Hurricane Teddy passed by on Tuesday and delivered some mighty blustery conditions. It was downright unpleasant tending to outdoor chores. Wind has always been my least favorite weather. I can work outside when it is really cold as I usually am properly dressed. I have good rain gear and don’t mind being wet. The heat and humidity make me pretty sour but I can take it.

On Tuesday, I pulled up a row of dried beans and spent the afternoon indoors preparing them to finish drying. The variety was State 1/2 Runner. The seed catalogue says: “Heirloom from the 1800s — to stake or not to sake that is the question for State. By definition half-runner beans are halfway between bush and pole types. Vines grow to three feet and will climb but staking is not essential.”

I beg to differ. What a mess — pulling them out of neighboring plants. The yield, however, is great. Next year I’ll put them on a trellis.

This past week I had an unfortunate situation in the yard requiring the use of some big machinery. The squashes had to be picked right away. I had planned to leave them for at least another month to cure in the field. They may not store as well as hoped. I can see freezing and/or canning in the near future. Violet took a photo of the crop with my two-year old great-grandson, Zappa. (I’m too young to be this old!).

The two varieties are Green Striped Cushaw and Queensland Blue. I found one of the Blues on top of the grape arbor. Thinking it was a soccer ball, I tried to rescue it. It is firmly in place. It spent some time wending its way up there.

Folks are putting out fall colors in the pots and boxes. I like the asters and boltonias but can live without the mums.

Dahlias are coming into their own. If you keep them dead-headed they can last until Thanksgiving if we don’t have a hard freeze.

The cone-shaped head is spent and should be cut to the nearest V. The round ones are coming and will continue to do so. I just cut and drop. It’s a pleasant task but watch out for bees. They love dahlias. Bumblebees will sting when grabbed. Trust me, I know.

The triangle in Edgartown is looking great. I think Donaroma’s does it. It’s a nice way to enter the town.

If anything good could be said about Covid — and there is barely anything — it is a new-found appreciation for food and the preparation thereof. There are tons of articles written about people adapting to eating at home. Granted, this is terrible for the restaurant business. I was happy to hear about the surge in seed sales for people starting vegetable gardens. Hopefully, a life-long passion will result.

Mitch McConnell could barely hide his glee over the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He finally will get his extreme right wing Supreme Court. The liberal Warren court of the 1960s is gone for at least a generation.

When I become overwhelmed and depressed about the state of our nation and its slide into Fascism under DJT, I try to hold on to two hopeful ideas about the American people: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and Mitt Romney lost Michigan to Barack Obama by more votes than Trump won in that state. The thousands of mask-less people in Pennsylvania cheering DJT on must have some sort of death wish. I won’t even go to the movies for Pete’s sake.