Village

 Our local shops, not on any main road, are called the Village. Just going down to the Village, we announce, now we’re out of isolation. Villages dot the metropolis: Middle Park, Toorak, Montmorency. We smile to think of a shopping complex named Tooronga Village. Suburbs once villages side on to suburbs with Villages. Cars would form queues at Village Drive-Ins. This is not what our syphilitic founder had in mind. Did he ever imagine his place for a village, Bearbrass, would in a dozen years be named a City? Was Viscount Melbourne kept abreast, then retired outside Hatfield [village], Hertfordshire?

 

Photograph: Bridie and I are members of the Community Garden, located close to the Village. This means on Saturday we could collect our quota of tomato, zucchini, and pumpkin seedlings, though following covid-safe guidelines. We lined up in our cars at the Gardens, had our trays ready for the plants at the street gate, QR code, distribution, then drive off.