I was so happy with last week’s rain. A day or two without the hauling of hoses is a huge pleasure.

Why do hoses, electric cords, dog tie-outs and ropes in general always end up in a tangle? This is especially annoying given the time spent winding them up carefully. Life can be so irritating at times. Here’s my personal favorite — plumbers and/or homeowners place the outdoor faucet too far for a watering can.

As long as I’m complaining about things completely beyond my control, when did proper safety rules become obsolete? Bicyclists and pedestrians repeatedly flaunt traffic advice. Their very lives are at stake. I give them more than the four feet suggested when passing.

The old-fashioned orange day lilies are blooming everywhere. The West Tisbury Inn has an eye-catching swatch as one enters town from Up-Island. They are especially nice along with hydrangeas.

Wolf Den Pizza in Vineyard Haven has a couple of yucca blooming in their path of them. I have a love-hate relationship with yucca. In bloom it is striking but the rest of the time not so much. I have a couple that I tried to remove. After digging half-way to China, I gave up.

It’s been so sunny lately that it’s time to appreciate the shady sections of the gardens. My all time favorite shade plant is Sun King aralia, sometimes called Japanese spikenard. It has yellow leaves, is reliably perennial and gets quite large, often growing three feet tall and as wide. It is eye catching. Its yellow leaves set off the neighboring plant material. I like it with large leafed hostas and Milk and Honey astilbe. Another big selling point is that the deer leave it alone.

Also nice in partial shade is phygelis (yellow cape fushia). It will live over water in a neglected window box, has a sweet little yellow flower and also compliments other near-by plants.

A few years ago, I discovered Indian pink. Found under the name spigelia, it likes shade. It has a bright red flower topped by a lime-green star. Its only found after a careful search at the local nurseries.

Violet made supper recently, called Barbie pasta. She blended tomato sauce with ricotta cheese for the sauce. We’re talking bright pink.

I do a property on the south shore with an impressive panoramic ocean view. On a cloudless day way out on the horizon, one can see the windmills. I cannot understand the brouhaha concerning them spoiling a view. I guess I simply have so much else to fret over.

This brings me to the not-so-great presidential debate last week and the subsequent calls for President Biden to step aside. The last time this scenario happened was in 1968. LBJ, who was a great champion for Civil Rights and poor people, faced his undoing over the Vietnam War. Just like Biden over the Gaza situation, he saw civil unrest in the nation. That year the Democratic National Convention was also in Chicago. Those of us who remember it clearly saw police violence directed by Mayor Richard Daly.

As we all recall, Richard Nixon won the election that year.

I guess the recent Supreme Court decision would have given him a free pass. Don’t get me started!