Last week’s two hot days accelerated the season in spades. All the lawns have greened up and some of the maple trees have all their leaf growth overnight. Traffic has increased like crazy. All the off-Island customers are calling, itching to be here and to inquire about their gardens.

Most of us have seen the last of our friends until fall. Everyone is super busy.

I ate my first asparagus. There was only one and I’m surprised I even noticed it. I ate it right there on the spot.

I picked an arm load of rhubarb. I was too tried to make anything out of it so I cut it into one-inch pieces and popped it into the freezer. Hopefully, I’ll remember to drag it out when the strawberries come in and make a pie.

When we were smart-aleck teens in Rew, Pa. We would sneak into the neighbor’s garden and help ourselves to his rhubarb. Then we would dare each other to eat a stalk raw. It was many years before I learned to appreciate it.

I saw my first tent of caterpillars and have some aphids on the kale. Honestly, a person cannot catch a break. Also, I’ve had my share of garden related injuries this week. Here’s one you cannot make up. I shut a rambling raspberry vine in the truck door unbeknownst to me. As I drove away the entire thing ripped the length of my lower leg. It slipped right out leaving me picking thorns and adding money to the cuss bucket.

I noticed a bridal wreath spirea blooming in Edgartown. It seems early since we did have a hard winter. They usually bloom around Memorial Day. Perhaps it was in a protected location?

I’m crazy about the ground phlox right now. There are some lovely ones on Skiff avenue in Vineyard Haven and along West Spring street near the Hebrew cemetery. I have just one but it makes a statement tumbling over a stone wall.

Across from Featherstone Farm on Barnes Road there is an impressive stand of red tulips. I covet them. Clearly, the people have been diligent with deer spray.

Lily of the Valley is everywhere. They have yet to bloom. I am not particularly fond of them. They last for such a short time and then look dismal for the entire summer, and you can never rid yourselves of them. Once, I threw a clump upside down in the woods. Not only did they live but thrived.

A hummingbird was darting in and out of my sprinkler set inside my hoophouse recently. I stopped everything, sat on a bucket and watched it. Life is grand.

What’s not grand is the state of our union. I’m completely baffled by the slew of men who have been accused of sexual misconduct and have resigned from office. That is, of course, except our President. Is he Teflon? I wonder if the man has ever been held accountable.

This just in — it’s Tuesday as I write this and DJT has pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. I imagine making a deal with Kim Jong-un is ludicrous now.

I have not heard yet as to the election results in West Virginia. Will we have a felon whose company was responsible for the deaths of 29 miners as a U.S. Senate candidate?