• 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

A Globe-trotting Entrepreneur Loves Norfolk But Laments Lack of Broadband

Leaving Manhattan’s Noise Behind By Lloyd Garrison Running an internet-based business from Norfolk isn’t that unusual these days. In fact, Bryan Stanton has been running a worldwide marketing and public relations business from Norfolk since 1997. “From the agency’s founding 20 years prior, clients were always more foreign than domestic,” he explained, “as our expertise […]

State and BNE Energy Sued For Canaan Mountain Clear-cut

Star Childs charges DEEP decision in case a “rip-off” By Veronica Burns In December 2010, a brief article in the Hartford Courant alleged that there had been a non-permissible clear-cutting of trees on State-owned land on Canaan Mountain. The article seemed to mark the end of it. Now, three years later, the Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council […]

School and Library Collaborate

Appreciating The Arts Through Thinking, Analyzing and Discussing By Colleen Gundlach Exposure to the arts has always been a big part of life in Norfolk. Now, as a result of a unique collaboration between Botelle School and the Norfolk Library, the town’s children will have access to fun and learning at the same time. Ann DeCerbo, coordinator […]

FIRST ALERT

Town to Alert Households of Major Emergencies —Emails to residents will aid in crisis management By Lloyd Garrison Norfolk is preparing a “First Alert” system using email to inform homeowners of any threats related to weather, road conditions, public health and personal security. Shortly, the town’s 852 households will get a letter from First Selectman […]

State’s Gun Control Legislation Leaves Confusion in its Wake

Over 100 guns added to the state’s existing list of banned weapons By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo While the United States Senate voted on April 17 to defeat a compromise plan that would have banned some semi-automatic weapons and expanded background checks on firearms sales, the Connecticut legislature passed one of the toughest sets of gun […]

Eye On Town Government — May 2013

By Wiley Wood   Budget discussions this past month were led off by the Board of Selectmen, which presented its preliminary budget to the Board of Finance on April 2. Total expenditures for the town, exclusive of education, were set at $3,371,800, an increase of 4-percent or $131,550 over last year.   A number of […]

Serving Time in Connecticut

For Majewski and Carey, No Easy Road to Freedom By Susanna Wood Ten years in jail is a long time.  With two leap years that’s 3,652 days, 87,648 hours, 5,258,880 minutes. How does that time pass for inmates like Kyle Majewski and Matthew Carey, the two young men recently sentenced for a crime spree that […]

Election Officials Facing a Retirement Problem

Replacements needed to help oversee voting By Bob Bumcrot Staging local elections depends on a small cadre of Norfolk residents who supervise the polling, for which they are paid modestly, yet who keep coming back seemingly year after year. But change is in the offing. The town is looking for a few good men or […]

Are You Ready for Summer?

Norfolk Children’s Foundation Offers Camperships to Camp Jewell By Julie Scharnberg Imagine being able to spend a week or two this summer horseback riding, swimming, trying out archery or pottery, mountain boarding, rock climbing, kayaking, learning how to use high ropes or how to play the guitar, hiking, fishing, playing soccer and lots more. The […]

Preparing the Next Generation of Curlers

Botelle students learn Norfolk’s trademark game By David Beers Students in grades three through six at Botelle School have been curling at each of their gym classes for all of February and early March. After some initial instruction in curling rules, vocabulary, scoring and history of the sport, red and blue four-person teams were formed […]

Infinity Hall Reaches Two Milestones

The 1,000th concert in Norfolk performed March 14 By Bob Bumcrot Two milestones were reached in March for Infinity Music Hall and Bistro, often referred to as IMH for short. The first, on the 14th, celebrated the 1,000th concert performed on the Norfolk stage. “I’m both proud and grateful,” said IMH owner Dan Hincks. “It’s […]

Champion Norfolk Girls

For the first time in the history of Botelle School, the Northwestern League Girls B Division championship trophy was brought home to Norfolk.   A dedicated group of fourth and sixth grade girls defeated Salisbury Central School on March 10, wrapping up three days of tournament play at the Cornwall Consolidated School.  This win tops off […]