I wonder if I did something right in my previous life to end up on the Vineyard.

The wildfires in the Texas Panhandle, 12 feet of snow in the northwest and tornadoes in the midwest make our slightly rainy, 50-degree days this week downright pleasant.

I forgot to mention last week that I have crocuses blooming. These are the species variety, not the later mammoth varieties. It’s remarkable how much they spread over the years. I probably planted a small package of maybe 12 bulbs 20 years ago. They now cover an area 30 by 30 feet including parts of the lawn.

On Monday I tossed some Bulb-tone around if for no other reason than to deter the bunnies for five minutes. They do love crocuses. Deer, however, are waiting for those tulips that they will polish off in one night. It seems pointless to plant them unless I enjoy seasonal frustration and anger!

Over the weekend I saw a squirrel on the property. I have tons of them now that the elderly barn cat finished her long life.

The tree-climbing rodent had something in its mouth that was as big as its head. Turns out it was an ornamental gourd from the spent fall arrangement. They are hard as a rock but completely empty except for the seeds. Nature is ingenious. The little critter will have a meal or two!

Over the weekend I took a road trip out to Amherst to visit Violet. There was a remarkable amount of trash on the roadsides. Big shout out to our local road crews for keeping it tidy here on the Vineyard.

I took a walkabout in my pathetic vegetable garden. The neglect of some simple fall tasks is painfully obvious.

There are some kale and collards ready to be picked and maybe a single serving of spinach.

One odd observation is that the resident bunny has avoided eating any of the aforementioned.

However, all the leeks have been consumed right to ground level. I cannot imagine that a raw member of the onion family would be preferable to some yummy greens.

I hope I get around to pruning this week. The grapevine, blueberries and fruit trees are in need.

I cut the grapes hard and they always come back famously.

Fruit trees should never be cut more than a third as it will sometimes make them produce water sprouts that do not bear fruit. These sprouts are not the same as root suckers but appear randomnly on the tree. Both, however, should be removed while pruning.

As far as blueberries any dead or crossing branches need to go. A healthy dose of Pro-Holly or Holly-tone will help. Why I bother is beyond me. I always forget to net them in a timely fashion and birds have their way with the berries.

Because I write on Tuesdays, the results of the Super Tuesday vote have yet to be found. The Republican side is sadly predictable but a small percentage of non-committed Democrats will be endlessly covered by the media. Oh, I forget; is Joe Biden old?

I am looking forward to the State of the Union address. I’ll need a cup of afternoon coffee as it is way past my bedtime.

The surgeon general of Florida, appointed by non other than Ron DeSantis, is a vaccine skeptic. He says that it’s perfectly fine to send unvaccinated children to school.

Hence, the state is amid an outbreak of measles.

Sometime in the early 1960s the measles vaccine was given in the United States.

I was in high school by then and had both the three-day and nine-day strains. My memory is that our mothers made us stay in a darkened room and we couldn’t read.

Thanks to modern medicine my children and grandchildren never had the experience.

The anti-elite, anti-education, anti-science and anti-woke agenda of the far right may just be our undoing.