This terraced landscape in Vermont flows from a high perch on a contemporary home’s second story viewing deck through a grassy play space with a fire pit terrace, past mown fields to a swimming pond with “Lake House" and on through a wet meadow to a beaver pond beyond. Here behind the house, four Adirondack chairs are gathered around a fire pit terrace of Goshen stone. Low shrubs and colorful perennials hug the top of a retaining wall that drops off toward a view of the pond and beaver meadow in the distance. A number of trees from the property were thoughtfully culled, giving space to some of the largest and most beautiful, to preserve animal habitat and frame views. Photo by Susan Teare.