• 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

A Family Effort for the Win

Racing Champion in Our Midst   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo One should never question a parent’s intuition about their child. Keith Goring, who has run Alfas Unlimited, Inc. on Greenwoods Road for 40 years, knew that his son was meant to be a race car driver long before the kid even had a license. Jonathan […]

Wind Turbines in Colebrook Start Up

Ribbon cutting ceremony held on Flagg Hill site   By Wiley Wood On the clear blue morning of October 15, the vanes of BNE Energy’s wind turbine No. 2 faced motionless into a moderate breeze from the northwest. A small crowd of company executives, state legislators, bankers and regulators gathered on the hilltop above Flagg […]

Going Electric in Colebrook

A Carbon Negative Family   By David Beers The Eckert family in Colebrook is more than just carbon neutral, they are carbon negative. Instead of paying for energy, they are making money from the energy that they produce at their home. Bill Eckert, a C.P.A. and retired software company executive, has been keeping detailed records […]

Obituary–Bruce Hanke

  Surrounded by family and close friends, Bruce Hanke left this world on Monday, October 12 after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born at Plunkett Memorial Hospital in Adams, Mass. on November 3, 1958 to William and Mildred (Kryston) Hanke. Growing up on East Road in Adams, next to his grandmother’s farm, Hanke spent summers and […]

It’s Only Natural—November 2015

Abandoned Charcoal Hearths Affect Today’s Forest Ecology   Hans M. Carlson Recently, we got our first dusting of snow. When it’s not enough to cover the ground completely, the darker fallen leaves poke up through the veil of white, and small contours on the ground appear. The contrast highlights slight topographical variations, particularly with the […]

Documentary Film Describes Norfolk

Local photographer premiers film at Norfolk Library   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo The prolific photographer and writer Christopher Little delighted hundreds of Norfolkians last month with his 40-minute documentary chronicling a year in the life of our town. Showings at the Norfolk Country Club and the Norfolk Library packed the respective houses. Over 400 people […]

Matt Riiska Challenges Sue Dyer at Ballot Box on Nov. 13

Unaffiliated candidate takes on Democratic incumbent   By Wiley Wood The first selectman position in Norfolk will be contested in this year’s election for the first time since 2009. Matt Riiska is running as an unaffiliated candidate against Sue Dyer, the Democratic incumbent. The Republican Party did not field a candidate. Riiska, 59, was born […]

New Resident Brings Age-Old Craft to Town

Carving Stone: Adam Paul Heller   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo “I wish I was a slave to an age-old trade…” begins “Down in the Valley”, a song by the indie folk band The Head & the Heart. The song expresses a deep yearning to get back to your roots, and lead a more primitive existence. In […]

Norfolk’s Multi-Generational Business

MI Integrated Media   By Christina Vanderlip  MI Integrated Media (MI) specializes in direct response advertising, meaning ads with a ‘call to action’. While they are known for creative small space sections in the back of national magazines, they also run full-page advertising campaigns for clients. MI partners advertisers with publications that best fit their […]

Photographs by Bruce Frisch Going on Display in Venice

Photos of Renowned Indian Artist to Accompany Retrospective   By Ruth Melville Bruce Frisch’s photographs are well known to readers of Norfolk Now. He is the paper’s staff photographer, and his pictures enliven every issue. He also exhibits his work at the annual Norfolk Artists and Friends show, always including some spectacular nature shots taken […]

Norfolk Firefighters Receive State Recognition

By Ruth Melville In honor of Firefighters Day, held every year on September 6, the State of Connecticut chose this year to recognize the fine work of the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD). On the quiet, sunny late afternoon of September 4, the members of the NVFD, resplendent in their dress uniforms, gathered behind the […]

Norfolk-Colebrook Regionalization Fails

Colebrook votes strongly against   By Wiley Wood Colebrook voters resoundingly opposed the regionalization plan that would have brought the Norfolk and Colebrook primary schools together under one roof and one regional board. The vote count was 369 no, 175 yes. In a simultaneous referendum held in Norfolk, the measure passed by a count of […]