The plummeting temperatures at the beginning of the week turned me into a crybaby. I was getting used to warm, early spring.

The beautiful helebores were actually laying down on Tuesday morning. The same was true for my flats of onions. I confess I got ahead of myself over the past week and uncovered them. I think they will live but are mighty unhappy.

Last column, I mentioned red twig dogwoods. They spent a long winter spent cut and bundled. I placed them into water and within a few weeks they put out some leaves. Still remarkable, they are blooming now. I’m not sure I even knew they bloomed.

Marie reported she had a dead kale plant that hung around all winter. She noticed new baby growth all along the dead steam.

Ages ago I read A Woman Called Moses, a book about the life of Harriet Tubman. I remember a scene where she was running through a dead cornfield in the middle of winter. She found a wizened ear of corn still attached to the stalk. It was all she had to eat that day.

My point here is that nature will continue to provide if we only pat attention.

I found a one pound potato while turning over a bed. It was inadvertently missed during fall harvest. It was firm and completely fine. In fact, it looked better than my dwindling supply in the pantry.

There is a nice little stand of the miniature tete a tete daffodils at the entrance of the upper Black Dog. I noticed the nurseries have some available already in four-inch pots.

I attempted to force some for myself in the fall. I put the bulbs into small pots. They need six weeks of cold in order to set roots. Apparently I left them out too long when it was cold and wet. They all rotted. Sigh!

The andromeda is particularly nice at this time of year. There are several pots of them around the Eden sign on State Road next to Woodland Market.

Last spring, a mother chicken hatched out five babies. Three of them turned out to be roosters. It figures. Two were very aggressive so I put them into a slow cooker with nothing but some salt and a couple of garlic bulbs in the cavities. They tend to be tough so I cooked them overnight at the lowest setting. Never put water in meat as it sucks all the flavor out and actually dries out the meat. Stewing in its own juices is the way to go.

They were delicious and it’s safe to go into the chicken yard again.

I went through the pantry onions and found a few that were soft and had some growth on top. As an experiment I put them into water. I hope to grow them in a pot and harvest the seeds. I know they won’t be edible as a bulb but it would be fun to see what happens. Because most onions are hybrids rather than open-pollinated, the result will resemble one or the other parent. Open-pollinated seed comes true to form.

On the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road right before the four corners there is a sign reading “children are dead and you cry about gasoline.” This is the way many Americans think these days. How will everything affect me? Of course, it’s another handy weapon to use against Joe Biden. Last week he was too weak on Russia. Now, after his comment about Putin should not be in power, he’s too strong. The guy cannot win.

I, for one, am grateful the former guy is not in charge during these scary times.