I’m a big fan of rainy summer days. However, the quick downpour on Monday afternoon was a bit alarming. Other places in the northeast got that downpour for hours. The flooding and road washouts in New York and Vermont were impressive, to say the least.

Here we are in what I suppose could be called high summer. Everything looks great ­— green and lush. Even the weeds in sidewalk cracks are thriving. How is that possible, by the way? There are places with three-foot tall blooming chicory living in a half-inch opening in a stone wall.

I love that weed. There are not many true blue flowering plants in the summer, especially the pale blue.

Granted, we have platycodan, monkshood and even delphinium.

Early Saturday morning I drove past the field at Nip ‘n’ Tuck Farm. There were two men hovering over a dark spot near a draft horse.

On my return trip past a half-hour later, the spot was standing on wobbly legs while its mother tended to it.

There was another mother horse and an older baby.

I took several trips back there just to enjoy watching new life, along with countless other spectators.

For a wonderful moment in time I got the sense that all is right with the world and we are all going to be alright.

I’m a sucker for the six packs of alyssum offered in the nurseries in the spring. Now, however, they are all worn out and upstaged in pots and windowboxes by lobelia, torencia and vinca.

The only variety that holds its own is berthami. I never find it so have seeded it myself for a few years. It reliably reseeds the following year in a pleasing fashion throughout the beds.

I have peach-leaf bellflower all over the perennial bed, behaving in a weedy fashion. It’s stunning in bloom and I’m always happy I neglected to weed it out in the spring.

I have quite a few weeds that I’ve learned to love: fleabane, white yarrow, asters with the tiny blue flowers, and reseeded Roman chamomile. Cilantro that has flowered is also worth keeping here and there.

After pulling the rest of my pathetic peas, Violet replanted along the fence line with several varieties of pole beans. They germinated in a mere two days. I discovered a bunny in the act of eating every one. Honestly, it’s hard to maintain any sort of good humor. I sprayed Bobex but clearly too late.

After the Islandwide failure of hydrangeas after a mild winter with three brutally cold days, the poor things did not adjust and many have beautiful new growth with ugly sticks above it.

The Annabelle variety is, however, fabulous. It blooms on new growth so was not bothered in the least by winter. I cut mine right to the ground every late fall.

The semi-wild orange daylilies are blooming everywhere. Oddly, they seem to not be bothered by deer. They prefer the expensive hybrids, little jerks!

Since I started with the weather (as is my custom), may as well end with it.

As most of us have heard by now, the average global temperature broke three records last week at 62 degrees or so. This takes into account that half of the planet is having winter.

An Iowa television weatherman, Chris Gloninger, received death threats for talking about climate change and how the weather is affected. I wish I made this up.

He quit his job over fear for himself and his family.

Two things about this story say everything about our current national situation. First, many folks simply choose to live in a fact-free universe and, clearly, the digital age has emboldened people to anonymously say things they wouldn’t ever say in person.

The good news, for us, is Mr. Gloninger is now a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Group. Welcome to Massachusetts.