Hi everyone, I hope you had a great school holidays and enjoyed the AFL Grand Final and are as excited as I am about daylight savings (I have been waking with the birds at 5.30am for the last couple of weeks aagh). I was down in Geelong heartland (Anglesea) for the footy - but there were enough ex-Fitzroy people at the pub to make it a fun day for lots of people … and they served up free party pies at half time which was a boon for winners and losers alike!

We’re back on deck this week. I called in on Friday and it was all looking great - the garden is going gang-busters. We had Project Stationery here for the first week of the holidays and Corrin was also around running her 6 week Introduction to Weaving course, along with a one day workshop for teenagers that looked super. Julie was also around co-working and some of our regular groups continued to meet. It is great to know that things have a life of their own and can continue on even when the office is closed.

This term is a busy one, kicking off with our next Thrift Seekers Op Shop Adventure on Thursday 16 October leaving ACC at 10am - we’ll be catching the bus over to Sydney Road this time to check out the op shops over there. Book in on our website. $5 includes morning tea (cake and coffee). On that night we also have Alphington Arts - for anyone who loves making art, this is a practical collective that shares skills and has a great chat. This time Elise will be teaching us some landscape painting techniques. Starts at 7.30pm. Costs $15. All materials are provided.

Then we have a Diwali celebration at Community Lunch on Friday 24 October. We’ll do some dancing led by Meet, feature some singing by Papu and have some yummy Indian food for lunch.

Then we have our AGM on Monday 27 October at 6pm. Join us for dinner and we’ll take a little photo trip down memory lane with Kalimna’s wonderful snaps, to look at all the great things we did in the financial year. It always amazes me what we can achieve in a year with such a small staff. Please contact us if you are keen to attend so we can guess at catering numbers.

Then we blink and it’s Christmas right? We have the Alphington Christmas Market on Saturday 22 November from 11am-2pm, along with the opening of Alphington Open Studios - which once again runs for two weekends across the neighbourhood.

Our annual Christmas Lunch will once again be hosted here in the garden on Friday 12 December at 12pm and Christmas Carols will run on Sunday 12 December at 7pm at the Alphington Bowls Club.

In amongst all this our programs continue. Community Lunch starts up this week on Friday from 12pm as does Alphington Playgroup on Wednesday from 10am in the front garden. Please note that Crunch and Garden to Plate start back up in two weeks.

So much on. I am exhausted thinking about it already! No … it is going to be super. Also, check out the posts below - some interesting things on in our neighbourhood that you might like to attend.

We look forward to seeing you at ACC this week.

Cheers Leanne

Hi everyone

Gosh time goes by fast doesn’t it. It is hard to believe that this is the last week before school holidays … when we’ll be taking a two week break.

In this final week we’ll have Garden to Plate on Monday (I haven’t set up the booking but please come along), Crunch on Thursday (as Lee was away last week) and our Friday program with Community Lunch will round out the week.

Over the holidays we have Project Stationery here again in the first week and I will put some info up on our website about what they are up to - they did give us a poster a couple of weeks ago that Kalimna put up outside - but annoyingly it blew away in the wind on one of those bad weather days.

Anyway, I hope to see you soon at ACC.

Cheers

Leanne

Thanks to everyone who came op shopping with us on Tuesday. We dodged the rain showers (mostly) and had a lovely time in Abbotsford visiting two op shops. We also stopped for Vietnamese for lunch on Victoria Street. Everyone bought something - Linda bought a footstool (which was tricky to carry around), Marie-Louise a dress, Monica some tea … and I can’t remember what the others got (I bought 2 jumpers and a long sleeve t-shirt).

Thanks to Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank for supporting this adventure - it was really inspiring to go op shopping on public transport. Truly. So relaxing.

