Mahonia berries

The birds will have had all these berries soon - at least, I think it's the birds. The berries seem to disappear pretty quickly as soon as they ripen, but perhaps they're just falling to the ground. It would make sense for them to be distributed by birds, otherwise the plants would never move anywhere. I've never found seedling mahonias though, so maybe the seeds aren't viable.

Although the ground hasn't dried out in depth, the surface is very dry now, and starting to crack as the clay shrinks. The astrantias and rudbeckias are wilting already, whether because of the sun or the wind, or possibly root damage from soil movement, I don't know. Usually this doesn't happen until about July, but the current long run of north to north-easterly winds is rather unusual, and may be a factor I suppose.