The Assabet River frontage is over three hundred feet.   Thoreau was said to bath and swim nearby.  River House itself is surrounded on all sides by woods, and most of the year we cannot see our neighbors except where the driveway comes into the property.    Besides the usual congress of birds, squirrels, and chipmunks, we have a beaver lodge in sight right off the river side of the house.   Fox, deer, and coyotes have been seen playing on the banks across the river , which open onto preserved and wild forest.  In the summer wild turkeys from nearby farmer's fields walk through the yard to slake their thirst at the  water's edge.  Multiple windows and skylights make the separation between house and outdoors almost invisible.  At flood*, the river extends hundreds of yards in many directions, yet never breaches the slight rise from which the house looks out on the usually quiet powers of the natural world.   Even on gray winter days the elemental sprites make magic ...