I want to lay up like that, to float unstructured, without ambition or anxiety. I want to inhabit my life like a porch.

Flowers heal me. Tulips make me happy. I keep myself surrounded by them as soon as they start coming to the island from Canada, and after that when they come from the fields in La Connor, not far from where I live.

Life is short but it is wide. This too shall pass.

A scent that disturbs me and delights me. It smells like ripe pears, vetiver, a bit of violet and something else- something spicy almost biting and exotic.

Forget love. Try good manners.

I value humor, kindness, and the ability to tell a good story far more than money, status, or the kind of car someone drives.

Don't ever admit you know a thing about cooking or it'll be used against you.