Van Loon's nursery a winner

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Congratulations to Van Loons Nursery for winning a gold medal.  Their nursery is a very beautiful place and I have visited there several times, made drawings, and taken photos there. I'm still not sure whether I like the walls with the circular holes.  A bit strong I think.

-from the Geelong Advertiser Tuesday 31 March.

Van Loons Nursery's award-winning garden display at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. A LOCAL nursery has won one of only three gold medals at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, beating a large field of contenders.Wallington’s Van Loon’s took out the top gong, Best Show Garden, with its display called Resonate.

Nursery owner, Heidi Martin, said the philosophy underlining the colourful garden was to make something which could be replicated by home gardeners.“Some (of the other entries) use fancy and high-faluting plants but we wanted to use plants that we felt were good performers, good and reliable, and were easy to supply to the home gardener,” Ms Martin said. “We wanted it to resonate with memories from out childhood but put them in a contemporary setting.”

The Van Loon show garden features sundae fraise, a sun-hardy hydrangea which fades to pink; a geranium called big red which is a great seller in the nursery; and a variegated golden foliage plant called abelia kaleidoscope.These plants are showcased in a setting styled with brick paving and a garden pavilion.

Actually Van Loon didn't do it all by themselves. According to one report it was a collaboration with some Melbourne nurseries. The Advertiser seems to have highly exaggerated the Wallington nursery input.
“Resonate” by Local Nurseries (a collaboration between 8 Melbourne garden centres) was  designed by Vivid Design and constructed by Semken Landscaping.  Large stone steps led up to a retro inspired pavilion, surrounded by mass plantings in garden beds that undulated up and down around the central structure.  Circular shapes and arcs were central to the theme, resonating around the space in various forms.  I particularly liked the water cress cleverly used as a ground cover within circles cut into the pavilion floor.

Our flamboyant mayor

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Has any other town got a mayor quite like this one!  In Geelong Independent free newspaper I read this morming:

Mayor Dazza comes out of the closet

Posted on 27 March 2015 .

FASHIONISTA: Geelong Mayor Darry Lyons in all his casual finery at home on Western Beach. Picture: Reg Ryan

Purchase this photo from Star Photos: 132264

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HE MIGHT make the odd faux pas on Twitter but Darryn Lyons takes shock and awe to a new level when it comes to fashion.
And now Australia’s most flamboyant mayor has thrown open the doors and drawers of his mind-boggling wardrobe for the new edition of GC Geelong Coast magazine.
Fur, leather, stripes, studs and every colour of the rainbow make for a fashion statement like no other over six glossy pages.
“I love my fashion but my biggest frustration is that Australia only has blue, black and grey suits,” he tells GC’s Noel Murphy.
“That’s just not me, I’ve got to get variation – it’s part of my life.”
But the mayor’s sense of style can comes at a hefty price.
“Some hand-made pieces are worth $20,000,” he admits.

A Tongan fan and decorative balls

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One of our friends decorates her home with beautiful objects so I just took three photos from their hall of a Tongan fan and some decorative balls, then made some images.

Diversity in Geelong

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In the local paper:

Michael Martinez: Amazing diversity reflects Malcolm Fraser was a leader ahead of his time

• MICHAEL MARTINEZ
• GEELONG ADVERTISER
• MARCH 26, 2015 10:36AM

BE THE FIRST TO RESPOND

Malcolm Fraser’s compassionate approach to the settlement of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia is reflected in the enduring popularity of things like Cultural Diversity Week with a cultural dress day.

Michael Martinez.

LAST week throughout Victoria we celebrated Cultural Diversity Week. We also saw the death of Malcolm Fraser, a strong and compassionate voice for a humanitarian approach to the settlement of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.

His interview on our local Pulse FM a few weeks ago was consistent with his message over many years, taking to task current and previous governments on their asylum seeker policies.

This consistency and unwavering commitment to diversity and multiculturalism won Mr Fraser respect from across the political divide and throughout the nation.

The Geelong Ethnic Communities Council was established under the Fraser Government and, like many similar groups, we have a deep appreciation for the work and vision he inspired. He made real changes, such as the establishment of SBS, which has proven to be such a pivotal voice for a diverse Australia.

In recognition of his legacy, I think it’s opportune to review the positive economic impact that our humanitarian programs provide.

