I read the best Calvin Trillin quote this week. “My mother served leftovers for 27 years. A team of anthropologists has been sent in search of the original meal.”

How fitting! This has been the week for leftovers. I’m sure everyone has had it by now. One of my favorites is the turkey stock with a mixture of creamed onions, butternut squash, turkey, mashed potatoes — everything from the big meal turned into soup.

A slice of fruit pie topped with a big dollop of plain yogurt makes a fine breakfast and one can convince oneself it’s actually good for you what with low-fat yogurt!

I had a particular reason to be thankful last week. Returning from the son and daughter in law’s lovely Thanksgiving meal (that I didn’t cook or cleanup after) we were stopped by the police. They were busy trying to corral a big black pig running around on State Road.

I was so happy my escape-artist pigs were tucked away safely in my freezer. I’ve spent many an evening chasing them. One time I asked Liz Packer how she was doing. Her timeless answer amuses me to this day. “Everyone is on the right side of the fence and nobody is bleeding.”

As long as I seem to be on the animal subject, why stop now?

NPR ran the story last Saturday about the Chilmark police and the encounter with Tom the turkey. It was aired nationwide.

My son Reuben was taking a break from work last week, sitting in his truck with his legs out. A little bird landed on his foot and tried to remove his shoelace. He scared it off fumbling for his camera.

Oh, how I digress. Not much going on in garden world. I was sad to see my beautiful perfect radishes went all soft after the freeze.

I transplanted some baby Walla Walla Washington sweet onions into a cold frame. I am hoping for a mild enough winter to give me a large, sweet harvest in early summer. They take 300 days if sown in late summer.

Another huge mild onion is the yellow-skinned Ailsa Craig Exhibition. I’ve grown it for years. It only stores a short time but is sweet and delicious. Wasn’t I surprised to see an article on the front page of the Nov. 24 New York Times entitled For Sale: Craggy Isle Where Rocks are the Stars. Lord Archibald Angus Charles Kennedy, the eighth Marquess of Ailsa Craig is selling the island for a possible $2.4 million. It is uninhabited, has no water, no electricity and no arable land. Located in the Firth of Clyde, it has been in the family for 500 years. Its only claim to fame is the rare granite from which Olympic curling stones are made.

How a variety of sweet onion came to be named from this volcanic island remains a mystery I admit I feel compelled to solve. Any of you with Scottish ancestry feel free to offer some assistance.

For the past few years, the seed catalogs have arrived before Thanksgiving. They used to come after Christmas just in time for some down time. For some reason I’m annoyed that they are already here. Speaking of annoyed, why do many of the mail order companies feel the need to send a catalog every month and sometimes two at a time?

The amazing thing is that I rarely, if ever, buy anything. What a waste.

As far as buying for Christmas, have we lost our collective mind? All the hype about Black Friday and Cyber Monday is turning me into a real Scrooge. I love the holiday — the lights, the church music, the good wishes all around, but honestly, who besides little children even needs a gift? I for one have enough “stuff” for a lifetime.