• Norfolk Crowds Return to New Farmers Market

    By Andra Moss The crowd was large, loud and loving it at July’s Northwest Farm to Fork farmers market, held under the pavilion at Norbrook Farm Brewery. “We were very pleased with the turnout, with approximately 230 customers coming through and 16 food and farm vendors,” says Lisa Auclair, a co-founder, with Devin Grosso and […]

  • Friday Night on the Green Celebrates America’s 250th

    July 3 was a picture-perfect night for the community-wide event cel-ebrating America’s Independence. Following a quick parade, picnickers enjoyed burgers and ice cream while judges dug into the entries in the pie baking contest. First Selectman Hen-ry Tirrell moved seamlessly from his welcome speech to the dunk tank, and a few folks, like Pete Sanders […]

  • NORFOLK REMEMBERS Laurene Mary Wallace

    Laurene Mary Wallace, 77, of Colebrook passed peacefully at home surrounded by her family on Friday, July 10, 2026. Laurene was born on April 28, 1949, in Bridgeport, the last of four children born to the late Lawrence and Irene (Misencik) Firmender of Stratford. A retired registered nurse, Laurene’s career in nursing and cardiac rehabilitation […]

  • Norfolk Remembers Sally Sterling Ellis Quale

    Sally Sterling Ellis Quale, of Norfolk and St. Petersburg, Fla., formerly of Bronxville, N.Y., died unexpectedly of heart failure on July 7 at the age of 87. Sally will be remembered for her deep commitment to her family and communities and for her warmth, kindness, intelligence, creativity … and, of course, for her beautiful smile […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This charming house, still standing on the west side of Litchfield Rd., was built in 1905 for Richmond Paine, the newly appointed conductor of the Litchfield County Choral Union (LCCU). Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel engaged the architect Ehrick Rossiter to design the house for Paine as well as the Music Shed for performances by […]

  • Norfolk’s Newest Neighborhood Puts Down Roots

    Haystack Woods lauded as a “model for the state” By Joe Kelly Norfolk’s newest neighborhood, the Haystack Woods affordable housing development, has officially come to life. A year ago, the 39-acre location—a former gravel pit off Old Colony Road—was little more than a muddy building site. Now construction of the 10, two- and three-bedroom homes […]

  • Winsted Church Auctions Tiffany Window for $1.25 Million

    Sale highlights women’s role in Tiffany designs By Joe Kelly When medieval architects found ways to build taller cathedrals, the techniques they developed also made possible the enormous stained-glass windows that we so enjoy today, such as at Chartres and Sainte-Chapelle in France and Canterbury Cathedral in England. American-made stained glass is more recent, dating […]

  • A Revolutionary Year

    1776 Norfolk explored in summer exhibition By Andra Moss Communities across the country are looking back with wonder at 1776, the year that 13 British colonies initiated a revolution that, against astonishing odds, led to the birth of an independent republic. In Norfolk, two curators have combed the Norfolk Historical Society’s (NHS) collection for colonial-era […]

  • SUMMER MUSIC: Familiar Quartets, New Composers at Yale Chamber Festival

    By Patricia Platt The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, running from July 3 until Aug. 22, will present an exciting season of classical, innovative and international music. This summer, the Brentano Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, Ying Quartet and the Horszowski Trio are among those who will perform during weekend concerts and serve as artist-in-residence mentors to the […]

  • Botelle Students Move Up

    By Avice Meehan Four sixth graders bid farewell to Botelle Elementary School at a laughter-filled, but occasionally serious, ceremony on June 16 that was attended by family, friends and town officials. First Selectmen Henry Tirrell, a Botelle graduate whose mother and aunt taught at the school for many years, reminded the students that they would […]

  • Norfolk Rail-Trail Project Pedals Forward

    By Jude Mead After more than a decade of planning, permiting and redesign work, Norfolk’s long-await-ed Rails-to-Trails initiative has reached a major milestone, bringing the community closer to the creation of a new multi-use recreational trail along a historic railroad corridor. The project is the North Brook Trail, a planned three-quarter-mile ADA-accessi-ble pathway that will […]

  • LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Budgets, Beetles, Nips and More

