What a gorgeous dawn! Hate the neighbors’ McMansion dominates our early-day viewshed.
Hellebore buds. I understand that hellebore/lenten rose breeders have even developed dark shades.
I think of this as fringetree—wrong. It’s in the witch-hazel family, and is called Loropetalum. I certainly don’t scrutinize specimens closely enough to gauge botanical taxonomy.