Rainy May.

It rained all day today. It's going to rain all week. It'll probably do the yard a world of good. In the front in particular the ground is so dry that when I water it rolls right off. I guess it's because it's a south-facing garden... We don't have a single tree taller than ten feet high in the front yard, because a decade ago the electric company made us cut down everything. We used to have two big maples in front, and one of them had a chain wrapped around the trunk that was definitely bad news. A gift from the former owner? We actually used to have a maple growing through the big periwinkle patch near the sidewalk--the one that now hosts the monstrous peony Monsieur Jules Elie! I remember the time I once found a Baltimore Oriole fledgling hopping around beneath that tree, with its mama circling the sky high above. I don't know if there are any Baltimore Orioles left in CT any more. I haven't seen one in as long as I can remember.

What I did see today was a red-tailed hawk fleeing the yard and shrieking while being chased by a small mob of songbirds. :O Apparently it isn't uncommon for the small birds that are occasionally the hawk's prey to gang up and drive it away. Good lord, what kind of freaky wilderness is my yard turning into?

Last night when I was out weeding, I saw a red-bellied woodpecker on a high branch making angry squirrel noises at a robin. I had mistakenly thought it was a red-headed woodpecker, but they're actually quite different. They're pecking holes in all our pine trees...