'Tis the season for pollen. As I walk on the backyard screened porch, my footsteps result in swirls of yellow dust. We've had a new sidewalk and driveway put in at the house, so we're having to park the cars outside (we can't get into the garage). I remembery when my Miata was red. Now it's a powderly yellow color! Yesterday, on my bike ride, the tire tread was yellow where it came into contact with the pavement.

It's the pine trees that release the yellow pollen, right? The pollen that comes from oak trees is that beige stuff, I think.

Speaking of oak trees, on my bike ride yesterday I saw a new neighborhood. I was riding on Fenton Mill road, which crosses over Rt. 199 real close to the entrance to I-64. Just past Rt. 199, the fancy brick wall and sign proclaimed the neighborhood to be "The Oaks at Fenton." Of course, there are no oaks. They were all clear-cut so the contractor could build the houses. Oh, wait. It's customary for a builder to include a tree with each house, isn't it? Maybe the sapling in front of the house is an oak? Maybe those are now the oaks at Fenton!

I love (not!) the way developers buy a heavily wooded piece of land, clear cut the trees, and then include the trees in the name of the neighborhood. "Monticello Woods" is another example, out Monticello Road.

In Delaware, it's more likely to be the names of farms that were bought and then built upon. That happened a lot during the late-50s and early-60s. There's Sedgeley Farms, for instance.

Do developers choose these names to memorialize what used to be there? Or to declare victory: "We've destroyed another wooded area! We've gobbled up another farm!"