Today is the last day of the annual Azalea Festival in Valdosta at Drexel Park. What a perfect day to go out and enjoy the food, fun, games and entertainment. Luckily the azaleas bloomed in time for the event, which isn’t all that’s blooming right now. Festivals, fundraisers, and charity events pack the calendars for the next several weeks.

If you are in the mood for fun weekend, local activities, then next weekend, don’t miss the Home and Garden Show at the Conference Center. You’ll be able to browse vendors with lots of home improvement ideas, builders eager to start on your dream home, and many others, including experts on gardening, landscaping, painting, etc.

And if you are hungry next weekend, you can also stop by the Adel Pig Jig Friday and Saturday. The event is a competition as well as just plain fun for attendees, with many different activities set up along with the barbecue cookoff. You’ll be able to eat great and enjoy a day out in the beautiful South Georgia weather all at the same time.

There are many more activities on the horizon, so be prepared for weekends of spring fun before the weather and the ‘skeeters make being outside barely tolerable. Thankfully we’ve had a beautiful spring so far, so here’s hoping summer will be on the mild side this year.

Business Roundup

People who work at Olive Garden are not shy at all about telling people from Valdosta that a restaurant is on its way here. One of the worst kept secrets in town is that OG is coming to the land where the Drury Inn is building, right next to I-75 at Exit 18. There will also be a small strip center and maybe more restaurants in addition to the hotel and OG. Even though it’s on the books to open by Christmas this year, no announcement, an official one anyway, has been made yet nor is there a construction start time that anyone knows. Hopefully the company will make it officially official soon.

Right behind the new development where the old Elks Lodge was, already being built, are apartments for students called the Villages. By the looks of it, there are going to be quite a few of them.

There is a new subdivision off Bemiss Road, on Old Pine Road, called Glen Laurel. There are about a dozen houses in the first phase, most of which are aleady sold, and it’s going well so far. The houses are in the $150,000 and below range.

Cass Burch called this week to share that a pizza place is officially coming to the north side of the county. Marco’s Pizza is locating in Camelot Crossing and will be starting on their new building any day now.

If you’ve been to Starbucks this week, you’ll have seen the remodeling they were doing, adding a refreshened look and changing out the logo. The company is apparently celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and is going for an updated look and feel.

I understand the Zaxby folks are trying to decide if they are going to rebuild where they are now or move to another location.

It looks like Citi Trends in Castle Park is now open after expanding into the former Tuesday Morning shop area, and there is still a sign for a Pinups Sports Bar right there in Castle Park by Bemiss Road, but no sign of a club anywhere around there.

That’s about it for this week, but if there’s something I missed, please let me know!