Garden report

First, the bad news:  a pair of house finches have been trying for a while to build a nest in the concrete lattice wall by the back door; each time the nest material has fallen out. They, however, kept at it. This evening when I went out to inspect the garden, after yesterday's gale force winds and torrential rain, there, on the pavement, was the nest.  Empty. And there, on the other side of the door, were the smashed little eggs that had blown out of the nest as it came down. So that's one less finch family this Spring.

More bad news, but not so bad as the finch news:  The Groundhog is back and has excavated another hole, this time at the other end of the garden:

The next news item falls into the "I have work cut out for me" category.  The grounds guys delivered my mulch:

and, after that rain, everything is growing wildly; the lilies of the valley are taking over, and must be beaten back. The lambs-ears are nearly drowned in them:

The good news:  In the slanting light of this late afternoon/early evening, the tulips are so lovely: