Books and backwoods with Tim Hunter

Tim Hunter, right, stewardship director of The Sharon Land Trust giving pointers to a Hotchkiss student.
John Coston
Tim Hunter, right, stewardship director of The Sharon Land Trust giving pointers to a Hotchkiss student.
‘What Are You Reading?” explores the lives of our local community through the books they love. In this first installment, we meet Tim Hunter, Stewardship Director of the Sharon Land Trust, whose passion for nature and science fiction reveals the deep connections between landscape, leadership, and imagination.
Stewardship director ofThe Sharon Land Trust, Tim Hunter monitors, maintains, preserves, and protects approximately 4,000 acres of land held in perpetuity with the organization.
Nature has always been a part of Hunter’s story. “When things got too tough, when things got too loud, I’d always take some time and walk in the woods,” Hunter said. “The outdoors has always been my quiet, happy place.”
After graduating from college with a computer science degree, however, Tim Hunter joined his family’s Sharon-based company Magnamusic Distributors, importing sheet music and instruments. He soon became president of the company, where his work involved setting up computer systems, traveling internationally, and shaking hands with vendors and customers. After six years, though, the family sold the company leaving Hunter to wonder what was next.
As luck would have it, due to his computer science expertise and experience in nature, The Sharon Land Trust reached out, requesting his assistance in mapping out a trail system using geographic information systems (GIS). Hunter embraced this unfamiliar territory and built a trail on the back of Red Mountain, along White Hollow Road, as a connector between the Hamlet and Mary Moore preserve.
Hunter does not work alone. There are two other staff members: Carolyn Klocker, Executive Director, and Harry White, Conservation Director. The magic of The Sharon Land Trust is that almost 90% of the work is volunteer based. About 60 - 70 volunteers join Hunter in the woods for workdays where they do everything from removing invasive species to building and maintaining trails. Most importantly they have fun.
Hunter expressed his gratitude by saying, “We would not be where we are today without them. It’s pretty extraordinary just how much the community does to help us to continue our mission.”
After a day of work, Hunter reads for about an hour before bed. Often, he leans toward science fiction or archaeological novels. Currently he is reading “The Pendergast Series,” a bestselling thriller/mystery book series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. These stories, like the woods, are a wonderful distraction from the human world.
Interested in volunteering with The Sharon Land Trust? Contact: info@sharonlandtrust.org
Olivia Geiger is an MFA student at Western Connecticut State Universiry and a lifelong resident of Lakeville.
Top row, left to right, Caroline Kinsolving, Christopher McLinden, Dana Domenick, Reid Sinclair and Director Hunter Foster. Bottom row, left to right, Will Nash Broyles, Dick Terhune, Sandy York and Ricky Oliver in Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.”
Opening on Sept. 26, Agatha Christie’s legendary whodunit “The Mousetrap” brings suspense and intrigue to the Sharon Playhouse stage, as the theater wraps up its 2025 Mainstage Season with a bold new take on the world’s longest-running play.
Running from Sept. 26 to Oct. 5, “The Mousetrap” marks another milestone for the award-winning regional theater, bringing together an ensemble of exceptional local talent under the direction of Broadway’s Hunter Foster, who also directed last season’s production of “Rock of Ages." With a career that spans stage and screen, Foster brings a fresh and suspense-filled staging to Christie’s classic.
The Playhouse’s casting includes Dana Domenick of Falls Village who leads the cast as Mollie Ralston, the newlywed innkeeper with a secret. Reid Sinclair of Norfolk plays Giles, her husband and partner in hospitality — and maybe in something more sinister. Will Nash Broyles from Lakeville plays the eccentric and enigmatic Christopher Wren, and Sandy York of Sharon will play the role of the imperious Mrs. Boyle. Dick Terhune (Litchfield), Caroline Kinsolving (Salisbury), Ricky Oliver (Pawling), and Christopher McLinden (also Lakeville) round out the cast as the play’s increasingly suspicious guests — and one very determined detective.
