I’ve said repeatedly that I wish I had a job as a weather forecaster. They get it right maybe half the time. On Tuesday, we expected the rain to end by six a.m. so we headed for work. Talk about your April Fools’.

I missed my calling in advertising. The Guy Cotton brand of rain gear has held up admirably for years. Rain pants are a must when working outdoors. Otherwise the water runs off the jacket and soaks the pants. All the suggestions I have ever offered are a result of doing something wrong first. I live and rarely ever learn.

The fields and lawns are beginning to show green and I saw a flock of sheep at Whiting’s Farm with their newborn lambs. Everyday something new emerges in perennial beds. The deer discovered the two-inch tall day lilies. They are now at ground level. Sigh!

Both of my sons and I seem to have resistance to poison ivy. Violet not so much. She is completely miserable with it. We traced it back to loading some brush onto the dump truck. It was unrecognizable as leafless vines. People, pay close attention if you suffer from the allergy. Wear long sleeves and gloves — and for Pete’s sake don’t touch your face with those gloves!

I’m ashamed to admit how many pounds of potatoes I ordered. I used Wood Prairie Family Farm. They arrived this week. I cut the large ones into a few pieces each with a couple of “eyes.” Last year the voles had their way with a big portion of my crop. I’m planting boatloads in hopes that they will leave me a few.

I adopted a barn cat from the animal shelter in hopes that she will enjoy catching them. So far, she is in a cage so she’ll be accustomed to the property. Fingers crossed!

My hoop house is carpeted with reseeded Lauren’s Grape Opium Poppies (check out Violet’s photo). Sadly, they have to go so I can plant some actual food. Either that or I can keep them in the unfortunate event of a broken leg and no health care!

My big garden is not at my house. People have been dumping their lawn debris on the site uninvited. I had a Bobcat clean it up and placed a large NO DUMPING sign. The next day someone unloaded a dump truck full of leaves on the sign. I wish I made that up.

While I’m on the subject of rude human behavior, allow me to put on my Judge Judy robe. The Vineyard Haven Post Office has at least a dozen whiskey barrels at the front. They still have last years spent flowers. The barrels are full of trash from Cumberland Farms and an untold amount of cigarette butts. Who raised y’all!?

As a gardener, I’d like to think that I have an overly developed sense of good stewardship of the natural world. Growing up before the Environmental Protection Agency came into being, I remember a lot of littering. Folks threw things out of car windows. As youngsters, we pulled our wagons along the road picking up bottles for redemption. It was not frowned upon as a general practice to rid oneself of trash. We had a town dump where folks simply threw household trash over the side of mountain. Black bears frequented the site.

Sometime in the 1970’s, it became unpopular and we got a “trash man” who took the items away. “Away” is a term to make us unmindful of our own footprint on the planet.

I have nowhere in particular to go with this train of thought. I’m just trying to not focus on Musk and/or Trump. I cannot decide if I’m angry, baffled or profoundly sad.