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At the Edge of the Orchard QUOTES

At the Edge of the Orchard QUOTES

1 " It turned out plant collecting was a solitary occupation. In the past Robert had enjoyed being alone, or so he thought. Actually he had rarely been alone for long: working in hotels, in stables, on ranches and farms, and as a miner, he had always been around others. Now, out in the woods or up in the hills or out on the flat central plain, he could go for days without speaking to anyone. His throat seemed to close up and he had to keep clearing it, singing songs aloud or reciting the Latin names of plants, just to check that he still had a voice. 'Araucaria imbricata. Sequoia sempervirens. Pinus lambertiana. Abies magnifica'. He was surprised at how much he missed people.. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

2 " If redwoods are the backbone of California, oaks are of England. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

3 " He could not tell all of the California pines apart, the gray pine from the coulter, the bushop from the knobcone and the Monterey. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

4 " Prying out a stump reminded him of how deeply a tree clung to the ground, how tenacious a hold it had on a place. Though he was not a sentimental man - he did not cry when his children died, he simply dug the graves and buried them - James was silent each time he killed a tree, thinking of its time spent in that spot. He never did this with the animals he hunted - they were food, and transient, passing through this world and out again, as people did. But trees felt permanent - until you had to cut them down. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

5 " People had gone west leaving behind all sorts of trouble; what they found in California was the space and freedom to create new trouble. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

6 " But John Chapman told us he didnt eat meat cause he couldnt stand for somethin livin to be killed jest to keep him alive. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

7 " He stood there at the edge of the orchard looking like he would never be whole again. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

8 " California is where you get to start over. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

9 " of all the cities he had been to—Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Salt Lake City—San Francisco was by far the worst. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

10 " pinetums "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

11 " Stay here and do the packing and let the young one run all over California for you! Don't you always say the success of collecting is in the packing? You're the boss--take the most important role and stop moaning! "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

12 " Molly was up now, sitting in the kitchen nursing the babies and instructing Mrs. Bienenstock on how to make biscuits. “Don’t pound the dough, Dody!” Molly was crying with laughter. “You want to end up crackin’ your teeth on ’em? Pat it gentle like it’s a baby. That’s better.” Robert had only ever seen his landlady make coffee and eggs, and he did not think she would take kindly to being taught. But Mrs. B. seemed willing; she was smoothing out the biscuit dough into a round on the table. Neither woman even glanced over at him as he moved between the yard and the wagon with the pails. “Now, take this cup,” Molly ordered, “and cut out some circles. Don’t twist it! Twistin’ seals the dough and it don’t rise so well. Jest press and bring the cup back out. There now, put that on your sheet for bakin’.” “We’re "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

13 " Funny, I didn't think much about apples fore we came to the Black Swamp. when I was growin up we had an orchard like everybody else but I didn't pay it no attention cept when the blossom was out in May. Then Id go and lie there smellin some sweet perfume and listenin to the bees hum so happy cause they had flowers to play with. That was where James and I lay our first time together. I shouldve known then he wasnt for me. He was so busy inspectin my familys trees and askin how old each was - like I would know - and what the fruit was like (Juicy like me, I said) that finally I had to unbutton my dress myself. That shut him up a while. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

14 " Though grafted at the same time, they had grown up to be different sizes; it always surprised James that the trees could turn out as varied as his children. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

15 " She'd had a terrible time with his brothers' wives : seeing her with them was like watching someone pet a cat against its fur. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

16 " James found the talk by the wagons tiring after a while. He liked to listen, and he had thoughts of what he'd like to say about the weather, or the corn crop, or the road being macadamized, or the rascals in Congress. But he never quite had the courage to speak them aloud. By the time he had formed words to his liking, the conversation had moved on. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

17 " Life was often simply the repetition of the same movements in a different order, depending on the day and the place. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

18 " Nance is funny that way. She likes women her own size--like your sister. She knows where she is with a woman like Martha. Whereas Molly--she's so--well, so full of life, she makes Nance feel even sicker. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard

19 " This is not your land," William Lobb said.
"Oh, it is, it is. I got the papers. I can show you, back at the camp."
"This is Indian land, if it's anyone's." William Lobb spoke as if he hadn't heard Billie Lapham. "Those Miwoks encamped just south of here - they've been here longer than you. It's theirs, or it's God's land - take your pick. "

― Tracy Chevalier , At the Edge of the Orchard