Morning

Fruitopia wakes with the sun — except the Neon Grove, which wakes at sunset and considers this a moral position. In the valley, juice presses start at dawn; at the cove, fishing boats go out with the tide; in the marsh, nothing starts before second breakfast, and that's the law.

Work

• Orchard work — picking, pressing, and pie-baking; the valley's economic heart.
• Night work — the Grove's clubs, kitchens, and coat-checks; glamorous and exhausting.
• Sea work — sailing, fishing, and trading at the cove; salt in everything.
• Craft work — sugar-smiths in the Peaks, boatwrights on the rivers, florists everywhere.

Evening

Evenings belong to gathering: diner booths in the valley, velvet booths in the Grove, beach fires at the cove. The fruit-people have a saying: “A day is for doing; an evening is for belonging.”

Marlow’s typical day

Up with the sun, grove walk and leaf-picking, bar prep till four, doors at five, the sunset toast on the dot, stories till late. “Rest,” he says, “is for the becalmed.”