In this collection of essays Tim Bowling picks up the common questions, and beauties, of life and examines them closely. From questions of love and money to the search for solitude in a clamouring world, to poetry and the place of art today, Bowling writes thoughtfully on what it means to be alive. In the end, we come back to the moon, the trees, the salmon that swim to the sea and the call of the red-winged blackbird, which his mother imitated to call him inside at night, as a child.