There's so much more psychic freedom out here. Free-range thinking is evident across the island, in the custom railroad that encircles a millionaire's acreage, in pastoral farmlands where emus graze alongside sheep. The mewing, braying, clucking farm she shares with her husband, Gene, a Mount Vernon attorney, is home to the emus, horses, donkeys, llamas, sheep, dogs, parrots, turkeys, chickens, doves and the eagles and raccoons that feed on them. In bakeries and restaurants, chefs tweak recipes island-style, with a little funk, a little pizzazz. Across the street at The Healing Arts Center, stressed minds and bodies undergo Japanese acupuncture developed by blind practitioners or spirit-body integration and balance.
Creative landscapers loosen up formal gardens with curving lines and native plantings.
Robin Kucklick, a landscape designer who has planted more than 300 trees in Eastsound and designed many of its public gardens, likes to play with scents, planting a lavender bush to jut out into a pathway and brush against passers-by, releasing a heady, purple perfume. Fabulous big city stuff.