I hate when I need to complain about the weather. For starters, it does not respond to criticism.

The hot, dry wind at the week’s beginning frazzled my last nerve. Dust and pollen were in eyes and throats all day long.

I like to sleep with my windows open, but again, pollen is not my friend. I remember my mother shutting doors and windows at bedtime. She always said the “night air” was bad for us. OMG, could she have been right?

Kudos to whoever does the gardens at the bank across from the Chilmark Community Center. It’s lovely, especially the berm of giant alliums. Those alliums are pricey but well worth it. They are available in your fall bulb catalogs.

Shasta viburnums are in bloom and simply beautiful. There are several at the Rockland Trust on the Edgartown Road, as well as at the State Road restaurant in North Tisbury.

I have a mother turkey and two adorable babies hanging around my vegetable garden. I don’t mind. She’s doing her best to keep them alive. They seem so vulnerable.

I ate my first sugar snap pea. This may be the earliest ever. It was the variety sugar Ann. At only about a foot tall, it is covered in blooms. Usually it’s nearly the fourth of July for them to produce.

Kousa dogwoods are blooming. I am particularly fond of the two in front of Morrice Florist. One is pink and the other white, but they grow completely together.

My friend Sharlee reported a black vulture in her yard. These are not to be confused with our more common turkey vulture. I had one years ago and called Gus Ben David. He said they were rare this far north. I did some research and found them to be a southern bird which came north to Gettysburg. Eeww! That’s information a person could live without.

I grew some wonderful romaine lettuce this spring. Violet and I were thinking that it was some time since we’d had it, what with the e. coli scare last winter. Another perk of growing one’s own food is confidence in its safety.

I have four different types of poppies blooming right now.

For starters, Lauren’s grape opium poppy has taken over my winter hoop house. They have reseeded for several years in the winter protection of the layer of plastic. I have weeded out bushels of the seedlings but the remaining plants are now over two feet tall.

Poppies of Flanders are lining my garden paths. Again, they have reseeded for years. The key is recognition when they first emerge in very early spring.

Some orange Shirley poppies have insinuated themselves throughout the perennial beds. They only last a week or so in bloom, but it’s an enjoyable week.

Finally, two of the perennial orientals are blooming. They are a true perennial that I started from seed decades ago. They are resentful if transplanted, so put them where they are to remain. I have the lovely salmon pink Princess Victoria Louise, and the bright orange Prince of Orange. Each has over twenty blossoms. Lucky me.

Donald Trump and I are the same age. We were both in first grade when Queen Elizabeth took the throne. Her coronation was the first thing I saw on our brand new television in 1953. Her first prime minister was Winston Churchill, for pete’s sake.

Now to see DJT in England tweeting madly about Meghan Markle, Bette Midler, the mayor of London and who knows what all is so sad, embarrassing and depressing. He says the large crowds of protesters are there in support of him, and it’s all “fake news” that they dislike him.

I’m actually beginning to feel sorry for him. If he ever does come out of his delusion it will not end well for his state of mind.

If he was a member of my family, we would probably consider some sort of intervention. The scary part is that he actually is the most powerful person on the planet. Lord, have mercy!