I’m having a Michele Bachmann moment. I just sat down on Tuesday evening to write this and have to wait for the light bulb to come all the way on. What’s up with these so-called energy savers? It is especially annoying coming into a darkened room in a hurry.

At any rate I’m loving the change in the weather. I spent all of last rainy Sunday organizing my greenhouse. It is full of geraniums, mandevillas and begonias hardening off before a winter spent indoors.

There is some action in the vegetable garden. I discovered an entire bed of onions that I overlooked when I was harvesting in August. They had started to form new roots so I got them in the nick of time. They will not store well as a result of this oversight but will be great for the next month or so.

Sadly, I picked the last of the cucumbers. They simply wore out. I can identify with that.

I seeded a bed in the hoop house. I planted radishes, turnips and spigarello. They came up in three days, much to my amazement. Since radishes and turnips can be picked in a mere 30 days, they will be nice on the Thanksgiving table.

Spigarello is becoming my favorite green leafy vegetable. Marie discovered it a few years ago in the Seeds of Italy catalogue. It is mild and broccoli-flavored. Unlike other greens like arugula, it has no bitter taste. It has a pleasing blue-green leaf which can be eaten very young or allowed to grow into a substantial plant. All the while, leaves can be harvested.

I was late getting my fall crop planted so it most likely will not grow much until after Christmas when the light changes. Hopefully I’ll be picking through January and February.

Right now, Ghost Island Farm has some beautiful pickings. It is alongside the collards and kale, and in my opinion better than either of them.

I’ve noticed an incredible amount of wild mushrooms everywhere. I never would pick one to eat, however. Any species with a cultivar named the death cap is a bit off-putting to me. There are times the supermarket works!

Laurie Clements called to alert me to the irises blooming at the Chilmark branch of the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank across from the community center. I told her about learning of the reblooming varieties a few years back. I always order bulbs in the fall from K. Van Bourgondien. This year’s catalogue has a two-page spread of reblooming German iris right after the Old Favorite lilies.

How about those dahlias. They have come into their own. Simply breathtaking. They will need a freeze before they can be lifted and stored. We are so lucky here on the Vineyard to have such a late fall. I have had dahlias on the Thanksgiving table.

Once again, Donald Trump runs the news cycle. The tape released last Friday was no surprise. We already know the man. I confess I was not offended by the language. I’m no prude. The intent and the attitude, however, really got to me. He says he never acted like that but they were only words. Well, then, he is a braggart and a liar. Anyway, I was thinking about his daughter who was into her 20s at the time. He was 59. The very thought of my own father behaving in such a manner at that age . . . Ewwww.

Moving right along to the debate. I could not get past his body language. There were a few moments when, as a woman who was once a young girl, it was downright creepy and intimidating.

A Twitter storm ensued after he told the Muslim woman that Muslims should report seeing anything. Immediately reports began coming in of a stalker harassing a woman on stage in St. Louis. I think it moved on when a Muslim woman alerted the FBI that her brother leaves his wet towels on the floor.

This could all be amusing if it were not so scary.