"Cabin 135 exists as place and idea, abode and quirky companion. As place, the house offered abundant opportunities to explore and contemplate decisions made by previous residents. As an abstraction, the log-built cabin both anchored and propelled my speculative notions of time and place. Eventually, I looked outward, beyond the house toward the microcosms of garden and yard and on toward a wider terrain. Nature meanders through my life as an ongoing theme, whether semi-tamed garden, national park, or wild-seeming forest. My narrative journey samples history, gardening, and nature as well as grappling with a many-faced house. Within the thematic structure of this book, I learn to pay more attention to my surroundings-sometimes with a broad-brush approach such as considering a swath of vegetation, other times, contemplating only a small plot of forest or garden, or a patch of wall inside the house. While searching for narrative larger than myself, everything I experienced, pondered, and tinkered with became part of my story and I puzzled over how we change places in both minuscule and wide-ranging ways"-- |