You've got it right on both, I'd say - the shrub certainly looks like a forsythia to me, and the other looks like one of the trailing brambles/blackberries/dewberries - whatever.

You may have two different types of berry there, as my upright blackberries (whatever species they are) are not yet blooming, but the wild trailers nearby are in full bloom.

On the (presumptive) forsythia, did someone prune it last summer, or did it perhaps get rather dry during the drought last summer? My guess is that one way or another it just had no buds to open this spring.

Thanks Gardenpaws!

I don't remember if I pruned the shrub last summer (I probably did) but it did have buds. They were just green buds.