Welcome back to Term 4. I had a great break and I hope you did too.

A quick summary from my end - I went down to Anglesea and caught up with my sisters, held my baby Scarlett’s 18th birthday party at our house (and survived the 100 guests - no it was actually super and they were very well behaved … lots of lovely kids live in our neighbourhood right! All buckling down for year 12 exams now). And I booked one of Darebin Council’s hard rubbish collections and did a big clean out of our tools and garden stuff - how did I accumulate so many rusty things? Also I pulled up some weeds and planted some tomatoes and capsicum … just before the rain of the last few days - so I hope they are settling in well.

Anyway, now I am back to all things ACC and look forward to the last quarter of the year!

And we’ve got lots coming up …

• Money Matters: AI and Scams (talk) - on Wednesday 14 October. Join us for this free lunch and talk. Advertised as part of Seniors Month (but open to all).

• Heart Centred Breathwork (short course) - starts up on Tuesday 20 October for the early risers (at 7.30am). John is running this course and it will be a super way to start the day!

• Money Matters: Managing on a Limited Budget (talk) - on Wednesday 21 October. Join us for this free lunch and talk. We are running it as part of Seniors Month - but we’re not ageist - anyone can attend!!!

• Community Yoga (short course) with Rosie starts on Wednesday 21 October at 5.30pm. Always lovely.

• Cook by the Book (short course) - on Thursdays from 11.30am, starting on 22 October, for 6 weeks. This term we’ll be cooking from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Simple cook book. I think he is my favourite contemporary chef with lots of fresh and delicious recipes that are often vego or vegan … and this book also at the back suggests some recipe combos that would go well together, or some ‘feasts’ … so the plan will be to dive in and try to make them together. YUM!

• CRUNCH (short course) - also starting Thursday 22 October, from 12.30pm (6 weeks). After sharing lunch with the Cook by the Book crew (looking forward to their Ottolenghi feasts) we’ll be doing weaving this term - basket weaving with rope and raffia, and perhaps with natural materials too. Join us to build up some skills as we work together (and maybe most importantly enjoy great conversations) and create some wonderful pieces (that could be super for Christmas presents I imagine).

• Uke Singalong (event) - Sunday 25 October, in the afternoon (details to be confirmed!). The Flukes (our uke group) are once again going to host a singalong on a Sunday afternoon. How fun! They have been practising some new tunes especially for the occasion. Last time was super, and it should be lovely again.

• Resuscitate a Mate (workshop) - 10 November at 10am-11.30am. Life Saving Victoria is running this short refresher course - aimed at older folk (you can identify with that any way you like) - but essentially building community skills around DRSABCD … including confidence to use a defibrillator. It’s not an accredited course, but a great opportunity to learn what to do (or get a practical reminder).

• Alphington Open Studios (event) - the last two weekends in November. We love having our space available and part of this suburb wide event. This year we will be hosting 4 or 5 artists in our space (how super).

And then it is Christmas - the Christmas Market on 21 November, Christmas Lunch on Friday 11 December, Christmas Carols (at the Bowls Club) on Sunday 20 December …

And of course all the other stuff - Playgroups on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, Toy Library, Line Dancing at the Scout Hall on Wednesday mornings, Alphingtones Choir at St Andrews Church, CWA meeting on the first Monday of the month in the Parklands, U3A Armchair Theatre (playreading) every Wednesday afternoon … and Book Clubs (currently finalising their book choices for next year).

And our Community Morning each Friday - art and craft, chats and gardening from 10.30am … Community Lunch at 12pm. AAA Arts at 1pm.

Also …. if you are feeling creative this Thursday (or next) Lee and I will be working on finishing off our new mosaic project for the very front garden bed- we’ll be on the job from 10.30am-12pm. And Clare will be working on it at the same time on Fridays. Come along and join us if you would like to contribute. We’ll be chatting (a lot I imagine) and cutting tiles, and gluing and grouting … the project is looking just beautiful and it is always nice to think you were part of something creative that jazzes up the neighbourhood right?

If you are inspired by our program you can book into all our things here. Hope to see you at ACC soon!

Cheers Leanne

Hi everyone,

We are just about prepared for our AGM tonight at 6pm! We are super grateful for all the work that our committee has put in in the last few weeks with reports and so forth. If you would like to come along to hear about what we’ve been doing this year (as well as for a spot of dinner!) then please book in at this link (before 12pm today).

