John Coldebella

The end of the line

17/6/2022

Glenn certainly had a go but he was no match
for the forces of economic rationalism

By John Coldebella

NOW and then my mind turns to characters I haven't seen for a while. I don't mean friends and acquaintances – yes, I think of them too – but rather people to whom I was never introduced and whose names I never knew. Those people I would occasionally see as I shopped or walked, cycled or drove around the town but no longer see and haven't done so for some time, prompting me to ask myself 'What became of them?”

I wonder if other people have the same thoughts about strangers in their midst. Do regular users of White Road or South Dudley Road in Wonthaggi ask themselves what became of the character who was regularly seen striding along those roads like a man on a mission.

For those who have, I can tell you a little bit about him and his life. His name was Glenn Durling. AKA Dools, Dooley, and Pot Hole.

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Why I do care a fig

17/5/2022

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Cartoon by Natasha Williams-Novak

By John Coldebella

THE fig tree, or Ficus Carica, is a species of flowering plant in the Moraceae family. One of the first cultivated fruit trees, it is said to have originated in Western Asia and from there was taken to the Mediterranean before reaching the rest of the world. There are over 700 varieties though many of these are ornamental. Sumarian stone tablets dated to 2500 BC depict its culinary uses. It has a historical association with wealth in Middle Eastern cultures and understandably so, given its ability to thrive and provide food in dry climates. Furthermore, by using no-carbon-footprint solar technology – or absence of technology – the fruit can be preserved and stored out of season in those hot, dry places.

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What’s in a nickname?

8/4/2022

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Resemblances have inspired many a nickname.

By John Coldebella

It is the opinion of many Australians that the arts are undervalued in this country and that they have never been given the recognition they deserve for their contribution to our culture. This was borne out during the Covid 19 pandemic lockdowns when people employed in the arts industry received little or no financial support compared to those involved in all other areas of the economy. During this time, the arts had many advocates. Of all the art forms, it could be argued that the most formally unrecognised is the allocation of nicknames. They are everywhere and many encompass the spirit of the Australian sense of humour, some hitting the mark in ways that border on the poetic while others could be described as sheer genius.

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Summer of strange signs

23/3/2022

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By John Coldebella

AUTUMN is upon us, and despite some scorching sun with high humidity on St Patrick's Day, all the visual signs in the garden confirm that the peak of the summer growing season is behind us.

Pumpkin vines have stopped crawling and their leaves are browning off, revealing the pumpkins that were hidden beneath them a few weeks ago.

Early crops of beans have lost their leaves and the beans that were left for seed have dried to a crisp and have been picked and stored away while those planted in mid-January have been ready to harvest for a couple of weeks.

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Any which way

9/3/2022

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How Wonthaggi people get around

By John Coldebella

A QUESTION from my former high school woodwork teacher Bill Robertson caught me off guard, and his smile and the twinkle in his eyes suggested a 'gotcha' moment. The question was this: how do you tell someone is a Wonthaggi local? I had always considered Bill to be a prominent local identity and knew that he was not born here so I was able to eliminate notions of birth in the local hospital or multiple generations buried in our cemetery.

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A star turn

9/2/2022

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By John Coldebella

ONE of the most prominent colours in the January garden is yellow. Four plants provide most of the contribution: zucchini and pumpkin flowers and sunflowers abound and attract bees. The fourth plant is the evening primrose, which, as its name suggests, makes its entrance in the evening.

The evening primrose, or Oenothera Biennis, is a flower from the botanical family Onagraceae. I don't know if my translation app is dodgy, but when I looked up the English version of this Latin term it came up with wild asses. This came as somewhat of a surprise, not the kind of imagery that comes to mind when observing this plant.

Perhaps it's a reference to the type of people who would park themselves in front of a plant in the hope of seeing a flower opening before their eyes. That’s exactly what can be seen in a performance that occurs over an hour or so pre dusk in the summer months. It is also an accurate description to say that this spectacle “unfolds” before your very eyes.

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Season of twists and turns

16/12/2021

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Mysterious things are happening in the garden.

By John Coldebella

SUMMER has officially arrived and most vegetables in the garden are finally thriving after some cold days and nights made for slow progress in the latter part of spring. This has been the case for the last two or three years. The season of rebirth in the plant world saw some unusual behaviour in trees and vegetables, things that had not been seen by gardeners who have been at it for over 60 years.

Some growers of garlic found that as the stem of the plant began to die off, each individual clove had produced its own long, green stem inside the main one. This was observed in at least three crops in Wonthaggi and one on Phillip Island.

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Let one thousand flowers bloom

4/11/2021

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By John Coldebella

AFTER the bleakness of winter, we look forward to the recharging of our batteries with longer and warmer days.

Spring flowers lift the spirits and herald the return of vitality in plant life after that period of dormancy. I am amazed at the seemingly endless possibilities of colour combinations, artistic design and textures.

Much could be said about these marvels of nature, but they speak for themselves in a language that is beyond my vocabulary.

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Palm town

7/10/2021

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They dominate our skyline and yet we barely see them.

By John Coldebella

THE area that makes up Bass Coast Shire has changed dramatically since European settlement. Large quantities of native flora were removed to make way for townships and farmland, leaving a relatively bare landscape in many places. As time passed, new trees, shrubs and flowers were introduced. Now we have plants from every continent, with the obvious exception of Antarctica, which allows us to enjoy exotic fruit from our own gardens along with the delightful scents of the magnolia tree, roses and many other plants. Other introduced species give radiant colour to our autumns.

One type of tree that tends to go under the radar, and in some cases over the radar, is the palm tree. Just as a recently learned new word seems to appear everywhere, so it is with palm trees when you start looking for them.

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The unintentional gardener

9/9/2021

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By John Coldebella

MOST people who aren't too caught up in their thoughts would at some time have noticed plants growing in the cracks in concrete or in the mortar joints of brick paving. Often, these plants will be weeds but it is not uncommon for them to be vegetables.

My first experience of this was seeing a tomato seedling sprouting from between two bluestone pitchers that were part of the lining of an open drain in a Wonthaggi back lane. I monitored the growth of this plant on a daily basis en route to my primary school until the day there was a ripe tomato hanging from it. I ate it there and then. Since that time, my eye has been caught by tomato plants in a variety of locations including the gap between the concrete and a traffic light pole in a city.

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