It is May, and May usually means lots of sunshine and warm evenings. It is my favorite season of all, because trees are budding out, tulips are bright and gorgeous, lilies and irises are two weeks away as are lilies of the valley, my birth flower.

I am grateful that the people who sold me my condo, whom I knew from the yacht club, were gardeners. The best I can do is add a few annuals, but they planted the perennials, including a healthy and lush bright red azalea.

I am also seeing much more wildlife than I’d ever seen in the six years I have lived in Groton. Driving down Route 1 and turning a right on my way to Eastern Point Beach, I watched a male fox ambling across the road, heading toward a small apartment complex. I turned another right to watch him and noticed a man on a walker in the fox’s way. I honked my horn so the man would not collide with him.

This morning, before I walked into my office, I looked at the parking lot and spied a turkey, the first I had seen in the complex. It was a young tom, in no hurry at all.

I waited another 10 minutes and didn’t see another. I am feeding birds a bit longer than I usually do. (I take away the feeders and suet and add hummingbird feeders, although I haven’t seen one ever.) I am especially thrilled with catbirds and neon yellow finches. It is warm enough to open the outside faucets so I can add water to the bird bath, which they like.

On the other hand, I still turn on my electric blanket. There is a reason we are told never to plant basil until Memorial Day.

Recently, I wanted to make a good red sauce with meatballs and sausage. And I have everything for the dish, including pork chops, chopped beef and Italian sausage. If you have just one or two of the meats, the dish will be still fabulous.

Sunday Gravy with Sausages and Meatballs

Adapted from Johanne Killeen and George Germon, “On Top of Spaghetti,” (Morrow, New York, 2007)

Serves 4 to 6 as a main dish

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

3 pork chops (total weight 1 to 1½ pounds)

1 ½ pounds Italian sweet sausage, halved horizontally

1 cup chopped onions

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (or crushed) tomatoes

6-ounce can tomato paste

Cheese rinds from Parmigiano-Reggiano or bits of Pecorino Romano (optional)

Mary’s meatballs, recipe below

1 pound dried spaghetti or rigatoni, cooked

freshly grated Pecorino Romano

Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed stockpot. Add pork chops and sausages and brown on all sides. Transfer chops to a plate. Toss onions into pot with garlic, fennel seeds and salt. Saute over moderate heat, stirring frequently and scraping up any bits, until onions are soft and golden.

Put chops back in the pot with any juices. Add tomatoes, 2 cups water and tomato paste. Drop in rinds if you have any. Cover pot, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Gently drop meatballs, a few at a time, shaking the pot to make room for the meatballs. Cover all the meatballs, cover pot and simmer for an hour or more.

To finish sauce, take out chops, remove bones and chop of the meat and add to sauce. Check for seasoning. Ladle sauce over hot pasta and dust with cheese.

Mary’s Meatballs

Makes 26 to 28 meatballs

12 ounces ground beef

4 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed, cut into tiny cubes (I used challah)

¾ cup milk

¾ to 1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano

8 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 egg, lightly beaten

fine sea salt and pepper to taste

In a large mixing bowl, combine beef, bread and milk. Add cheese, basil, parsley, egg and salt. Mix gently but thoroughly. Form into small meatballs, no larger than 1½ inches in diameter.

On the Side

A recent Facebook note from Rhonda Dempsey, co-owner of Sneekers, got me very excited. There would be a Friday night special of belly clams.

I had never eaten a clam until I was in my 20s, at a Howard Johnson in Ithaca, N.Y. They were chewy and I tasted tartar sauce for the first time, too. But for belly clams, it would be another decade until I wound up in Massachusetts and had a food epiphany at Woodman's in Essex as tasting with those briny, gushy, crispy-on-the-top bellies.

For me, spring isn't spring until I have eaten them, these days with my own cocktail sauce of Heinz chili sauce and jarred horseradish mixed until the sauce is coral colored. And the bellies at Sneekers were so fresh, so luscious; I could have finished the entire entree. But I shared with my neighbors, along with a piece of cake, also from Sneekers. Next time I will eat them all by myself.

Sneekers, 568 Poquonnock Road, Groton

(860) 445-1967

Lee White lives in Groton. She can be reached at leeawhite@aol.com.