This week we are wrapping up our programs for the term … so we hope to see you all at our last sessions of Heart-Centred Breathwork, CRUNCH and Cook by the Book. And we would like to thank Fran for hosting The Momentum to Write which has been such an awesome class for us to have here this term.

In other exciting news, I’m going to Timor-Leste with Friends of Baucau from the 5th-11th of September! Friends of Baucau is an amazing friendship organisation that connects the cities of Darebin and Yarra here in Victoria with the Municipality of Baucau in Timor-Leste. The purpose of the connection is to be provide shared learning and support. This will be a wonderful opportunity to talk to a range of local community leaders and community led organisations that are similarly operating at the hyper-local level, supporting women, families, youth, arts projects, permaculture programs and more. Last time I went (before Covid) it was an amazing and inspiring experience, and I hope I can learn a lot and come back with lots of great ideas again this time.

Whilst I am away Lee will be leading the Op-Shop tour (read on for more info…) which I will be super sad to miss out on! It is always lots of fun (and I LOVE op shopping).

Okay, that’s it this week. Hope to see you soon.

Cheers Leanne

Thanks to those that donated tiles for our mosaic project. We’re making a new garden bed for the very front corner of our site.

After a busy weekend and some more creativity during the week the 4 panels are well underway (we ‘re doing the fiddly bits first). We’ll continue working on this project sporadically over the next month or so and hopefully it will be installed by our next big art event, being Alphington Open Studios, coming up in November this year.

Here are some progress pictures for those that are interested. If you’d like to help out just get in contact with us and we’ll let you know when we will be mosaicking (most likely Thursday and/or Friday mornings … ). Just email us at info@alphington.org.au or talk to Leanne or Lee or Clare if you are here.

Phew … we’re recovering from the Winter Art Salon this week … a fabulous and very busy few days (check out the separate post for photos etc.) and we hope you made it along to see all the beautiful art and local talent for yourself!

Speaking of local talent, Yarra Council came along and interviewed Marlene a couple of weeks ago at Crunch - check out the little video they made here. Thanks Marlene for being such a good sport (and saying such lovely things about us) when put on the spot!

And of course time doesn’t stand still here at ACC … we’re straight into another action packed week.

Of note:

• Preserves Group on Tuesday at 1pm. I think we’re making cumquat marmalade.

• Alphington Arts on Thursday night from 7.30pm. Come along and get arty! Have a chat etc.

• Also two Book Clubs on Monday and Tuesday evening given it’s the 3rd week of the month!

• And all the usual things - playgroups, toy library, art classes, music lessons, play reading, choir, line dancing, community lunch, gardening. AAA Arts etc.

Finally … our AGM is coming up on 31st August. We look forward to reviewing the year with a quick slide show, ticking off the finances … and we’ll share some food etc. Book in and come along if you’d like to help us celebrate what we’ve been up to over the last 12 months.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Cheers Leanne

Hi everyone,

We had a great time last Thursday cooking up a Korean feast at Cook by the Book! Rob thinks it might have been our best collective cooking effort yet!

It was also super (if somewhat chaotic - because I forgot they were coming) to have Yarra Council staff along to do some video interviews about how ace neighbourhood houses are - for a loneliness week campaign they are putting together. We’ll share the material when they publish it! They also stayed for our yummy Korean lunch and it was great to have a chat with them.

Thanks so much to Jamie from Kew High who was here doing work experience with us for the week. He was a super conversationalist and worked really hard. It really was a pleasure to have him here!

This week we’ve got lots on including:

• Heart-Centred Breathwork on Tuesday at 7.30am (we’ve set up a weekly payment option for this now so you can come along and give it a try)

• Line Dancing at Alphington Scout Hall on Wednesday from 10am-12pm

• Playtime in the Garden, also on Wednesday from 10am-12pm

• U3A Armchair Theatre on Wednesday from 1pm-3pm

• Cardboard Playgroup on Thursday from 10am-12pm

• Cook by the Book on Thursday from 11.30am-1pm

• CRUNCH on Thursday from 12.30pm-2pm

• Alphingtones Choir at St. Andrew’s Church on Thursday from 7.30pm-9pm

• Community Morning on Friday from 10am-1pm

To find out more and book in online, please visit our website at this link.

Cheers Leanne