• 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

Regionalization Plan Update

State Board of Education Agrees to Recommend a 10-Year Waiver By Ruth Melville The plan to create a new regional school district for Norfolk and Colebrook got over a major obstacle on the road to referendum when the State Board of Education, rejecting the recommendation of a subcommittee, agreed to support the Regional School Study Committee’s […]

Board of Finance Aims at Tax Decrease

Town Budget Will Wait on State Decisions By Wiley Wood At a budget meeting of Norfolk’s Board of Finance, Chairman Michael Sconyers reviewed the town’s spending projections for 2015-2016, snipping away a few thousand here and a few thousand there, in the end reducing the selectmen’s proposal by $70,000. “I’m desperate to do a tax […]

Foundation for Norfolk Living Gets Big Affordable Housing Grant

New Units May Be Ready Next Spring By Nina Ritson The Foundation for Norfolk Living has been working and planning for several years to secure space in which to provide affordable housing in Norfolk.  On March 26, their efforts received a huge boost when Governor Malloy and the Connecticut Department of Housing (DOH) announced funding […]

Drones Over Norfolk, at Work and at Play

By Wiley Wood You can’t just fly one straight out of the box, says drone hobbyist Christopher Little, you have to expect to crash a few times when you start out. But the technology to send a guided, camera-carrying drone into the airspace above your backyard is firmly within reach of the civilian consumer. Little, […]

Local Roasters Think Globally

Giv Coffee Blends Profits and Philanthropy By Ruth Melville You may have noticed a new stand at the winter farmers markets in Town Hall. Since February, Emily and Jeff Brooks, of Giv Coffee in Torrington, have begun bringing their colorful bags of freshly roasted coffee to sell at the market. The Brookses are passionate about […]

Changes at the Susan B. Anthony Project in Torrington

Barbara Spiegel Retiring After 20 Years as Executive Director By Jude Mead Barbara Spiegel, the executive director of the Susan B. Anthony Project (SBAP), has lived by the organization’s mission to “[promote] safety, healing, and growth for all survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and [advocate] for the autonomy of women and the end of […]

It Takes a Lot of Dedicated People to Care for a Village

Jonathan Barbagallo wears a lot of hats in emergency services By Colleen Gundlach The fire at the Norfolk Curling Club on December 18, 2011, was devastating for Norfolk as a whole, but was beyond description for the first responders that night. Since Norfolk’s volunteer base is a small group of people who wear many hats, […]

Hartford Balks at Norfolk-Colebrook Regional Plan

By Wiley Wood The current legislative session in Hartford lasts until June 3, but it seems unlikely that the State Department of Education will endorse a proposal between now and then that will allow the Norfolk-Colebrook regionalization plan to proceed. The two towns have worked for three years on an agreement that would allow them […]

Botelle School’s Annual Drama Production

Bruce Connelly Enters His 13th Year as Writer and Director By Anne Frieze On March 27, the Botelle School’s fourth, fifth and sixth graders put on two performances of their annual drama production, “The Wind in the Willows.” Each year the New York-based actor and director Bruce Connelly writes an original script based on a […]

The Importance of Climate Resiliency in Land Preservation

Recent Lecture Highlights the Crucial Role of Land Trusts By Veronica Burns On March 7, Libby Borden, president of the Norfolk Land Trust, welcomed two speakers from the Open Space Institute (OSI) to talk about land conservation at the Norfolk Curling Club. The event was focused on climate change and novel strategies for land protection. […]

Funding Sought for Workforce Training Program

Young people leave the Northwest Corner because there are no jobs. And employers find the qualified workforce pretty thin. A new initiative, endorsed by the Board of Selectmen, would document the workforce skills needed by regional employers and coordinate with high schools, trade schools, community colleges and universities to see that appropriate training is available. […]

Town Starts Repair of Aging Sewer Pipes

The Norfolk Sewer District will reline the sewer pipes along Laurel Way this season. Green Mountain Pipeline Services of Vermont has been picked to perform the work, at a cost of $50–60,000, said Ronald Zanobi, chairman of the Sewer District, at a January 28 meeting. Norfolk’s sewer pipes are among the oldest in Connecticut. The […]