I was happy last week at the possibility of a rainy Saturday. I planned several indoor activities and neglected my Friday watering duties. When it, once again, failed to deliver, I wondered who or what to blame. As we know, the weather and most family members do not respond to criticism.

The vegetable garden is producing like crazy. Good thing since I’m not happy about any time spent at the food market. Sometimes I drive around the parking lot and talk myself out of any real needs. I used to love food shopping and used it as an opportunity for some socializing. I often thought Cronig’s should put in a coffee bar. Now, with the masks and distancing, I barley recognize folks. They all look like convenience store robbers.

Last week I tried to discuss the group Homegrown but my editor thought I meant some sort of festival. The group met once a month in the off-season at the Ag Hall. Sometimes we made group orders of onion, leek and potato seeds or traded dahlia bulbs. It was a chance to catch up after a busy summer.

I planted a few beds with some fall crops — beets, radishes, kohlrabi, spigarello and purple sprouting broccoli. Hopefully, I’ll keep them watered since, clearly, we never get any rain.

The flower beds are putting on their fall colors — Black-eyed Susan’s, goldenrod, dahlias and the large-flowered perennial hibiscus.

— Violet Southwick

The Heavenly Blue morning glory really annoy me. I have some easily 15-fet tall that have yet to bloom. I started them early indoors but no matter.

The old-fashioned Grandpa Ott’s are another story. They reseed almost too aggressively but have been blooming for over a month. Violet took a shot of single bloom for this week’s column. They are usually purple but sometimes are a dark pink with a pretty heart-shaped leaf.

There is a sweet little garden between the cemetery and Surveyor’s Lane on State Road of gaillardia and Evening Primrose. I could not think what the primrose was so I phoned Abigail Higgins. She mentioned a few wildflower books. This sent me on a goose chase into my dusty bookcase dragging out all the garden books. Yikes! I have plenty of them. Finally, I had success with the National Audubon Society Field Guide to wildflowers and found a nice color photo of Evening Primrose in the yellow Daisy and dandelion-like section.

The situation in Kenosha, Wisc. has highlighted how Americans live in two entirely different worlds. A black man is shot seven times in the back in front of his three little children because he might have a knife. A white teenage can walk down the street with an assault rifle having just killed two people and the police don’t even stop and question him. How is that not flat-out racism?

Then, and this is truly astonishing, our sitting President compares the shooting of Jacob Blake to a missed golf put. How do almost 40 per cent of our fellow countrymen still support him? Again, we inhabit two different planets.

Thankfully, my baby chicks arrived in the mail today, creating at least some hope in one small corner of my world.