Monday’s nearly perfect spring day had folks out puttering in their yards. I know I did so much that I hurt myself. The well-rooted weeds needed some serious shovel work. My Grampa Bill always said, “put your back into it” when he saw someone working hard. I did it and now regret it. Good thing I stocked up on ibuprofen.

I was able to get several plug trays of peas into the ground. This was before the big wind on Sunday. They suffered some wind burn but are still standing.

Radishes planted for a mere four days have emerged. What a pleasant surprise. Not so with the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. After a full two weeks on the propagating mat set at 60 degrees they finally came up.

I feel like I’ve planted bushels of daffodils over the years and have just a few small patches. Everyone else’s seem to double every year. I did notice a poor showing at the roundabout. I think it was quite full last year. What gives?

I fun thing happened at our place this week. A broody hen was determined a month or so ago. I kept taking the eggs every day. She pecked me every time and complained incessantly. Finally, I separated her and a small clutch of eggs. She hatched out six babies on Monday. It made me realize, Covid-19 not withstanding, all is right with the world. They are completely adorable.

On Easter morning I went over to East Chop to watch the sunrise. At the moment, seconds before the sun came over the edge of the horizon, I saw a large flash of light like a giant camera flash. He is risen indeed!

People said a green flash sometimes happens at sunset. It’s very rare. What I saw was a bright, white flash. It’s forever etched in my mind.

Spring has definitely sprung on the Island. Magnolia soulangeana are bursting with color, quinces are making their presence known, perennials are up more every day and I saw a young woman in shorts and a tank top riding her bike. Spring doesn’t care about pandemics or stay-at-home orders. There is comfort in this fact. Since I’ve been limiting my time spent food shopping, we are eating an extraordinary amount of kale. All the dead plants left in the ground all winter have sprouted new growth. Even plants tossed on the compost heap are growing. The reseeds are a foot tall. These are mostly the Red Russian variety. I don’t think I’ll ever need to plant seeds of it again. Even the beginning of flower heads are delicious.

Marie reported that her wintered-over Purpled Sprouting broccoli has made perfect little purple heads. I found some baby leek plants that grew on their own. I’ve said many times gardening is nothing more than recognition. It does help to always plant open-pollinated seeds so the opportunity is always there to save seed true to type.

When I cooked the last of my squashes and pumpkins I froze more than a few containers of the resulting puree. I’ve been adding some coconut oil, vanilla, cinnamon, maple syrup and several beaten eggs. A few hours in the crock-pot makes for a great dessert.

I hated the news story that farmers are plowing under perfectly good food since the supply chain is so broken. This, combined with so many who are wanting food, is just another horrible result of the present health crisis.

I’ve lost the ability to be amused, disgusted or outraged by Donald Trump. His daily news briefing/campaign rally shows what a weak, small man we have in charge. How he got to be in his mid-70s and never developed any sort of humility or empathy is a mystery for the history books. Thank goodness there are both Democrats and Republicans residing in governors’ mansions who are grown-ups and are doing their elected jobs.