Norfolk, CT

 
These are more pictures taken when we went to the Memorial Day Parade this year in Norfolk, CT. George grew up there and we bought our first house, "Stony Hill" there. That was our home for nearly ten years. Norfolk is a beautiful town. It has so much to offer from Yale Summer School of Music, Haystack Mountain, Dennis Hill and the newly opened Infinity Hall. For residents, Toby Pond is a nice place for kids to spend their hot summer days and we spent many there. Norfolk is also home to a Curling Club.

I wish I had enjoyed our Norfolk days more. They were dampened by the distance that it was from everywhere we needed to go and by our 450 foot long up hill and winding driveway. In the winter it was a nightmare. I remember pulling groceries up it in a sled. I also remember standing there in tears overwhelmed as we shovelled it by hand. (When we bought the house it came with a jeep with a plow which we never got to work).

My favorite memories of living at our Norfolk home was the raspberry patch, which produced hundreds of pints. The Porters who built the house had planted all kinds of beautiful flowers which we also enjoyed. Our family's favorite addition to the grounds was an old boy scout cabin from Colebrook which we had moved to the grounds--that was quite a site to behold having it moved there. The cabin became a great place to have the kids' birthday parties.

My other favorite thing about that house was the real stairway to the attic--not pull down stairs. You could actually walk up there. I miss that luxury.

We had thirteen acres of land but came to realize that for us, it was not necessary to have that much land. We certainly weren't going to do anything with it.

Our greatest lesson we learned from living there is to have a flat driveway and we do. Whenever we have a snowstorm and I hear one of my neighbors spinning his wheels trying to get up his big hill, it always brings back memories and I am so glad that they are just that--memories. I can feel their pain. However, there is actually one fun memory of that driveway. We had an adult Halloween party probably the second year we lived there. People had to park on the main road and walk up. Well, we didn't know he was going to do this, but one of our friends rented a gorilla suit and he hid halfway up the driveway and scared the guests--what a way to start a party!

Norfolk is a wonderful New England town. It's a true Connecticut gem.