• 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

Bill Gridley Dies After Brief Illness

William Gill Gridley, Jr. died peacefully after a brief illness Saturday, November 29 at his Norfolk home under the loving care of his family and hospice nurses and aides of the Foothills Visiting Nurses Association. Gridley was born January 10, 1929 in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Meeker and William Gill Gridley. His […]

Farmers Market Plows on Through Winter Months

Thriving from May to October for eight years strong, the Norfolk Farmers Market now has a winter presence as well. Moving inside, to the second floor of town hall, for the cold weather months, food vendors sell their products twice a month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Winter markets will be held on February […]

The Sharing Economy Comes to Norfolk

New Business Model Threatens Local Innkeeper By Wiley Wood The basic idea of the sharing economy is that if you have an asset that is not being fully used—a car that sits in the driveway, a vacant couch, a pup tent in a closet, fancy camera equipment—you can hook up through the digital world with […]

Russell Russ Records Norfolk’s Weather for the National Weather Service

Continuing an 82-Year Tradition By Colleen Gundlach There has been a lot of discussion in Norfolk about the town’s ability to keep young people here and provide them employment. There are, however, families whose contribution to the town has spanned generations and provided not only a livelihood but a way of life. The Russ family […]

The Christmas Bird Count

Citizen Scientists Make Their Mark By Susannah Wood On December 14, in the dark and cold of 4 a.m., Ray Belding is going to be in the woods calling to owls. For the next 10 hours or so he and his team will be counting every bird they see for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird […]

Economic Development Commission Readies for Action

Toby Young Named Co-Director By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo Norfolk’s Economic Development Commission (EDC) has a robust agenda for 2015. Newly appointed co-director Toby Young and longtime leader Libby Borden foresee the organization having a fruitful year. At the top of the agenda is utilizing the consultant that will soon be appointed to Norfolk and seven […]

Norfolk Library Plans for the Next Century

Preserving an Architectural Gem By Ruth Melville The Norfolk Library is one of the architectural highlights of our town. For over 125 years this striking building on the Village Green has served the people of Norfolk, not only as a home for books, but as a gathering place for town residents. The library recently received […]

Norfolk Offers Dial-A-Ride Bus Service

“We’ll go anywhere people need to go” By Christopher Sinclair It’s hard to imagine, but the town of Norfolk was once a transportation hub. Conductors barked orders, and steam-driven trains came to a reluctant halt in the village center where Norfolk residents now pick up their mail and deposit their checks. People traveled with ease […]

Struggle to Maintain Town’s Aging Roadways Continues

Major Repaving of State Highways Last Summer Helped By Kurt Steele Every day most Norfolk residents drive on some part of Norfolk’s nearly 60 miles of roads—43 miles of it maintained by the town and 16 by the state. They are joined a little less often by Norfolk’s many part-time residents. Having enough money to […]

Lecture on Resilience to Climate Change

As the climate changes, species can be expected to relocate, with fauna and flora migrating at different rates. Some will survive the disruption, others not. Identifying places that will sustain a large variety of species despite changing climate, a characteristic known as “resilience,” has been a priority of conservationists in recent years. The Norfolk Land […]

Beekeeping in the Northwest Corner

The Secret Lives of Bees… By Babs Perkins We’ve all seen them. That stack of boxes at the edge of an open field or meadow or tucked in the corner of an apple orchard. We know that they are beehives, but how many of us actually understand what’s going on inside those mysterious boxes? Some […]

Keeping Town Roads Safe This Winter

How Much Damage Does Salt Cause to Cars and the Environment? By Ruth Melville Everyone knows that salt is bad for cars, roads, and the environment, but living in a northern state, we need our roads to be clear and safe to drive on despite our often severe winters. For the past six years, the […]