I feel so lucky to live on the Vineyard. I watched the Weather Channel showing the lake effect snow in Jamestown, N.Y. birthplace of Lucille Ball. It was a short drive from Rew.

Because it has been so nice here I am getting a handle on some of my winter preparations. Last weekend’s cold snap sent me to the vegetable garden for some last minute tasks. I finished placing buckets over the artichoke plants. I am determined to have a few survive until spring.

I covered the last row of beets with a thick blanket. They don’t like a hard freeze. Carrots don’t seem to mind but radishes and beets get rather pithy.

This summer I upended a fish tote in the middle of the garden to act as a sprinkler stand. When I moved it this week, the voles had excavated a perfect rectangle underneath. Never one to miss an opportunity, I placed several over a couple of beds. I figured as long as I am overrun with the little pests, I may as well put them to work for the winter.

The winterberries at up-Island Cronig’s are fabulous. They put my pathetic ones to shame. They are especially nice with the ornamental grasses. I did notice, at the down-Island store, the grasses have been cut for the season. I hope to get to mine soon. If they are left all winter, they break under snow or blow all over the lawn. Cleaning them up in the spring is a nightmare.

There is a huge beautiful holly just loaded with berries on State Road in Vineyard Haven. It’s near John’s Fish Market with a scallop-shell driveway and a boat packed for the winter. A holly will not produce berries unless it has a boyfriend of the same cultivar. It can be a tiny nondescript shrub but needs to be somewhere close by. I like to fertilize all the evergreens, hydrangeas and blueberries now. They are all acid loving so therefore a good Holly-tone or Pro-Holly application is in order.

I usually put a cup or so around the base of a medium sized hydrangea and more for a larger tree. It is especially helpful for evergreens to have a healthy dose going into winter. Hopefully, it will snow and slowly melt the product into the ground. I do my perennial beds with Pro-Gro in the early spring.

I hate to waste food. For years I removed the center rib of a kale leaf and gave them to the chickens. Lately, I’ve chopped those ribs into half-inch pieces and sauteed them with onions or garlic. They are completely fine, and have a nice crunch.

Rew is located on the eastern edge of Appalachia. I never heard it pronounced Appalatche until a few years ago. I was wondering if anyone knows when that became the popular term?

Monday’s New York Times has a column by Charles M. Blow titled Patriotic Opposition to Donald Trump.

He quotes a 1780 letter written by Samuel Adams, a man strongly opposed to slavery. “If ever the Time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin. There may be more danger of this, than some, even of our well disposed citizens may imagine. If the people should grant their suffrages to men, only because they conceive them to have been friends to the country, without the necessary qualifications for the places they are to fill, the administration of government will become a mere farce, and our public affairs will never be put on the footing of solid security.