Not quite birds, as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures.

Don't waste hate on pink geranium.

"Most of us tend to belittle all suffering except our own," said Mary. "I think it's fear. We don't want to come too near in case we're sucked in and have to share it".

There is always something particularly delightful about exceptions to a rule.

autumn days have a holiness that spring lacks ... They are like old serene saints for whom death has lost its terror.

Imagination comes from yourself and can deceive you, but vision is a gift from outside yourself - like light striking on your closed eyelids and lifting them to see what's really there.

There was a good deal to be said, Hilary decided, for middle age and infirmity. The years in which one demanded much of life were left behind, together with the bitterness of not getting what one wanted. One's values, too, were altered. Gifts that once one took for granted, sunshine and birdsong, freedom from pain, sleep and one's daily bread, seemed now so extraordinarily precious.