Spring arrived in Capital City on Wednesday. That's the day I noticed the tell-tale fine film of tree pollen on my car. Also on that day, I had lunch with friends at a restaurant in what was a club house for the swimming lake for the Mechanicsville area. We sat on a patio, overlooking the lake and the new suburban houses and gardens beyond. A man puttered in his garden in longish khaki shorts, sans shirt.

I know we've had some terrible dogwood diseases in Virginia, but it was still a hideous site to see that city tore up some, and redbuds, too, from the median on Monument, from 195 to Staples Mill or so. Yesterday, I noted some white-blooming fruit trees have been popped in their place. At the garden at the Valentine, I noted that those dogwood flowers have started to open.

Tuesday, I taught 7th grade English out Varina way; today it'll be 6th grade at Wilder Middle School.