The end of last week delivered some of my favorite spring weather — cool, rainy and foggy. Then the heat and humidity arrived. I have been known to say I hate summer. I would never move to Florida and have heat year-round. Now that I’ve started with how I really feel, I am very grateful to live in the Northeast.

Early Tuesday morning CNN ran a special on the extreme drought in the West. Ninety-six per cent of several states are in that drought. The governor of Utah has asked the state’s residents to pray for rain. Asking for divine help is always a good idea but perhaps some major changes in human behavior are in order. A good start might be universal acknowledgment of climate change.

The locust trees are in full and fragrant bloom. Too bad the flowers are too high up int he trees to pick. They would smell nice in the house.

Violet’s photo this week is a nice stand of delphinium. I ordered some small plugs two years ago from Walter’s Gardens. Now, I fear they are too large to move safely.

There has been some disappointing vegetable garden news this week. I saw my first Colorado potato beetle. I swear they see me coming and drop out of sight before I can squish them.

Also, something unidentifiable is attacking my zucchini, watermelons and cantaloupes. Honestly, some days could make a person wonder, why bother?

Enough bad news! I have an absolute carper of baby Red Russian kale plants in the sweet potato bed. A person never needs to purchase kale seeds again once that variety is established.

Speaking of babies, I’ve had a lone female turkey roaming the property for a month or so. On Monday she showed up with a dozen or more babies. Violet and I cannot resist tossing a bit of chicken food her way.

Back to the Colorado potato beetle, briefly. They will destroy the entire crop of eggplants. My family never cares since I’m the only one who likes it.

I have a pronunciation question. I’ve always said the word figure as ‘fig-your’ but notice everyone on television or radio says ‘figger.’ Any English majors out there with the answer?

Decades ago I planted some bulbs of an allium called Albopilosum. It’s a large purple globe resembling fireworks. It has seeded itself everywhere in a most pleasing fashion. If you see it in the fall bulb catalogs it is worth the price.

The national news is so depressing of late. The republicans in congress refuse to form a committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, as if we all didn’t see it in real time. Unless a person is firmly ensconced in the Trump cult, it is obvious.

They also are taking credit in their home states for the Covid relief package for which they cast not a single vote. Now, they don’t want to spend the money on an infrastructure bill. The real reason is they want Biden to fail. There was no problem giving a huge tax relief to the rich and powerful.

All that said, my real favorite of the week was the advance press team was unable to fly to Europe ahead of Biden’s visit because of cicadas in the plane’s engine. I have no memory of such widespread news coverage of the 17-year cicada emergence event. I think we called them locusts as children although they are not the same. It’s refreshing, nonetheless, to focus on some good Mother Nature news.