The low humidity on Monday and Tuesday made me actually like summer. As an update on last week’s column, I saw a few more wonderful trumpet vines. The little cottage behind the pink house on State Road is covered with one. It used to belong to Lorraine Parish. On good authority, I think she sold and moved to Mexico.

Also, an old one is on the wall around the Four-way on Franklin street. It’s been there for years. It (the Four-way) is the long-term home of the captain’s daughters. The captain wrote the Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book, used by local seamen for over a century. I worked for two of the daughters, Gratia Harrington and Mary Macy in the seventies.

I called my friend, Marie, to check on the yellow-flowered one opposite the Chilmark Store. She reported that it is alive and well.

There is a nice mimosa at the top of Snake Hollow. That tree, as well as Crape Myrtle, Vitex and perennial hibiscus, are slow to emerge in late spring. Do not give up on them.

For some reason deer and/or bunnies have eaten the tops of all the onions in an unfenced garden that I tend. Ewww, they find them tasty?

For several years my crop of potatoes fell prey to voles/AKA white-footed mice. To deter them I planted in fish totes with a healthy topping of hay. Big thanks to Danny Larsen for the totes. He had a glut of them years ago at the Edgartown Fish Market. Lucky me.

The dwarf Sparkler series of cleome are very nice in an annual bed. They stay under three feet tall and do not require constant deadheading like the larger varieties. There is a nice backdrop of them at the entrance to Farm Neck.

Unlike the larger ones, they do not reseed all over the place. I work on a property that was power-washed this past week. Although the worker did their best to cover the nearby plants, there was damage from the bleach. Sigh!

We spent some time snipping the burnt leaves and flowers. While I usually use #2 Felco pruners for all the cutting tasks of small plants and shrubs, my son, Reuben, gave me a pair of F322’s. It is becoming my tool of choice for tiny cutting. It’s perfect for deadheading and also can be used as scissors for string tie-ups.

I’ve said many times — I missed my calling in advertising.

I barely remember the last time I read fiction. I prefer nonfiction. I do read the book review section of the Sunday New York Times. One caught my eye — Charles Summer, Conscience of a Nation.

Some may remember him as the anti-slavery senator from Massachusetts. He received a “caning” from South Caroline congressman Preston Brooks. The caning incident was much more brutal than it seems. He was beaten nearly to death for the “crime” of speaking out against slavery in 1856. His courage in the face of actual death could be a lesson for many today in the press and the halls of government. They cannot even express outrage over withdrawing funds to feed starving children.

Decades ago, I worked with Matt Castro at the Black Dog. When we saw very bad behavior in the restaurant, he would often remark, “God doesn’t sleep!”