Steer clear, steer clear! There seems to be some leg health related bad luck going down in our office. So after all my misery last week with sciatica, Kalimna contacted me on the weekend to say she fell over stepping up a gutter (I think, or something equally innocuous) and broke her knee cap. Ouch! It means she’s going to be in a cast for 6 weeks. And they are still determining if she needs an operation … poor sausage. Keep your fingers crossed for her.

Also … please be kind to us as we try to pick up and run seamlessly with all the things Kalimna usually does here at ACC. I am sure I am going to muck some things up - but hopefully we’ll get there in the end.

On to cheerier things, last week we had 2 birthdays to celebrate at Community Lunch - a belated celebration for Corina because I was away the week before, and then it was also Clare’s birthday. I made a stacked brownie cake (thanks Aldi packet mix brownies) with macarons on top, and Margaret from CWA made fabulous dark chocolate and orange cup cakes. Delightful. Between the two of these treats we had celebrations with both of Community Lunch friends and our AAA Arts friends.

Coming up … on the 14 June we have our Clothes Mending session. There are still some spots available if you are interested in joining in.

We also have 2 more sessions of Garden to Plate and Crunch for this term - if you are interested in joining us for lunch on a Monday (to help cook and then eat what we make) or Thursday (to eat and make some relaxing art together) - you can book in online and/or come along! Both of these activities are lovely and low key and they’ll run this week and next.

Also, we have a our last 2 sessions of AAA Bowls coming up on Wednesdays at 10am at Alphington Bowls Club. Jill and the volunteers from the club create an amazing experience for a variety of people who come along to the sessions. Everyone has a great time - and I am sure they will once again be looking forward to the BBQ in week 6. Please note that this program does not run in Term 3 (because of the weather) - but it will be back in Term 4.

A reminder that CWA will be meeting tonight at 7.30pm at the Gleeson Centre in the Darebin Parklands (at the end of Separation Street). If you are interested in hanging out and doing things with some lovely local women (some of whom are dynamos) you should think about going along and joining up! They not only craft and cook, but also support local social services through fundraising, run a book club and meet up for dinners - it’s a really great way to get involved and to make local connections.

It has been great to have some new faces at ACC on Fridays lately - having some additional hands and ideas generated in the Community Garden program on Fridays has been just super. We love it when new people come along and join in. If you are interested in gardening and spending some time outside pottering (it’s generally not too onerous) then join us from 10am-12pm Fridays. Last week they put a net up outside our main windows to catch the leaves from the gutters and keep the gardens a bit projected - we’ll see if this experiment is a success as autumn kicks into full swing (the leaves from the plane trees fall way faster than we can rake them up at this time of the year). The week before they fishished off setting up and planting out our new garden beds.

In the office we are currently in the midst of planning for next semester and finalising all things for the end of the financial year. We are thrilled that we have some new programs on the cards already:

• Introduction to weaving with Corrin (6 week course on a Wednesday) in the day and the evening

• Inner North Death Doula Hub - 4th Thursday of the month 1-3pm. This free program will facilitate discussions on life, loss, death and dying. The first one will be on Thursday 26 June.

• A new program for pre-schoolers - hopefully coming on Friday mornings for anyone who is interested in being active with their little ones!

If you are keen on any of these keep your eyes peeled - we’ll have the new brochure out in the next week or two so you can find out more!

And … if you have a great idea of something you could run, or something you’d like to see us run (and links to great facilitators etc.) we’d love to hear from you. Give us a call or pop in or send an email.

I hope you have an excellent week.

See you soon.

Leanne

We love a birthday … or two! This week we got to celebrate Corina and Clare.

Happy birthday Corina.

Happy birthday Clare.

Thanks to all the volunteers at ACC - our committee members, people who run classes - like Shirley and Rosie, people who volunteer to lead book groups, lead arts activities, help in the toy library, cook for our lunches, those that volunteer to teach the beginners uke group, people who cook preserves, those that help out on Fridays … those that help at events … and more!

Neighbourhood houses flourish through community generosity, kindness and goodwill.

It was fabulous to get together on Saturday with the other houses across Yarra to thank a range of our collective volunteers, and share the love with Yarra City Council staff and councillors.

Great to have a super turnout from ACC. Thanks to everyone who came along - and to everyone who volunteers at ACC along the way.

On Saturday we had our first ‘repair’ workshop for the year with Gordon teaching us how to maintain our sewing machines and to troubleshoot the basics. It was great to see so many people walk away with their problems solved after 2.5 hours - a new knowledge about their machines and how they work and how to keep them in tip top shape.

We have another of these workshops coming up in 2 weeks - for anyone with an overlocker this time! And we also have a clothes mending workshop coming up in June that is the final is this series. You can book in on our website - on the enrol page.

This week we’ll be installing new garden beds (see the post below - you’re welcome to come along and learn about setting up a wicking bed yourself) on Friday … and we’ll be cooking lots of food.

This week is Neighbourhood House Week, and so we’d love to see you at our food programs.

We’ll be cooking cauliflower soup and pasta with bacon and brussel sprouts for lunch today in Table to Plate. Looking forward to sharing the cooking with anyone who can make it!

Then on Thursday we have Crunch - two new people joined our group this term - and anyone is welcome. Thursdays at 12.30-2pm for a yummy lunch (we’re having spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread this week) and a creative arts activity led by Lee (we like to keep it a surprise!).

On Thursday evening we have our Supper Club - 7 people joined in last week. If you are interested in enjoying dinner with locals then please come along at 5pm. Just contact our office (phone or email) or book in on our website.

Also, we have playgroup on Wednesday, along with AAA Bowls and Line Dancing and Armchair Theatre. Friday we have AAA Arts and Community Lunch. And our Toy Library is a great resource for families (parents, grandparents etc.) who are keen to try new things - explore puzzles and games, ride-ons and all the toys. Also Rosie is starting up Community Yoga again this week, and Clare is running Art classes … and Keiko is running Sound Healing sessions. Check out all our previous posts to find out how to book in if you are keen! If you have any trouble just drop us an email or give us a call.

Next week is National Volunteer Week, and on the weekend we have an event on at Holden Street neighbourhood house with the other Yarra Houses - to celebrate all our volunteers who help us keep things on track. We couldn’t do all the things we do without all the help that you, the community provide.

We hope to see you at ACC soon. Happy Neighbourhood House Week.

Cheers Leanne

On Friday we celebrated Alex’s birthday which was lovely. His aunty Rose brought a cake along and we were all very happy to help him celebrate and we hope he had a super day on Saturday as well (his actual birthday!).

And … also on Friday we had a special delivery of two wicking beds from Nillumbik Nursery … the installation of which will be our project this coming Friday. If you are interested in how to set up a wicking bed at home come along and help out from 10am (we will throw in lunch at 12pm as a bonus) - I know Clare will be very happy to share her knowledge - and of course many hands make light work (especially when shovelling scoria I imagine). These wicking beds will be installed in the bluestone garden beds out on the corner triangle and will enable us to grow more food and herbs etc. We’ll be focusing on useful things that can be used by our community - either at our lunches or our neighbours and local friends.

Once again we’d like to thank the Climate Emergency Team at Yarra Council for funding these beds.