    By Avice Meehan State Rep. Maria Horn came prepared to share details about the Connecticut budget (she is co-chair of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee) and the progress that has been made toward paying down the state’s unfunded pension liability, increasing the rainy day fund (now up to $18 billion) and allocating more state funds […]

Articles

Aton Forest Holds Annual Census of Early Winter Birds

    By Wiley Wood Although she has been taking part in Christmas Bird Counts for over 50 years, when Ayreslea Denny describes her bird encounters on the morning of December 31 in Aton Forest, her voice is full of excitement. “The number of birds we got was just unbelievable,” she said. A small group, […]

Dance Group Hosts Flash Mob in Great Barrington

  By Ruth Melville On a frigid evening last December, the streets of Great Barrington were crowded with holiday shoppers taking part in the town’s annual Holiday Stroll. Slowly, a group of about 30 people—kids, teenagers and adults, gathered at the foot of Railroad Street. At first, nobody paid them much attention, but then a […]

Novelist and Cartoonist Peter Steiner Exhibits His Paintings

February’s Featured Artist at the Norfolk Library   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo There don’t seem to be enough creative expressions to satisfy Sharon resident Peter Steiner. His life path took him from college professor to cartoonist to novelist, with lots of painting along the way. Steiner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended University of […]

Norfolk Land Trust Takes On 24 Acres in North Canaan

By Sally Quale   Last September, the Norfolk Land Trust (NLT) was given 24 acres in North Canaan, located within the 1,500-acre Robbins Swamp, the state’s largest inland wetland complex. The majority of Robbins Swamp is a calcareous wetland with a small upland portion of primarily pine and hemlock. The Nature Conservancy and the state […]

Berkshire National Fish Hatchery

Volunteers work to preserve indigenous fish habitats   By Michael Kelly It’s all about the water. At the Berkshire National Fish Hatchery (BNFH) in Hartsville, a hamlet of New Marlborough, Mass., 14 miles from Norfolk’s Village Green, 200 gallons a minute of pure 45-degree water from a deep underground aquifer course through 148 acres of […]

Norfolk’s November and December Weather and a Yearly Summary for 2016

A Snowy End to a Very Warm and Dry Year   By Russell Russ After tracking a growing precipitation deficit and above average temperatures for the entire year, it was quite the twist in weather fate to have an early winter with snowy conditions before Thanksgiving. The closing months of 2016 were still a little […]

Year-End Real Estate Roundup

A look at the 2016 Norfolk real estate market   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the Norfolk real estate market in 2016 is the wide array of listings. For the first time since the 1990’s, there is literally something for everyone. The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) currently includes 44 Norfolk […]

Berkshire Mountain Springs—From the Fountainhead to Your Door

By Michael Kelly The most direct way to access Berkshire County’s wealth of cultural amenities is to drive north on route 272, a felicitous, forested, rural byway. Just 4.5 miles from Norfolk’s village green, near the cutoff to Campbell Falls, you cross into Massachusetts and subconsciously absorb subtle, topographical changes. Two miles further up the […]

Organizers of Farmers Market Announce Possible Shutdown This Summer

As old guard prepares to retire, no one steps up to replace them   By Wiley Wood Three key players in the Norfolk Farmers Market organization announced in an interview that they are considering the possibility of closing down the market after this winter’s season for lack of manpower to keep it running. “We would […]

Fighting Back the Tide: Connecticut Takes On the Opioid Epidemic

  By Susannah Wood The frightening rise in overdose deaths from opioids and rates of opioid addiction has been the subject of many news stories in the last few years. All of New England, including Connecticut, has been very hard hit. In 2015 there were about 700 deaths in the state due to accidental overdoses, […]

Hans Carlson Heads North

Ex-GMF director to take over Blue Hill Heritage Trust in Maine   By Ruth Melville Hans Carlson may be leaving Great Mountain Forest, but he is not leaving the New England woods. After four years at GMF, Carlson has resigned from his position as director there and is moving to Maine to become the executive […]

Land Trust Clears 18 Acres in Barbour Woods

Many wildlife species need young forest habitat By Wiley Wood Photographs by Bruce Frisch The silence in Barbour Woods has been broken in recent weeks by the sound of heavy machinery. Its broad public paths and mature forest of mixed hardwoods have made Barbour Woods a favorite of birders, dog walkers and Sunday strollers. But […]