• 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

State Grant Aims at Revitalizing Town Centers in the Northwest Corner

New Economic Development Professional to Advise Local Businesses By Kurt Steele A promising new chapter in Norfolk’s planning and development is about to open. The Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG), through its Northwest Connecticut Regional Planning Collaborative, has recently received a $249,000 grant from the state to fund “village center vitality” initiatives in the […]

New Director Appointed at Great Mountain Forest

Seeing the Forest and the Trees By Veronica Burns Newcomers to this rural town are often asked, “What brought you to Norfolk?” In the case of Hans Carlson, the recently appointed director of Great Mountain Forest (GMF), it was to work with local canoe builder Schuyler Thomson in 1987. Carlson, who was born and raised […]

Norfolk and Colebrook Selectmen Extend Life of Regionalization Study Group

State Department of Education to Propose Legislative Amendments By Wiley Wood The Norfolk-Colebrook Study Group, formed in the wake of town referendums in December 2012, is nearing its second anniversary. State statutes give the group two years to propose a plan for regionalizing the towns’ primary schools, renewable for a second two years. The boards […]

Center Cemetery: A Walk Through Time

New Columbarium Almost Finished   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo At the entrance to Center Cemetery off of Old Colony Road, a wood sign affixed to a towering maple tree invites “friends” to “take care how you walk and act, for you are walking on holy ground, the graves of beloved family and friends. Remember them, […]

Rosanna Trestman Retires from Norfolk Now

Co-founder bows out but the play goes on By Colleen Gundlach With the retirement of Rosanna Trestman from its editorial staff, the curtain falls on the opening act of Norfolk Now. The overture began when Lloyd Garrison, a retired foreign correspondent for the New York Times, met a freelance journalist and photographer and together they […]

Norfolk Awarded $500,000 to Enhance City Meadow

Plan Combines Water Quality and Recreation By Wiley Wood A plan to turn the five-acre wetland in the center of Norfolk into a storm-water park has been awarded a $500,000 state grant, Governor Dannell P. Malloy’s office announced on September 17. The projected City Meadow will offer paths, boardwalks and benches for strollers, as well […]

Fadhl Saleh Closes Corner Store

Last-Ditch Effort to Save Town Business Falls Short By Ruth Melville On his last day of business, Corner Store owner Fadhl Saleh is visibly upset as he looks around at the empty shelves of his store. “I tried, but it just didn’t work,” he says sadly. “In the end, the stress was terrible, unbearable.” Saleh, […]

FairWindCT Appeal Against Wind Turbines Is Denied

State Supreme Court sides with siting council and developer By Veronica Burns FairWindCT, the grassroots opposition group to BNE Energy’s wind turbine project in Colebrook, has just received the decision on its appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court: rejection. The judges voted 6–0 that the New Britain Superior Court was correct in 2012 to dismiss […]

George Counter: Norfolk’s Retiring Superintendent of Schools

By Wiley Wood A gathering Sunday, September 14 honored Norfolk’s departing superintendent of schools, George Counter. As the guests spilled out over a sunny lawn with drinks in hand, a 70-pound pig was lifted from the bed of coals where it had roasted since dawn and was carved into portions. Counter retired as superintendent of […]

USA Curling Gives National Award to Mary Fanette

By Wiley Wood In December 2011, Mary Fanette was in her second and final term as president of the Norfolk Curling Club. Already on the boards of several Norfolk nonprofits and serving as the town’s volunteer webmaster, Fanette may have been looking forward to stepping down that coming May. Then the clubhouse burned to the […]

Norfolk Land Trust and Great Mountain Forest Publish Updated Trail Guides

Lace Up Your Hiking Boots By Ruth Melville Local hikers now have two new resources for exploring the Norfolk woods. Both the Norfolk Land Trust and Great Mountain Forest have recently released improved and expanded guides to hiking trails in the Norfolk area. The new, fifth edition of the Land Trust Trail Guide is the […]

The Norfolk Library Book Group

Varied books, good background info, open to all By Anne Frieze On a designated Friday approximately once a month, twenty to thirty people gather in a circle ready to discuss a book chosen by Mark Scarbrough, the facilitator of the Norfolk Library Book Group. In its fourth year, it is one of the core ongoing […]