‘As far I can manage’

Roger Tory Peterson at work

“Why do I live in Connecticut? As an artist and a writer I need New York for the American Museum of Natural History and Boston for Houghton Mifflin, my publisher. But as a naturalist I prefer to live as far from either as I can manage.’’

— Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996), writer, naturalist and environmentalist, in All Things Reconsidered. He became famous for his field guides to nature and especially for his bird guides, which he wrote and illustrated. He spent the last 42 years of his life living in Old Lyme, Conn., where the Connecticut River flows into Long Island Sound.

Railroad Bridge connecting Old Lyme and East Lyme

— Photo by Morrowlong 

Rejoice in the river

Mist upstream of the Bissell Bridge over the Connecticut between Windsor and South Windsor, Conn.

"{If} the river is as varied and beautiful as the Connecticut, you can merely look at -- in the long light of a sultry summer evening, under an angry winter sky, in the high color of autumn or the pastel shades of spring -- and derive that sense of peace and uplift of the spirit that most men find in living water.''

-- The late Roger Tory Peterson, Connecticut-based naturalist, ornithologist, artist and educator, whose work is considered one of the founding inspirations for the 20th-Century environmental movement.

This quote is from The Connecticut River, by Evan Hill (1972)