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The secret life of bees is based in 1964 in **Sylvan,** South Carolina. Sylvan does not have many houses or people living or visiting there and it is full of trees, peaches and deserted land for miles. It’s a country town with many peach farms and has lots of peach trees lined up in rows for harvest season. The peach farm owned by T-Ray and where Lilly lives is ages away from most people and a lot of other things that happen in the community. It has lots of small, rusty, old barns made of old wood and timber. Outside the peach farm for advertisement there is a giant peach which looks like a bum. Sylvan only has one highway and not a lot of main roads with no footpaths and dirt instead. Sylvan is full of swarming bees which Lilly becomes obsessed with. It is a quaint little town where everyone is connected and knows each other.

The scene quickly changes to the roadside as Lily and Rosaline hitch hike towards an unknown destination, which turns out to be **[|Tiburon].** The road side is dry and dusty with little sign of civilization more miles. Eventually Lily and Rosaline reach a small town called Tiburon which is about the same size as Sylvan only it doesn’t have the peach farms. It has all the things and places a small town should have. It has a general store post office two churches one Baptist the other catholic. Towards the edge of town is a large bright pink house, August Boatwright lives here with her two sisters June and May. The house is surrounded by a few [|beehives] that are always humming with activity making the rich dark honey that is sold in the general store. To one side of the house is a small amount of forest where more bees are kept and past that is a hand built stone wall made from river stones. Not along way from here down a well worn dirt track there is a creek and if you listen carefully there is the sound of the creek gently trickling over the rocks the creek is wide and shallow and flows with a gentleness unknown by rivers. While Lily and Rosaline stay with the Boatwright sisters they live in the honey extracting shed it is warm and cozy with a dirt floor and a tin roof with many holes in it. Every time Lily walks into the shed it fills her with peace and calm because of the natural smell of the dirt and honey that have mixed together.