Robocalls: Aiming to End Them

Deluge of calls driving people crazy By Jude Mead I’m losing the battle! Yesterday I received 14 robocalls on my landline and five on my cellphone. For years I never answered a number or name I did not know. Today, however, I have to use the same caution when I see a name or number […]

Norfstroms Celebrates One Month of Recycling Success

And a few lessons earned By Kelly Kandra Hughes “Welcome to Norfstroms!” Friendly volunteers greet residents as they approach the latest addition at the transfer station—an 8’ x 20’ shed that houses everything and anything from dinnerware and glasses to shovels and rakes. The shed, named Norfstroms by a town contest, is a collaborative, experimental […]

Art, Yearning and Bad Behavior in 1930s Mexico

Historical fiction from a Norfolk novelist By Wiley Wood Courtney Maum has a new book coming out: a novel, “Costalegre,” set in Mexico during the mid-1930s, told in the voice of a 15-year-old girl. In the foreground are the girl’s wealthy, spoiled American mother and the boatload of ego-driven artists she has brought with her—rescued—from […]

The Litchfield County Choral Union Celebrates 120 Years

Honoring the Stoeckel legacy By Colleen Gundlach The year was 1899 when Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel decided to honor her father, Robbins Battell, by starting a choral festival in Norfolk. The Stoeckels had been opening their home, Whitehouse, for musical gatherings for several years, so it was a natural offshoot for them to expand […]

WIN, WIN for Norfolk

 Town festival celebrates its fourth year By Doug McDevittPhoto by Bruce Frisch Most great ideas come when we least expect them. In a dream or a daydream, during a conversation with a better half when we should be listening, or while running simple errands, it sometimes can’t be helped, they just pop in there. Well, […]