• 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

Norfolk Artists & Friends to Stage Exhibit

Annual arts show is sponsored by the Chamber Music Festival By Karen Linden Twenty-three artists will show their work in the Norfolk Artists & Friends Art Show, sponsored by the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, between August 9 and 11. The Battell Stoeckel Gallery, known locally as the Art Barn, will again host painters, sculptors, a […]

Farmers Market Plans First Agricultural Fair

By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo The ever evolving Norfolk Farmers Market has a new brainstorm. Their first agricultural fair will be held on Saturday, August 24 in conjunction with the regular farmers market. The event will take place on the lawn of Town Hall as usual, but with extended hours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. […]

Funkware Pottery Opens Studio and Workshop in Canaan

An Arty Place with Classes and More By Bob Bumcrot Joey Sage Jablonski marked the twentieth anniversary of her career as a potter at a gala July 6 reception celebrating the opening of Funkware Pottery in Canaan. The large and entirely refreshed building across Route 44 from Stop & Shop in Canaan now contains studio […]

Local Family Starts Goat Cheese Production

The Guindons of Lost Ruby Farm By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo Adair Mali and Antonio Guindon bought their first goat shortly after returning from a year-long trip to Guindon’s homeland of Costa Rica in 2009. Goats were everywhere during Guindon’s youth, and he swore to never own the “loud, stinky animals”, but one of his daughters […]

Colebrook Store Nears Reopening

By Bob Bumcrot “Even if everything isn’t in place, we will open in July,” said Miriam Briggs, the new proprietor of the Colebrook Store. Some refreshments will certainly be available for the Independence Day long weekend. Briggs and her sons, Quentin,14, and Francis,12, frequently drove from their former home in Saint Johnsbury, Vt., to her […]

Colebrook Wind Farm in Legal Limbo

State Supreme Court decision may come in the fall By Veronica Burns BNE Energy, Inc.’s plans to build three 492-ft tall turbines on Flagg Hill Road and another three on nearby Rock Hall Road in Colebrook, Conn., are currently in an appeals holding pattern. Nicholas Harding, attorney for the plaintiffs, says he expects oral argument […]

Fundraising Underway for Restoration of the Music Shed

Norfolk Chamber Music Festival teams up with Norfolk Artists and Friends By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo Concert goers at Yale Summer School of Music and Art this summer will have the unique opportunity to purchase a chair in the music shed. A $250 donation ensures your name engraved on a metal plaque affixed to an actual […]

NORFOLK 2023! to Explore Town’s Future in Fall

Anniversary of Norfolk Now to focus on next decade  By Lloyd Garrison The editors of Norfolk Now will mark the paper’s tenth anniversary in October by inviting the town to attend NORFOLK 2023!, an event that will begin with entertaining presentations followed by a serious exploration  of  how residents would like the town to develop […]

Village Hall to Infinity

Community Landmark Celebrates 130 Years By Michael Kelly On Sunday, June 30 at 2 p.m., New York’s renowned Blue Hill Troupe will present a concert version of their highly acclaimed rendering of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta, “The Mikado”, at Infinity Hall. The concert has two purposes. One is to benefit the Norfolk Historical Society. The […]

Eye on Town Government

Marginally Higher Budget and Mill Rate Approved at Annual Town Meeting By Wiley Wood The citizens of Norfolk approved a budget at the annual town meeting on May 13. Total spending on education and general government is to rise by 1.2 percent. The mill rate is rising four hundredths of a mill to 20.22, adding […]

Brother and Sister Innkeeper Team

Norfolk’s Romantic Hideaway under New Management By Colleen Gundlach Connecticut’s “most romantic hideaway,” according to The Discerning Traveler newsletter, is under new management. Oversight of the Manor House on Maple Avenue has returned to the hands of Norfolk natives, the brother and sister team of Holly Kelsey and Michael Sinclair. Sinclair recently retired from 25 […]

Town War Monuments Illuminated

Lighting funded by Norfolk Community Association By Doreen Kelly At dusk this past Memorial Day, the Norfolk Village Green became a little brighter. The two war memorials located there are now dramatically lit as a constant reminder of the brave Norfolk men and women who have served this country. The first monument is a 24-foot […]