• 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

It’s Only Natural

Connecticut Biologists Create Habitat for the Endangered New England Cottontail By Wiley Wood “You can’t miss it. It’s a 57-acre hole in the forest,” says Paul Rothbart, a project manager with the Connecticut State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.  He is giving directions to a tract of state land in Goshen that, with the […]

From Child Care to Family Care

Deanne Towle Joins Northwest Corner’s State Farm Team By Colleen Gundlach There are many different ways to help people.  For 17 years, Norfolk’s Deanne Towle cared for the town’s youngest residents while owning and operating the Norfolk Child Care Center. Today, she is caring for the children in a different way, by helping their families […]

EDC Weighs Plan for Fiber Optic Network

Local technologist sees many potential benefits to town By Kurt Steele With a strong nod to the future, Kim Maxwell briefed the town’s Economic Development Commission (EDC) at its May meeting about the benefits he foresees if Norfolk installed a community-owned fiber optic network. Maxwell is a relatively new resident of Norfolk who has degrees […]

Gourmet Meets Homestyle in Goshen

Not Just Another Roadhouse By Rosanna Trestman Lucky for us, Norfolk now has a choice of four local dining establishments. But it may come as a surprise that a fifth restaurant has been quietly tucked behind the scene all along. Located in Goshen, just a quarter of a mile west of the rotary, A.J.’s Steak […]

Norfolk’s Silent Sentinels

Everything You Need to Know About Utility Poles By John G. Funchion There are 2,153 utility poles in Norfolk. These poles, standing as silent sentinels for years on our roadsides, provide us with all the amenities of modern living: electricity, cable television and internet access. Utility poles were first used above ground in the 19th century […]

ZONE 4

Mounting a Counter Offensive on Invasive Species By Susannah Wood Like most of us living in the Icebox of Connecticut, I greet the first signs of spring with a surge of relief and delight at the first sight of the branch tips of the red maples beginning to color, that first phoebe singing outside our […]

Norfolk Conservation Commission to Offer Ornamental Plant Exchange

Once again, the Conservation Commission is offering a free native plant to residents who take out an invasive ornamental. Bring proof of removal to the Farmers Market on June 15, and pick out a lovely native shrub to replace it. The invasive species we are looking to replace are winged euonymus (burning bush), autumn olive, […]

Regionalization Study Committee Chooses Consultant

Town Involvement Expected in Study Process By Wiley Wood On Wednesday, May 29, the Norfolk-Colebrook Study Committee met to choose a consultant. After hearing two presentations, the committee decided to hire Education Connection to shepherd them through the process. Based in Litchfield, Conn., the organization is the Regional Education Service Center for western Connecticut and […]

Norfolk’s Proposed Budget Up 1 Percent

By Wiley Wood On April 29, the Norfolk Board of Finance presented its budget for fiscal year 2013-2014 to a smattering of Norfolk residents at the Botelle School. The board’s chairman, Michael Sconyers, announced a total increase over last year’s budget of less than 1 percent, translating to a mill rate of 20.22, a bump […]

Vocal Music – A Norfolk Tradition

By Rosanna Trestman Norfolk will be singing this summer when the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival season opens with a concert by the Yale Choral Artists, a new 24-voice chorus of professional singers from around the U.S. It will be directed by Jeffrey Douma, who also directs the Yale Glee Club, and will perform Rachmaninov’s “All […]

Wood Creek Bridge On 272 Under Repair

Construction could end by fall By Bob Bumcrot The bridge across Wood Creek at the intersection of routes 44 and 272 next to Memorial Green is being rebuilt by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The bridge surface itself will be removed, one side at a time, and replaced with concrete and paving. Much of the […]

New Signage Planned For Norfolk

Two new signs at either end of town on Route 44 will welcome cyclists, motorists and the occasional pedestrian to Norfolk. The design, featuring an arch with a hanging signboard and the date of Norfolk’s founding, was recently approved by the Board of Selectmen. The cost of fabrication and installation will be underwritten by a […]