“A garden should be natural-seeming, with wild sections, including a large area of bluebells.”

“As she turned left to the gateway, it occurred to her that swimming was only one of a very large number of things she had no idea what to do. Peter had been right to object to her ignorance. "It's not that I'm lazy," she explained to Waif as they arrived in what seemed to be stables, "or stupid. I've just not bothered to look round the edges of Mother's way of doing things, you see.”

“On Wednesday, for variety, he accosted Andrew as Andrew went out to check the state of the garden walls and presented a further cardboard box containing ten kilos of tomatoes and a squash like a deformed head of a baby.”

“I seem to have excalibured this knife.”

“Annoyed?” said Sophie. “Why should I be annoyed? Someone only filled the castle with rotten aspic, and deafened everyone in Porthaven, and scared Calcifer to a cinder, and broke a few hundred hearts. Why should that annoy me?”

“In addition, Master Twinkle seems convinced that someone is denying him a pair of stripey trousers.”

“...if the spell was off, I’d have my heart eaten before I could turn around.”“Don’t you want your heart eaten?” asked the fire. [...]“Naturally I don’t,” Sophie answered.”