On Sunday night or rather very early Monday morning, I woke to loud snow plows. It was so beautiful outside with all the trees covered in snow. By Monday midday it was slushy and ugly. Any remaining snow along the roads was black and unattractive. Here it is Tuesday and pretty darn cold. What a winter. I feel bad for the children. They have not had a decent snow day. I saw some attempts at sledding at the Tashmoo Overlook. I think the hill was mostly mud.

Nevertheless, we are moving rapidly towards spring. This week the clocks change. As I often say “It’s the night people stealing from the morning people.”

Over the weekend I stopped at Mermaid Farm. I like to purchase the Red Fife wheat for bread making. This week there was some ancient Einkorn whole grain flour for sale. I can’t wait to see how it works in bread. In fact, as I write, it is rising near the wood stove.

Einkorn was one of the first domesticated and cultivated crops. It originated in the Fertile Crescent, probably in present day Syria. It has more protein than modern varieties.

Dan Sternback is our Island grain farmer. He grows both the Red Fife and Einkorn as well as rye. He grinds it in small batches so it is always fresh.

As I was leaving Mermaid Farm, I couldn’t help but notice the enormous witch hazel at Brookside Farm. It is easily twice as big as the one at Middle

town Nursery. I always enjoy seeing the Red Devon steers at that property. They are the second or third generation of that breed to live at Brookside.

Traveling home that day I saw maybe 200 Canada geese in the field across from Polly Hill. Lucky us to live on the Vineyard in winter.

One sure sign that spring is on its way is the number of dead skunks on the road. Are they stupid? In Pennsylvania we had dead deer on the roads all the time. No one bothered moving them.

Things are beginning to take root (so to speak) in the vegetable world. I planted some old carrot seeds in the hoophouse in October. All the other seeds germinated and held their own all winter. I ate radishes, kale and spinach. Just as I had abandoned all hope those carrots came up this week. They stayed dormant in the cold, cold ground for four months. Isn’t nature grand!

I enjoyed myself on Tuesday in the sun even though it never got much above 20 degrees. I whiled away several hours in the greenhouse separating and transplanting onion seedlings. They were not much bigger around than a human hair. This is the only area of my life where I have infinite patience.

What a week in the news. I confess I was glued to NPR all day following the Michael Cohen testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

The Republican questioning went something like this:

Republican congressman: “You are a liar.” Cohen: “I know I admitted it. I’m going to jail.”

Next Representative: “You’re a liar.” Cohen: “I know. I admitted it. I’m going to jail.”

Another Representative: “You are a liar.” Cohen: “Sigh.”

I was especially amused to hear that our mothers told us “Liar, liar, pants on fire.” I recall hearing that on the elementary school playground — not from my parents.