I toyed this week with a couple of lead paragraphs and came up with zilch. I’m so crazy busy . . . How can a long, hard winter and a late spring turn a couple of nice days into full-on garden madness? I got behind practically the day I started.

Such is life . . . and I’m grateful for it.

I received a lovely note from a Peter and Ellen Doyle. I knew it was some sort of fan mail as my critics always write me anonymously. At any rate, it was fun to get! They inquired about my ongoing vole problem. Wow! They sure were happy this winter under our copious snow cover. When it finally melted (last week) there were little trails everywhere. They are vegetarians and do not respond to poison or traps. They are downright chubby.

The only thing which seems to diminish their population is my rescue cat from the animal shelter. He is slightly tame but never a house cat. Apparently he had been jailed at the shelter for over a year. He spent his days gazing longingly out the window. He seems quite content living in my greenhouse with full run of the vegetable garden.

He rewards me several times weekly with the remains of my nemesis voles. Good thing, since I trudged in to feed him every day on snowshoes. I digress.

I ate my first asparagus. What a treat! I was able to pick enough for a proper omelet for Violet and me. I’ve had one patch for over 30 years. It could use some tending, but talk about reliable.

The hellebores are finally blooming nicely. Here it is five weeks past Easter and the Lenten Rose shows itself!

I’ve got rogue garlic plants coming up here and there. They were bulbs which were inadvertently missed last harvest in August. Now that bulb has turned into several scallion-sized edibles. They are a welcome change. My stored garlic from last summer has seen better days. I’m using it up in soup stocks.

Speaking of soup . . . I’m emptying the freezer of stored containers. I always cook down bones and freeze the resulting stock.

Recently, I had a rich goose and leek soup into which I tossed several of my purple sweet potatoes from last summer. They have held up admirably by the way. All the color and flavor cooked out of them, oddly. The handheld blender and a can of navy beans came to the rescue.

I’m fond of leftovers. I was raised to never waste food and I learned the lesson well. A few weeks ago MSNBC had a special documentary on food waste in our country. It was called Just Eat It. Over one quarter of our food goes to waste. The idea that water, energy and labor go into the production of that food should outrage us all.

We are so picky about our food. An apple with a tiny blemish gets tossed out. We talk endlessly about gluten-free, vegan, low carbs, and whether a caveman would eat it. Honestly, I try to eat what someone offers me. It’s such a treat to have someone else cook. I think it would be appropriate to follow my favorite admonishment, “Shut your pie hole!”

There is a stunning Magnolia Soulangeana on East Chop Drive, just a few houses past Our Market on the right. It is worth a drive-by.

What would a spring column be without my usual rant about GMOs and Roundup? Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, probably causes cancer in humans. Also, the insecticides Malathion and Diazinon are on the probable cause list.

Roundup, a product of Monsanto, is used exclusively on corn and soybeans, since they have a modified gene called Roundup Ready. That means the crops can be sprayed with massive doses of the herbicide and be the only thing left standing in a field.

I’ve said this many times, Roundup is chemically similar to Agent Orange. Not only did it defoliate the jungles of Viet Nam but it also caused irreparable harm to many veterans of that war.

People, please, learn to live with a few weeds in the driveway, or spray them with vinegar for heaven’s sake.