[The colors on citrus-crate labels] went beyond nature and spoke directly to fantasy: apricot, purple, cobalt blue, sea green, cinnamon, cinnabar, mauve, yellow, orange.

A city where everyone seemed to live in a bungalow on a broad avenue lined with palm, pepper or eucalyptus trees, where there was never any snow.

She had never known that ice could take on so many shades of blue: sharp lines of indigo like the deepest sea, aquamarine shadows, even the glint of blue-green where the sun struck just so.

Right and wrong matters little when survival matters most.

Mission Revival red-tiled roofs glowing carmine in the sunset.

We need to reclaim the ethical high ground of what California should mean,