As always, Sharon Playhouse has gathered a top-tier creative team to match its cast. The Swader brothers (Christopher and Justin) return with their signature scenic designs, while Kathleen DeAngelis’s costumes and Bobbie Zlotnik’s wigs promise to anchor us firmly in postwar England, even as the plot spirals into timeless psychological suspense. Lighting by Wheeler Moon and sound design by Graham Stone will help turn the cozy theater into a stage crackling with tension.
If you’ve never seen “The Mousetrap,” here’s what you need to know: it’s the murder mystery that truly defined the genre. Premiering in London’s West End in 1952 and still running strong over 30,000 performances later, Christie’s ingenious puzzle unfolds in a snowbound manor house where everyone has something to hide, and no one is safe from suspicion. Its final twist is famously kept secret by audiences — a tradition of theatrical discretion that only deepens the sense of shared experience.
“The enduring success of ‘The Mousetrap’ lies in its suspense, yes, but also in its structure,” said the Playhouse’s Artistic Director Carl Andress. “It’s a masterclass in storytelling. And with Hunter Foster leading this incredible cast of local artists, we know our audiences are in for an evening of mystery, laughter, and yes, plenty of gasps.”
Tickets are available now at SharonPlayhouse.org.
Mary Beth Lawlor, publisher/editor-in-chief of Litchfield Magazine, and supporter of Plein Air Litchfield, left,and Michele Murelli, Director of Plein Air Litchfield and Art Tripping, right.
For six days this autumn, Litchfield will welcome 33 acclaimed painters for the second year of Plein Air Litchfield (PAL), an arts festival produced by Art Tripping, a Litchfield nonprofit.
The public is invited to watch the artists at work while enjoying the beauty of early fall. The new Belden House & Mews hotel at 31 North St. in Litchfield will host PAL this year.
From Sept. 30 through Oct. 5, artists chosen from 100 entries around the country — representing diverse origins as far flung as Punjab, Berlin, and Peru — will set up their easels and spend the week recording the landscape, farms, historic buildings, and even restaurant interiors throughout the town. Artists such as Thomas Adkins, Yili Haruni, Katushka Millones, and Zufar Bikbov will participate.
“The French term plein air means ‘out of doors,’ referring to the practice of painting entire finished pictures in the open air. The plein air approach was pioneered by John Constable in Britain in the early 19th century,” according to The Tate Gallery in London.
Thursday, Oct. 2, is “Paint the Historic District Day,” when artists make paintings of early buildings.
Norfolk artist Sam Guindon will give a painting demonstration in the meadow by Tapping Reeve Law School at 82 South St. at 3 p.m. Thursday.
Nicole Carpenter, curator of the Litchfield Historical Society, will present “Landscape Visions: Artistic Depictions of Litchfield,” exploring the role artists play in documenting regional history, at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Oliver Wolcott Library at 160 South St. The talk is free, and all are welcome.
The public is also invited to the historic firehouse at Belden House at 6 p.m. for a free art show of the works created that day.
On Saturday, Oct. 4, Judge of Awards Eric Forstmann, a Litchfield County artist, will announce the winners at the Gala Art Show and Sale in the historic Firehouse property of Belden House & Mews, where all displayed artwork will be available for purchase.
Finally, on Sunday morning, Oct. 5,from 9 a.m. to noon, everyone is invited to a three-hour fun “Quick Paint” event. Open to artists of all levels, with additional prizes, the event will be held in the Tapping Reeve Meadow at 82 South St. Registration is from 8 to 9 a.m.
Art Tripping was founded in 2018 by Michele Murelli, whose mission is to create community art events and show how art enhances quality of life. Murelli and her team of volunteers have organized Plein Air Litchfield, 2025.
Visit the PAL website, www.pleinairlitchfield.com for information and to purchase tickets to the Gala Art Show and Sale.