The Real Evershade

There is a grove of trees quite near my home that has always caught my eye. On the north side is a low field, which becomes the meadow in my book. A little stream wanders through it, separating the meadow from the High Field. The real Evershade, you see, is situated at a place where the land slopes abruptly downward. The stream has cut away the hillside over time, and trees have grown from the hill's base. They tower over the meadow, but the treetops are almost level with the grass of the High Field. 

This fact is made clear when one sees Evershade in the wintertime through the naked branches of the grove. Naturally, this is not when I took the photos, so to you it may simply look like a clump of trees.

At the western of edge of Evershade, the High Field slopes down to the meadow, and the land levels out again. I decided that this would make an excellent place for Mr. Barkwhistle to construct his dam and create his pond. The old beaver is, after all, responsible for burying the dead of Evershade, and it is simple for them to float the bodies down the Fray to his pond on tiny rafts where he can add them to the burial mound.

The western edge of Evershade where Mr. Barkwhistle makes his home, right in that gap where the cattle are grazing...

 

At last, the real Evershade with the meadow where the Walnut Keepers gather herbs and seeds--and where one amazing mouse changes his fate--stretches out before it...