The kettle takes about four minutes to boil when it is full, and about two when it is half full. Most mornings I fill it halfway, because the first cup is the one I drink slowly and the second is the one I forget on the windowsill.

A bicycle chain needs oil more often than people think. If it starts to sound dry on a climb, it has already been dry for a week. A few drops on each link, a slow turn of the pedals, and a rag to take off the excess is the whole job.

The library on the corner closes at six on weekdays and at one on Saturdays. The reading room upstairs has the better light, but the ground floor has the newspapers, and on cold days the heating reaches the ground floor first.

To repot a plant, water it the day before so the root ball holds together. Choose a pot one size larger, not three, and press the new soil gently rather than packing it, or the water will run around the edges instead of through.

The bus route changed in the spring. It now turns left at the bakery and goes past the school before the station, which adds four minutes in the morning and saves six in the evening, when the old road is full.

When a recipe says to let the dough rest, it means it. The gluten relaxes, the dough stops fighting the rolling pin, and the crust comes out even. Ten minutes under a cloth is enough for most things; an hour is better for bread.

A good map of a small town fits on one page. The river goes along the bottom, the main street crosses it once, and everything people need to find is within three turns of that crossing.

The hardware store keeps the screws in small drawers sorted by length and then by head. If you bring the old screw with you, the person at the counter will find its match in under a minute and will tell you, kindly, which drawer it came from.

Rain on a tin roof sounds louder than rain on tiles, but it also stops sounding like rain after a few minutes and starts sounding like the room. People who grew up under tin roofs say they sleep better in storms.

The ferry crosses every half hour from seven until nine at night, and once an hour after that. The last crossing waits five minutes for the last bus, which is the kind of arrangement that only works in a place where everyone knows it.

A letter takes two days to reach the next town and five to reach the coast. Parcels take a day longer. The post office will weigh anything you bring, including, once, a cat, which was not sent.

In the garden the beans go up strings and the peas go up netting, because beans wind and peas grip. If you give them the wrong support they will still climb, but slowly, and they will fall over in the first wind.
