Description from Away from Home, taken from the author's journal during a journey to the Merrill Valley.

At the end of the wood we emerged suddenly from the shadows cast by the tall trees. From that vantage point I seemed to catch a view of the whole valley, telescoped as it might be, in a single image.

The high, sheer-yet-wooded valley walls. The cataract that fell boiling some hundred feet or more. An arc of rainbow hues caught in the sunlight as it fell and played upon the clouds of spray and mist.

Brilliant blue sky, like a canopy stretched over the valley's gape. Green grass, rose-red stone. Bush and tree and little flowers. And before us - above us, perched on a higher plateau - I could see the House.