While Monday’s rain was not nearly enough, it was a welcome relief. I, for one, was happy to not have the sun for a day. Contrast our dry month with the horrible, tragic floods in Kentucky. I’ve never lived somewhere that is prone to mudslides or river flooding.

Rew was on top of a mountain in Pennsylvania and here on the Vineyard, I’m not near the ocean.

It’s been quite a week in the vegetable garden. My cardoon is blooming. I counted 12 honeybees on one flower.

I finally pulled the onions and have them curing in the greenhouse. I cut the tops and am leaving them a few more days in order for the wound to heal over.

I’m hesitant to brag but, honestly, I easily have enough to last until next spring and enough to make a couple batches of pickled onions. They are ridiculously simple. Sliced and placed raw in a canning jar and covered with a hot mixture of one quart apple cider vinegar and one cup of honey, they are real crowd-pleasers to spice up a winter salad.

They remain crispy but without the “bite” of a raw onion.

I started them from seed last winter and painstakingly transplanted them when they were the diameter of a hair. How a tiny, inexpensive seed package could produce such bounty is one of nature’s miracles and mysteries.

I cut the scapes from the leeks but have yet to try them in a supper dish. I’m sure they are different from their garlic cousins.

I harvested about 20 tiny cabbages (early Jersey Wakefields). I spent an afternoon slicing them thinly and processed them into sauerkraut. Twenty-six quarts of slices and ten tablespoons of kosher salt reduced to about five quarts of a brined mixture. It is in a crock in the pantry for a few weeks until it ferments.

There is a weed that is quite prolific all over the vegetable garden. It bloomed this week and became beautiful evening primrose. There is a stand of them on State Road in Vineyard Haven next to Surveyors Lane.

There is a remarkable number of white cabbage moths in the perennials. They are hovering around monarda, verbena and nepeta. Oddly, I do not seem to have damage from their larvae on any of the cole crops. Go figure!

Here it is, 20 years later and 9/11 was back in the news big time this week.

For one thing, the former guy hosted a golf event paid for by the Saudis. He tried to defend himself by saying “They’ve never gotten to the bottom of 9/11.”

Then, the killing of al-Zawahiri, one of the masterminds of that fatal attack. The CIA has been searching for him all this time.

We then had another cynical vote by Senate Republicans. Out of pure vengeance they changed their vote on health care for veterans suffering from exposure to burn pits in Iraq. They love to talk about supporting the troops except when it comes to money for care of those troops. After all, their corporate donors and defense contractors need those big bucks.

Good on John Stewart and all the other activists who have worked so tirelessly to get those people to do the right thing. We know shaming them doesn’t work but threatening them politically did the trick and they reversed their votes on Monday. They have no shame but plenty of self-interest.