Garden report : The nasturtium and spirea have bloomed. The lawn looks great after all the rain. I did mow.

There is a house on Summer Street that has turned the front lawn into a vegetable patch. When I drove by last week I noticed pepper, tomato, squash, eggplant and a few corn stalks. There where other plants I couldn’t identify because that were too far back and blocked from view.

There is also a house on Stanley Street that has a front yard in vegetables and berry bushes.

Good use of land.

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The Arcadia Players have new leadership on the board of directors. My friend Carolyn Holstein of Hadley stepped down as president after 5½ years. Jon Solins, who is heard hosting the WFCR classical music programs, is the new head. Denise Govins is the new treasurer. She has served on the board.

The group just celebrated its 30th anniversary. Happy anniversary and best wishes for many more! Full disclosure: I have ushered at many concerts and loved them all.

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The South Amherst Thursday Club kept the South Amherst Fourth of July tradition so the archives can note the parade was not canceled in 2020. Granted there were only eight marchers, but they did carry the club banner and a flag. Thanks to Lee Porter, club member and longtime South Amherst resident, who organized the reading of the Declaration of Independence before the walk on the common. The section I read dealt with trial by jury, housing militia and taxation without representation. The document should be read more than once a year so we can remember what is important to our country.

I did see the televised Washington fireworks — what an impressive display.

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George Naughton of the Amherst Historical Society sent another update that lists programs available to the public.

This is what he wrote: “Mr. Steve Strimer, of the David Ruggles Center in Northampton, has given the Amherst History Society a couple of lectures on Prudence Crandall, Lydia Marie Childs, and the Utopian efforts of abolitionists in Northampton in the 1840s.” To listen to them, go to the society’s website: amhersthistory.org.

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