Nonnie, my maternal grandmother, was a great and consistent letter writer. She began every correspondence with a description of the day’s weather. Some time ago I decided to use the weather in my opening paragraph. It eliminated the need for a catchy lead and settled me into the weekly task.

This week I experienced a weather-induced unplanned vacation in Falmouth. What should have been an easy off and on day trip to fetch Violet from Tabor Academy for spring break turned into an expensive three days. Between frequent trips to Woods Hole checking on non-existent boat departures and phone calls rearranging reservations, we boredom shopped and ate our way through downtown Falmouth.

On Saturday, we were fortunate to get the last remaining room in town. Many Cape Codders were booking rooms because their homes were freezing from power outages. Sunday morning at the boat dock, folks were complaining about finally getting rooms in Fairhaven. Yikes!

I was happy to see all my trees still standing when I finally made it home. There was some greenhouse repair work, however. Life can be difficult sometimes. All the tarps blew off the new potting soil so it is now sopping wet and too heavy for me to move.

Plastic plant pots are strewn here and there but I opted to leave them since the forecast was for more wind and rain.

I did enjoy a few things in the yard this week. I have tons of blooming snowdrops and early crocuses. Also, I noticed peonies poking through the ground about two inches. FYI — peonies do not want mulch so pull it back from the emerging shoots if you want blooms later this spring.

On the way to Marion (before Friday’s rain) I noticed all the cranberry bogs were completely flooded. Wonder if that affects their spring growth?

I hauled a container of last year’s fava beans from the freezer. I let them thaw and painstakingly removed the thin skin from each bean. It is inedible and I did not have time to do it when I froze them. It was well worth the effort. I sauteed them with boatloads of garlic, olive oil and a generous splash of balsamic vinegar. I tossed them into some whole wheat cappellini and Mermaid Farm feta cheese. It became lunch for several days. Yummy.

I write this on Tuesday evening. The breaking news, just in, is that the White House economic adviser, Gary Cohn, has quit. He disagrees wholeheartedly with DJT’s proposed tariff on steel and aluminum. Most likely a trade war will commence. This will effect both Canada and the E.U.

Trump loves to talk about America first and making her great again. He cannot imagine that other world leaders have his number. Both of the aforementioned countries have vowed to retaliate with tariffs of their own — on Kentucky bourbon and both Levi’s and Harley-Davidson.

Mitch McConnell’s state of Kentucky and Paul Ryan’s Wisconsin (home of Harley-Davidson and Levi’s) will be severely impacted. Maybe this will at least get those two to grow spines. After all, money not decency talks in the U.S. congress.