Working in Edgartown on Monday, we came away happily drenched. Then, arriving home in Vineyard Haven to bone-dry soil was very disappointing. Tuesday morning’s weather redeemed itself here in Vineyard Haven. Three nice cloud bursts greeted the morning.

I took the morning off and got some serious puttering done.

I am hopeless in the memory department. Hopefully my readers are as well. Did I mention the pickled onions recently? It never hurts to repeat.

I had a huge basket of Ailsa Craig sweet onions. They are notoriously bad keepers so I processed them. I sliced them thinly and covered them with hot apple cider vinegar and honey. (One quart to one cup.) They took 10 minutes in a water bath. We love them in winter salads. They are still crunchy without the “bite” of a raw onion.

Violet took the photo this week. I think it will not translate very well in the newspaper but the wonders of the computer will do it justice.

Queen Anne’s lace popped into jars of water and food coloring will take on the color within hours.

Every few years, I get a different prolific weed in the vegetable garden. One year it was lady finger, then wild parsnip and this year purslane. It doesn’t really bother me like mugwort and wild morning glory. It actually looks good in some places. It could pass for a ground-hugging sedum. Supposedly it is edible. I’ve tried and don’t find it as wonderful as some say.

It, like some grasses, sneaks up in the weed mat on the paths through the tiny holes made by the weed mat staples.

Speaking of weed mat, I have it three feet wide in most of my paths. FYI: after weeding and/or picking, an occassional sweep is a good idea. Weeds will grow in as little as a quarter inch of dirt on top of the black plastic. This is astonishing consdering how hot and dry it’s been ­— and especially since the things I actually planted are languishing.

The early summer planting of bush beans has seen better days. Rather than pull them, they can be cut down to about six inches. They look hopeless and terrible for a while but water, liquid fish and seaweed fertilizer will revive them. They will bloom again and give a small fall harvest. It saves the work of replanting on August 1. I usually do both.

DJT is literally above the law. Because of his insufferable victimhood, his adoring base is willing to believe anything and do anything to make sure he never has to say those three words that we are all loathe to say: “I was wrong.”

I’m willing to wait for any legal outcome for his actions regarding secret documents. I’ll not join in any “lock him up” chants until a gavel drop. It is entertaining to hear his almost daily new defense theories.

Nothing, however, is more annoying than the cowardice of elected alpha males.