Last week I was discussing this with a colleague who directed me to an important piece of research done in 2011 by Graeme Hugo and a team of researchers at the University of Adelaide. The research, The Economic, social and civic contributions of first and second-generation humanitarian entrants, found the following:

The Humanitarian Program yields a demographic dividend because of a low rate of settler loss, relatively high fertility rate and a high proportion of children who are likely to work the majority of their lives in Australia.

It finds evidence of increasing settlement in non-metropolitan areas, which creates social and economic benefits for local communities.

Humanitarian entrants help meet labour shortages, including in low-skill and low-paid occupations. They display strong entrepreneurial qualities compared with other migrant groups, with a higher-than-average proportion engaging in small and medium business enterprises.

In addition, they make significant contributions through volunteering in both the wider community and within their own community groups.

In Geelong, we have thousands of residents and their descendants who left Europe after World War II and have made huge contributions to our community. Today this continues with the more recently arrived.

Just in the past month I know of two separate cases where Diversitat humanitarian clients have bought their first homes in the northern suburbs. These individuals arrived as asylum seekers, are now permanent residents — one has citizenship — and have worked solidly since arriving.

All the research and history would tell us that their children will do as well as, if not outperform, their locally born contemporaries in school and further career advancement.

According to the Mildura Development Corporation in a study released in October last year, the impact of 500 new residents to the city in total output — including all direct, industrial and consumption effects — is estimated to increase by up to $19.3 million. The increases in direct and indirect output would typically correspond to the creation of an additional 84 jobs in the economy.

Corresponding to this change in employment would be an increase in wages and salaries paid to employees. A proportion of these are typically spent on consumption and a proportion of this expenditure is captured in the local economy.

If we apply these figures to Geelong, we see the major economic impact of the humanitarian program alone in Geelong, which at times can number up to 500 a year. You can multiply this over many years and see the reality of hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits to our region over time.

We carry the Malcolm Fraser legacy with us in terms of his unwavering commitment to humanitarian arrivals. It has proven not only to be the right thing to do for our hearts, but also for our community in terms of jobs and growth.

Michael Martinez is the chief executive officer of Diversitat.

More from Geelong North

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I did some more work on the drawing of the wheat silos viewed from below Osborne House - picture too big to scan in one go so it's in two pieces. Added some colour and strengthened the black lines, then made a couple of copies in sepia and black and white.

North Geelong pictures

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The suburb of North Geelong is an interesting mix of old factories, recycled or empty, and a sea front that is good for fishing, cargo boats coming and going, wheat silos, a few nice parks and occasional surprises such as the Pickers Cafe and Vintage market.  I made a drawing of a view of the wheat silos from below Osborne House and one of part of an old woollen mill, now something else. I have included the two original sketches made on location and then variations using Picasa.

Time goes by

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Yesterday I fiddled with a few ideas about 'Time goes by' using the scanner and some objects and overlapping and so on.

At Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale

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I made a couple of sketches yesterday at Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale - one just of a house in the area where they used to dig for that pirate treasure - Bonito Bonito - but never found it, and the other down the road to the Point Lonsdale Primary school with a view of Point Lonsdale lighthouse in the distance.

Friends or lunch?

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I saw this pic on the internet and wondered if the eye of the tiger was on a friend or lunch?  I like rabbits - as pets - but I like tigers better.  I"m watching 'Life of Pi' on the TV at present.

Two different beaches at Curllewis

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We drove down the road to a caravan park opposite Leopold to see what the beach was like and as expected it wasn't much good at all.  Soft mounds of seaweed, no sand, and rather dismal.  Little effort to make it a picnic place.  Then we drove down a road about 5 k further on - the Curlewis area - where we knew there were posh properties - some sold recently for more than a million - and found an unmarked road that did lead to the beach between properties. It was so different. Sand had built up, there was an effort with little piers, even a kind of pavilion, no doubt private beaches.  And then I saw two horses to photograph and the mare came right over to me.

Pevensy Gardens

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The other day Peceli and I went to do some drawings from Pevensy Gardens in East Geelong.  There are several old houses in the 1890s style of building, hard to draw though with the complicated decorations on verandahs. Anyway I did one drawing and then made variations using Picasa and Gimp. Picasa has one style called 'posturize' which simplifies the colours. Because the drawing was larger than A4 I used a camera for one pic but also cropped it using the scanner.