We’ve had several typical Vineyard spring days — warm during the day but back into the 40s overnight.

I’m getting my usual spring anxiety. There is much to be done and with the now-longer days the body fails me by suppertime. How I long for a maid and a cook. Perhaps in my next life!

I have been moving the plastic coyote around the yard with success. The deer have been avoiding my gardens. Until Monday night, that is. They wiped out my tulips. Little jerks.

There is a small crabapple at the MV Savings Bank. It’s right in front of people in the drive-through. It has already formed buds unlike mine at home which doesn’t seem close yet. Vineyard Haven seems to be a full week ahead of me and I’m just a few miles up the road.

Violet’s photo this week is my ground phlox. It is sometimes called creeping phlox. Its official name is phlox stolonifera. It is a native of Appalachia. Abby Burt has some nice ones on Skiff avenue. Like all spring perennials, they don’t last long so enjoy them while you can.

Violet and I took a drive in the woods behind Mink Meadows recently. The pinkletinks gave us quite a concert. I knew them as spring peepers growing up. I had never heard of a pinkletink until I moved to the Vineyard in 1970. Once when Violet was small I took her down to the waterworks on Lake Tashmoo. I explained what they were and rolled down the window. She, wide-eyed, claimed it was disturbing and wanted to go home. We still laugh about that.

Marie reported that she ate a few asparagus. I have yet to see mine. Guess I’ll go on a search tomorrow. The patch is so weedy it will be a challenge. I took my friend Sharlee’s advice. I picked a great deal of my reseeded kale and froze it in small containers for use in smoothies. Soon I’ll be too busy; it will go to seed or worse get covered with aphids. I was justifiably proud of myself.

Cranberry Acres is really under water this year. I wonder if I’ve noticed in past springs.

My Virginia bluebells are blooming. I did not expect them so soon. They have spread themselves around in a most pleasing manner. Another eastern North American native, Mertensia virginica is a cousin to borage. I’m not sure of they simply reseed or send shoots. I hate it when I don’t know something.

It’s been 51 years since the very first Earth Day. I attended the festivities in New York city that year and then a few weeks later took a trip to Martha’s Vineyard. I had visited here with my grandfather in 1958 and remembered the Gay Head Cliffs. Planning to stay a week, things changed, and I never left. Luckily I took much of what I learned on that Earth Day to heart. I started my first garden. I like to say that everything I learned was from doing it wrong first.

I have aspired to be a good steward of creation and hope to continued learning and striving. Our poor planet needs our help and attention more than ever.

I write this on Tuesday evening and have been following the comments on the Chauvin verdict. The initial police statement was worded: “A man died after medical incident during police interaction.” Had it not been for the video made by a 17-year-old girl we wouldn’t be here today. Clearly a video is not enough. The officer who shot Walter Scott in the back while he ran away was not held accountable. Dare we hope that things are changing.

In other news this week, it’s been 26 years since the Oklahoma City bombing. It was the first time the country became aware of the organization and scope of the right wing militia groups. Fast forward to the Jan. 6 capitol insurrection. What a world!