Hi everyone

Sorry I missed the newsletter last week! I was on an overnight flight from Penang home and after 4.5 weeks of holidays I was a bit vague and forgot to check if we’d put something together or not.

But … I am back now and it has been lovely to catch up with so many of you in the last few days.

And … we’ve got lots starting up this week.

• Monday (today) - Table to Plate. It’s free! Join me from 11.30am-1pm and we’ll cook up seasonal produce (and catch up on life, school holidays etc.) and then sit down and eat together. We’re going to be cooking with lime today - fresh from my (and Julie’s) garden! And using some of the leafy greens that are flourishing in the garden beds at ACC, along with potatoes that we harvested just before the holidays.

• Clare’s Artful Paining and Drawing is starting this week, and Corrin’s Learn to Weave course is also starting up. Look at the bottom our this email, or on our website for their contact details to book in. It’s not too late!

• On Thursday we have Crunch. $15. I will cook lunch, and make you a coffee with a little sweet treat. Lee will lead a fabulous art activity. There is a regular crew of people who are coming now - but new faces are very very welcome. It is friendly, yummy, creative and fun. We hope to see you.

• Friday - Community Morning and Community Lunch. Free. Join us for craft and chats inside and/or join Clare in the garden and community shed for more practical activities (along with chats of course) outside from 10am. Followed by lunch at 12pm.

• Saturday - a new addition! John is running our new Men’s Breakfast. $10. Join him from 8am and cook up a storm together, before sitting down to eat and get to know each other. Suitable for men of all ages - brothers, sons, fathers, uncles, grandpas … You can contact our office to book in or get in touch with John (his details are in the brochure below).

Also, our Winter Salon is coming up very soon - on 22-24 August. We are seeking local artists to be part of the show, so please encourage anyone you know to get in contact with us if they might be keen. There is a form to fill out on our website. It is free to enter. Please not that works need to be for sale. It is always a lovely event - one of the highlights of the year. On the Friday night we’ll have our opening night, with drinks and nibbles from 5-7pm. And then the show will be open on the weekend from 10am-3pm for anyone to drop in. This year local artist Joe will be using The Kiosk for a poetry and movie installation - Lee and I spent last Thursday setting up the space and giving it a trial run - it is going to be super fun!

Okay, so that’s about it I think. Hope all is well with you and look forward to seeing you at ACC soon!

x Leanne

This week join us for our Men’s Group on Tuesday night from 7pm. Call John to find out more 0439 899 352.

Or Playgroup on Wednesday morning at 10am. Also Line Dancing at 10am - at Alphington Scout Hall. Each costs $5. Just come along! There’s also Armchair Theatre on in the afternoon from 1.15pm. This is run by Darebin U3A.

On Wednesday evening we have Sound Healing with Keiko from 7.15-8pm. Just $10 for a super relaxing experience. Find out more or book in Sounddroplet@tutamail.com.

On Thursday we have the first Embracing Life and Death session from 1-3pm. Find out more or book in with Andrea, Andrea_babon@yahoo.com. And the Alphingtones Choir run at night over at St Andrews Uniting Church Fairfield from 7.30pm.

Finally Friday is our Community Morning - craft, gardening, community shed activities from 10am. Community Lunch at 12pm.

We hope to see you soon!

Cheers Leanne

Hi all

We have our last Table to Plate for the term today (Monday). Join us from 11.30am to cook up something yummy!

Please note that unfortunately we have to cancel Preserves tomorrow. We will touch base with everyone today via the Whats App group.

Our garden is looking fabulous after the rain and the hard work of Jenny, Corrado and Dinesh on Friday … and we had a great time seeing our friends from GenU for art and craft on Friday morning as well. Check out the photos below.

Thanks also to Tahlia for holding the fort - she did a great job cooking dumplings and fried rice and a yummy chinese cabbage dish on Friday - yum. We look forward to seeing you on Friday for lunch this week if you can make it. Anyone is welcome to join us at 12pm.

We hope you have a great week.

See you soon.

Leanne

Join local end-of-life doulas, Ann and Frederique, at 1pm on Thursday 26 June for our first monthly discussion on Embracing Life and Death, being held at the Alphington Community Centre.

This is a safe and welcoming space to talk about death, dying, life & loss with a view to normalising these conversations as part of living and dying well. A place to share stories, knowledge and resources. Free to attend with tea, coffee and cake provided. Please note this group does not provide bereavement support or grief counselling. 

Held at 1pm on the last Thursday of the month, spaces are limited so please register. For more information or to register please contact Andrea via e-mail on andrea_babon@yahoo.com

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