If you’re a gardener (like me) you might have enjoyed a wander through Richmond Park lately and seen the fabulous show near the fountain. I took this pic last week but you can’t get all the glory in one frame. Here are the rioting petunias, and big fat pale pink roses in the middle of the bed. Over near the cenotaph there is a bed of beautiful yellow African daisies which I enjoy on my walks to Richmond Marketplace. I asked Council who the garden wizard was. His name is Neale Wolffe “though the roster changes at times”. Hats off to you all – you give a lot of people great pleasure.
We’re just a backdrop
Last week when emerging from the Gazette office on Windsor Street in Richmond, I saw a bunch of elderly Chinese people having a group picture taken across the road. I was trying to work out why – was it the lovely flowering jacaranda in the old NAB building’s yard they were capturing behind them? Then they all got in a black Tarago and took off.
Sunburn worst of all
At Monday morning’s protest at Thompson Square, protesters chained to the fence to stop the RMS cutting two trees down and disturbing Aboriginal artefacts were sitting in the blazing sun for hours. After police issued their second warning at 9.30am, Greens politician David Shoebridge asked the protesters if they had sunscreen on, and quipped that “getting arrested was one thing, but I don’t want to see any of you getting sunburnt!”.
Still at Thompson Square, Pete Nicholson who lives near Fitzroy Bridge was sweeping grass cuttings out of the gutter with a rake and generally tidying up. “I might as well make myself useful while I’m here!” he said.
Councillors Peter Reynolds and Emma-Jane Garrow were also at the protest besides councillors Danielle Wheeler and John Ross mentioned in the story, and former councillor Leigh Williams was one of the protesters blocking the gateway to the RMS compound. Cr Reynolds pointed out to the Gazette the protest was not a CAWB event, but a community protest. The police also asked councillors Reynolds and Wheeler and Wobbler Kim Smith if they could give them more notice next time before a protest so they could classify it as low-risk and send fewer officers. Cr Wheeler said they would if they could, but usually had no notice themselves of when the RMS was moving in.