This last week it has been great to usher in spring - whilst Thursday felt like the depths of winter, Friday was sunshiny and lovely … and it was amazing to spend time in the garden! It is looking so fantastic and Clare and Corrado and Jenny - and everyone else who comes along on Fridays and contributes should be super proud. The wicking beds out the front, along with the delivery of fogo compost that we spread around, have transformed the bed outside our fence. Thanks to Yarra Council for helping us purchase the beds and for delivering the compost for free. On Friday Clare picked a huge amount of produce (our bokchoy was about to go to seed) and so we have lots of lovely home-grown vegetables ready for cooking this coming week.

Speaking of coming up this week we have all the usual things - our food programs, line dancing, book clubs, choir, music lessons, sound healing - along with two exciting workshops on the weekend. Weaving with Corrin starting up for a 6 week course (book in here) and Spoonmaking with Maylei - a one-day workshop (book in here).

We hope to see you at ACC soon.

Cheers Leanne

Last week we had a packed house for Garden the Plate, where we cooked vegetarian Indian dishes - they were really yummy. We had a pea raita, eggplant in coconut and a dry cauliflower curry, with basmati rice. It was excellent.

This week we are making okonomyaki (Japanese vegetable pancakes) - shining a light on cabbage. And we will make some teriyaki prawns and rice as well. Yum. Cooking starts at 11.30am. It usually takes about an hour for the cooking and then we sit down together to eat our creations … and finish up at 1pm. Book in on our website if you are coming along so we can judge numbers.

On Tuesday we have our Op Shop Adventure - you’ll find the details and the booking link the post below. We’d love you to come along. Last time was lots of fun - it was great to see what others were looking for and to compare bargains!

On Wednesday we have our 1st Wednesday Book Club here at night …and the two book clubs on Thursday (day and night). It is now the time of the year for book clubs to choose their reads for next year which is always a bit exciting! Darebin Libraries purchase new sets of books each year to try to ensure that book groups get variety year in and year out.

Speaking of Darebin Libraries, we have a little interactive community thing called Due Back up at Fairfield Library for Adult Learners Week. If you pass the library or an in the library please take a minute or two to fill in a card - a recommendation from you of a ‘book that stayed with you’ and a quick note about something you learnt from it There are some photos in the post below.

Corrin in starting up her Learn to Weave course in the Community Shed from this coming Saturday - if you are interested there are still spots available. It runs from 10am-1pm for 6 weeks and you will learn to weave and make something beautiful in the process - a scarf or the like. Here is he link to find out more and book in.

We also have Maylei back teaching a Spoon Making (whittling) for a one day workshop on Saturday 13 September from 9am-3pm. You can find out more in the post below.

Of course we have our Community Morning on Friday - a great chance for a chat inside or out (Clare will be busy in the garden with Jenny and Corrado and our garden is looking super with all their love and care) followed by lunch at 12pm.

We’d love to see you.

Cheers Leanne

I think we’re back on recovery mode again after the weekend.

I know I definitely need to mop the floors! So that’ll be my first job I think ….

Such a great weekend - lovely to see so many people from the neighbourhood on Friday evening. It seems 5-7pm Friday is a great time to catch people! A good excuse to leave work early perhaps?

Art works (purchased or unsold) can be collected this week anytime we are open (eg. 9am-3.30pm).

This week on the radar we have:

• Garden to Plate on Monday at 11.30am

• Men’s Group on Tuesday at 7pm

• Playgroup and Line Dancing at 10am and Armchair Theatre (1.15pm) on Wednesday and Sound Healing at 7.15pm.

• Crunch on Thursday at 12.30pm and Talking about Life and Death at 1pm

• Community Morning on Friday (gardening, craft etc.) followed by Community Lunch at 12pm.

We also have our next Op Shop Adventure coming up on Tuesday 2 September. Please let us know if you can make it!

Also, check out the post below for photos from the Winter Arts Salon exhibition.

Also also … thanks to everyone who dropped off citrus this week - we have made marmalade, preserved lemons and dried grapefruit slices so far. And lots was sold this weekend so maybe we’ll get another batch going this week?

We look forward to seeing you at ACC soon.

Cheers Leanne