Holy cow! That was some serious rain last Sunday. I had over three inches in a bucket. As you probably know an inch of rain would translate into a foot of snow. I, for one, do not have much interest in navigating three feet of snow. I’m way too busy thinking spring.

I stopped by Morrice the Florist this week to treat myself to a bunch of tulips. They had some forced branches of magnolia Soulangeana on the counter. They were easily five feet tall. It’s worth a trip to check them out. The clerk thinks they came from a greenhouse in the Netherlands. They put my forsythia in a vase to shame.

Our family does the big Christmas get-together on Dec. 24, and so my Christmas Day is quiet and uneventful. This year I planted some large pots in my unheated greenhouse. This was in the middle of the memorable cold snap as you may recall. It took three weeks for radishes and kale to germinate. Lettuce broke through the frozen ground after a month. Last week I was shocked to finally see beets. Wonder of wonders, on my Feb. 12 birthday (shared with Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin) the carrots came up. I got all inspired and prepared the potting bench for some serious seedlings. I love this time of year — everything is so filled with hope and promise.

Outside, if one is paying close attention, things are beginning to stir. My friend Phyllis called to report a blooming witch hazel at the Grace Church. Any day now the impressive one on Skiff avenue right before the big turn towards the water will show itself.

I rummaged around in debris I neglected to remove in the fall and discovered some buds on the pink hellebores. They were very close to the ground right in the middle of the old foliage. How fun is that — on Mardi Gras no less, right at the beginning of Lent. Hence the name Lenten Rose! I have an impressive stand of them. They multiplied over the years from just a couple of plants.

Every fall I haul several rosemary plants into the hoop house. They are protected just enough with one sheet of six mil plastic to live year after year. I’m sad to report that most died this year. I think there may be a bit of life on one.

I hope that the brutal cold of a month ago will kill some of our insects this year. It would be wonderful to cut back on our tick population for starters.

I ran into Linda Ziegler recently. She shared some interesting news. She has been sprouting amaranth in much the same way of the ever-popular pea shoots. Amaranth greens are very high in protein and minerals. It is similar to spinach although stronger. I went on Google and found that the leaves juiced can prevent gray hair — too late! Oh well.

Last week I mentioned the untethered flag at the Vineyard Haven Post Office. Voila, someone fixed it. I’m not so self-involved to think I had anything to do with it but it did make me laugh. How I wish our untethered government was such an easy fix.

Dan Alexander and Matt Drange wrote an article in Forbes Magazine. It seems the Trump organization gets rent money from foreign governments and big banks to wit: China’s largest bank pays $2 million a year for an office in Trump Tower. I thought U.S. presidents were not supposed to make money while in office especially from China. But how would we really know what he does? He has yet to release his taxes. I’m not holding my breath on that one.