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- Hidden in Plain Sight
The art of discovering cultural and natural treasures in everyday landscapes
In the course of the mundane routines of life, we encounter a variety of landscapes and objects, either ignoring them or looking without interest at what appears to be just a tree, stone, anonymous building, or dirt road. But the "deep traveler," according to Hartford Courant essayist David K. Leff, doesn't make this mistake. Instead, the commonplace elements become the most important. By learning to see the magic in the mundane, we not only enrich daily life with a sense of place, we are more likely to protect and make those places better. Over his many years working at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and writing about the state's landscape, Leff gained unparalleled intimacy while traveling its byways and back roads. In Hidden in Plain Sight, Leff's essays and photographs take us on a point-by-point journey, revealing the rich stories behind many of Connecticut's overlooked landmarks, from the Merritt Parkway and Cornwall's Cathedral Pines to roadside rock art and centuries-old milestones.
Acknowledgments
Prologue to Deep Travel: The Merritt Parkway
ALONG THE ROADSIDE
Counting Miles in Four Centuries: Old Milestones • What's in a Name?: Reading Street Signs
Seeing through Time: Roadcuts
Painted Ledges: Roadside Rock Art
Last Picture Shows: Drive-In Theaters
A Cool Drink of Water: Roadside Springs
A Great Good Place: Diners
PLACES WE BUILD
A Most Enduring Harvest: Quarries
The People's Castles: Stone Lookouts
King of Homes: Yankee Castles
A Thousand Uses: Quonset Huts
The Shape of Futures Past: Octagon Houses
Practical, Adaptable, and Disappearing: Barns
The Spirit of Community: Camp Meetings
Exploring Gasoline Alley: Racetracks
SEEING GREEN: TREES, CULTURE, AND AGRICULTURE
A Place for Common Ground: Town Greens
Heart of Nowhere: Connecticut's Most Remote Place
The Measure of a State: Connecticut's Highest Point(s)
Big Trees: Old-Growth Forests
A Sacred Grove: Hope for the Chestnut Forest
The Perfect Street Tree: A Few Good Elms
Inventing New England Autumn: Leaf Peeping
A Most Useful Tree: Season of the Witch Hazel
Tasting the Landscape: Cider Mills
A Community Harvest: Agricultural Fairs
GHOST TOWNS AND GRAVEYARDS
Forgotten but Not Gone: Ghost Towns
Ghost Streets and Routes Less Taken: Abandoned Roads
Beneath the Lakes: Lost Worlds
Watery Ghosts of Manufacturing: Mill Ponds
Steeped in Mystery: Gungywamp
Space-Age Ghosts: Nike Missile Sites
Perpetual Care Isn't Forever: Neglected Graveyards
Haunting Stones of Metal: Zinc Grave Markers
Trash Talk: Landfills and Landscape
THROUGH ARTISTS' EYES
Reinventing the Colonial Landscape: Wallace Nutting
A Fresh Way of Looking: The Hudson River School
In a State of Plein Air: Artists Outdoors
Where the Landscape Is Art: Weir Farm
Poetic Space: James Merrill's Apartment
Landscape and the Written Word: Nature Writers
Buy the Book: Used Bookstores
Epilogue to Further Discovery: The New England Trail
Just the Right Place: An Explorer's Guide
Connecticut's Hidden Places: Map Key
DAVID K. LEFF is the author of The Last Undiscovered Place (a Connecticut Book Award finalist), Deep Travel, and two volumes of poetry. His essays have appeared in the Hartford Courant, Appalachia, Yankee, Canoe & Kayak, and the Encyclopedia of New England. He lives in Collinsville, Connecticut.
"The essays and photographs take readers on a point-by-point journey to reveal the rich stories behind many of Connecticut's overlooked landmarks, from the Merritt Parkway and Cornwall's Cathedral Pines to roadside rock art and centuries old milestones."
~Connecticut Explored
""The essays and photographs take readers on a point-by-point journey to reveal the rich stories behind many of Connecticut's overlooked landmarks, from the Merritt Parkway and Cornwall's Cathedral Pines to roadside rock art and centuries old milestones.""
~Connecticut Explored
""David Leff believes that some of the most wondrous pleasures we can experience are 'right out our back door,' if we'll only be open to exploration. 'The more we explore our home ground,' he told me, 'the more we'll find.' In his book, Hidden in Plain Sight: A Deep Traveler Explores Connecticut, Leff encourages us to do this as he writes about the diners, drive-in movie theaters, used bookstores, town greens and other delights he has encountered.""
~Randall Beach, New Haven Register
"Zinkies and Gungywamp, barns and brownstone pits, Leff's meditative exploration inveigles and delights."
~John R. Stilgoe, Harvard University
"The Connecticut places—some world famous, some obscure—that David K. Leff lovingly explores in Hidden in Plain Sight are fascinating. Even more revelatory is how he gets there. Invariably putting his senses on high alert, he teases out truths 'hidden in the middle of everywhere.' ""
~Tony Hiss, author of In Motion: The Experience of Travel
"You think you know Connecticut? Think again. The inquisitive mind of the 'deep traveler' sees much more than in 'plain sight.' After reading this book, you will explore our state differently. Though the eyes of the 'deep traveler,' things we experience every day driving and hiking through Connecticut, from roadside rock art to old growth forests, take on new meaning. My recommendation: Hop onboard and take the journey!""
~Nicholas F. Bellantoni, Connecticut State Archaeologist
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