• 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

Local Input Requested on Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan

The Northwest Hills Council of Governments is preparing an update to the “Litchfield Hills Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan” prepared in 2006. A draft of the updated section prepared for our town is available for review by clicking here. The NHCOG is accepting public comments on the draft report through the end of July. The purpose […]

Gift of Rental Properties Extends Family’s Legacy

By Wiley Wood The Foundation for Norfolk Living (FNL), a housing nonprofit, has announced the pending gift to the foundation of a sizable property belonging to Ralph Burr. The parcel, on Greenwoods Road East, numbers 29-32, has three houses on it, divided into six rental units and has been in the Burr family since 1913. […]

Lloyd Garrison, Founding Editor of Norfolk Now, Dies at 83

By Wiley Wood Lloyd Garrison, a journalist, editor and Norfolk presence for the past 18 years, who covered Europe and Africa for The New York Times in the 1960’s and in retirement founded this newspaper, died at his home in Norfolk on June 21. He was 83 years old. The cause was complications of prostate […]

Local Man Triggers AIRCON RED Alert Over D.C.

By Susannah Wood Around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 7th, a small plane entered restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. leading to an AIRCON RED alert and the evacuation of the U.S. Capitol building, the Supreme Court building, the Library of Congress and other office buildings in the vicinity, according to the Associated Press and CNN. […]

Solar Generation On The Rise

Area Residents Find Solar Affordable By Bob Bumcrot Driving along Route 44 through East Canaan, it’s hard not to notice the large set of solar panels across the road from Freund’s farm: eight big arrays totaling 576 panels on the site of the old Couch farmhouse and barn. The 130-kilowatt installation by PurePoint Energy of […]

Question: What Makes Tuesdays at the Wood Creek Bar & Grill Consequential?

Local Event Gains Regional Following By Barbara Perkins What is a female rabbit called? St. Patrick is said to have cast what out of Ireland? What is the name of the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean? Krusty the Clown is featured on what TV show? Brotherhood, Revelations, Black Flag […]

New Botelle Superintendent Named

Dr. Mary Beth Iacobelli has been appointed to replace Superintendent of School George Counter, who retired at the end of June, according to an announcement by the Norfolk Board of Education. Dr. Iacobelli, who was superintendent of the East Haddam Public Schools from 2012 to 2014, has also served as an elementary school principal in […]

New Regulations Approved For Industrial Wind Turbines

In New England, opposition is getting serious By Veronica Burns After prolonged negotiations, Connecticut finally has regulations in place governing industrial wind turbines. Senator Kevin Witkos applauds the effort. “Colebrook has been identified as an area where wind power can prosper,” he stated in an e-mail. “The passage of these regulations will allow the installation […]

Minister Plans Sabbatical

Erick Olsen to visit Kenya in July By Sally Quale After nearly 11 years of service at The Church of Christ Congregational, the Reverend Erick Olsen will be taking his first sabbatical this July, August and September. He returns to the pulpit October 1. “This will not be a vacation,” he emphasizes, but an opportunity […]

The Drama of The Missing Man

Copters and canines used in hunt for retired teacher By Lloyd Garrison For two days in April, Norfolk witnessed numerous police cruisers on the prowl and two helicopters searching for Joseph Pappalardo, a 60-year old East Hartford man who had abandoned his parked Toyota Avalon at Station Place. Police said he was thought to be […]

Town Taxes and Spending Climb Slightly

Mill Rate to Rise 10 Percent By Wiley Wood The Board of Finance met twice in April to set Norfolk’s budget for 2014-2015, in advance of the annual budget hearing and town meeting. The town expects to raise $6,634,114 in taxes, an increase of $350,141 over last year, or 6 percent. “The mill rate’s going […]

Out and About

Not your Average Run Of the Mill By Rosanna Trestman Every piece of lumber begins as a log. Typically, the log goes from forest to sawmill, and comes out a plank cut to a uniform width, length and height. But at Berkshire Products, a sawmill tucked on Ashley Falls Road in Sheffield, Mass., the log’s […]