Mid-May.

5-20-25 SHORT HILLS: We’ve been here for a few days, so it’s time to move on—to Vermont tomorrow. It’s been on the cool side here, sixties and windy. There was a lot of rain, 2.6 inches, and more tomorrow. We are both caught up on PT visits and doctor visits for the moment.

The grackles finally seem to have moved on. The feeders stay full for more than a day.

Of the three ash trees we are watching, one looks great, one pretty good and one not good. We’ll see at the end of the summer.

New blooms: leucothoe, Japanese snowball, tulip tree, wild strawberry.

Leucothoe flowers with little white bells, not unlike blueberry, andromeda, Lily-of-the-valley.

Leucothoe bush is a sprawling structure with thousands of flowers.

Kousa dogwood is just starting.

Japanese snowball is a tree with lots of hanging flowers.

A closer look at the Japanese snowball.

Wild Strawberries, three yellow flowers and one red fruit.

Tulip tree with vaguely tulip-like flowers.