By LYNNE IRONS

Here we go . . . heading into another summer season. The other day while sitting in a line of traffic, I noticed people getting cut off and thought it was early to have extra people here so soon. I realized it was the anxiety-riddled workers hustling around, trying to prepare for the arrival of their off-Island customers. It was nice to come to a place of gratitude for gainful employment regardless of the angst it produces the week of Memorial Day.

The gardens are simply lovely. The irises have come into their glory. How sad it is such a brief moment in time. Hopefully we can take a minute to fully enjoy them. Speaking of enjoyment, I spent a bit of time observing a pair of Baltimore orioles splashing in a puddle created by my garden sprinkler.

I have spent years trying to duplicate a sprinkler I used in the eighties. All production seems to have been outsourced to the Far East and the cheap plastic replicas rarely last a season. My daughter found a beauty at a tag sale, solid metal with no moving parts except a simple whirl. It covers a big area. Oh! The simple pleasures of life!

My peas are blooming and some are well over three feet tall. For once I had prepared the fence line last fall up to and including lime. I put the hoop-house-started seedlings into the prepared area at least six weeks ago and haven’t done a single thing more.

I rarely take pride in my gardens. Most of the time I am merely astonished that seeds actually emerge into plants. One exception, however, forgive my gloating — is my second-year globe artichokes. About half returned and they are already spectacular, thick, blue-green leaves ripe with potential.

A note to Mary Vascellero: it is a variegated pink weigelia near your chimmney. The varigated varieties can be a bit problematic. Often a plain green branch will show itself. It wants to revert. Cut that errant twig as soon as you notice it —right to the ground.

I have an incredible stand of sweet William started from seed last spring. I forgot to start them this spring. If you get a minute, it is well worth putting in a row or two. Your reward won’t come until next year so patience, please. The same goes for dame’s rocket and foxgloves. There is some purple dame’s rocket in the field of daisies and lupines at the State Road end of North Road. Lovely as that field is I can’t help but miss the Humphrey’s vegetable garden.

My grandson Christian and his friend Brier lent a cheerful hand last Saturday and dug several raised beds for me in the vegetable garden. Then, last Sunday, my friend, Marie, and I planted peppers and eggplants in those beds. It was no small task as I had been seduced by my seed catalogs last winter. I must have seeded over a dozen varieties of each. I am probably not alone in questioning my sanity. Naturally not a single life was in vain. We planted every one regardless of size.

A big thanks to Ellie Kohane, Marie’s mother. She showed up on Sunday and did a terrific job of weeding beets. She also gave me an informative article snipped from the August Prevention magazine entitled The Superbug in the Supermarket. It was a terrifying exposé of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA. Perhaps you have heard of this antibiotic-resistant skin infection often contracted in hospitals? It is extremely hard to treat and can be fatal. At least 18,000 Americans die yearly from it­— more than from AIDS. They have discovered a high incidence of the disease in workers at poultry and meat processing plants. The animals being processed had routinely been fed large quantities of antibiotics. The rampant use of these medications has caused the mutated form of staph known as MRSA. It enters the human body through cuts on the skin or through the nose (touching your face after handling raw meat.) The article offered sensible advice. Shop smarter as in organic meats not fed antibiotics or stock up on non-meat protein sources. More importantly, cook safer. Wash hands well after handling raw meat, use waterproof bandages on cuts, avoid touching your face, clean utensils well, and make it well done. MRSA is destroyed by heat. Sorry to be Chicken Little but a word to the wise before the backyard barbecue season begins.