Rainy Sunday.

6-6-16 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday we had several showers with over an inch of rain in total. Val, Steve and Lucy were here for an early dinner, between rainstorms, and we were able to get outside in the soggy yard. The last storm, in the evening, dropped a few branches. Today is sunny and dry.

The previous days were progressively more muggy and humid. I replaced the two dogwoods that I had planted on 4-27-16 because they never leafed out. The nursery said they had had problems with that lot and sent over two new dogwood trees. I didn’t put the new trees in the same holes for fear of some transmittable dogwood disease. The dead trees went to the dump. Much weeding was also done.

New blooms: elderberry, Asian hollies, pink spirea.


Elderberry [Sambucus] flower looks a lot like the viburnum flowers. Both are in the same plant family, Adoxaceae, along with some other plants. They all have similar flowers and opposite leaves.

Early morning sun on the soaked and drenched landscape lights up all the hanging drops of water.

Cabbage White butterfly. Check out all the buds on that blade of grass. I think they are flower buds not seeds.