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Another one down ...

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

Garden to plate

This week we celebrated autumn with a fancy lunch dish featuring fennel and beetroot.

We made a very yummy dish of roasted fennel and whiting, which was topped with a raw beetroot relish. We sprinkled some fennel fronds on top, with a wedge of lemon and some roasted potatoes (with rosemary and smoked paprika) on the side … it was a delicious and nutritious lunch. And simple to make. We had lots of time to chat and hear about what everyone had done in the holidays as we waited for it to cook!

If you’d like to join in our seasonal cooking adventures (and then eat the food that is made) please book in on Mondays for Garden to Plate, running from 11.30am-1pm here the in ACC kitchen.

This week ...

This week we have a bunch of our programs starting up for the term including:

  • Garden to Plate - Monday 11.30am

  • AAA Bowls - Wednesday 10am

  • Crunch (creative lunch) - Thursday 12.30pm

  • Thursday Supper Club - Thursday 5pm

  • AAA Art - Friday 1pm

We’re looking forward to seeing you! Keen to book in? You can do so here.

We also have our first Sustainability Workshop coming up this weekend - a reminder that our Sewing Machine Maintenance/Repair workshop starts at 10am (for everyone booked in) on Saturday. BYO machine.

Hope you enjoyed your democracy sausage on the weekend!

Cheers

Leanne

Community lunch

Lovely to see everyone on Friday!

It was a glorious morning in the garden. We sat outside and enjoyed the autumn sunshine.

Enjoying the sunshine!

Then, we had ‘better than Subway’ (as Sarah said) focaccia for lunch - thinly sliced roast beef and roast capsicum with a yummy horseradish and chive cream cheese, along with swiss cheese and lettuce accompanied by 3 salads. And … for the vegos, a swap out to Yotam Ottolenghi’s portobello ‘steak’ mushrooms (recipe here. Such a winner - I use it all the time).

To top it all off Margaret from the CWA kept us up to speed with the latest cooking controversy (Nagi from Recipe Tin Eats v Brooke from Booki Bakehouse) and ‘their’ caramel slice. Yum! Thanks so much Margaret.

So great to be back with the crew.

This week

We had a great but crazy community lunch on Friday … people who hasn’t been since before COVID came, and Yarra Deputy Mayor Sarah McKenzie came with Kathy who is our colleague on staff at Yarra Council … and there were also some new faces and friends of friends … and we ran out of food temporarily (yikes that never happens) … but it was fun.

And, in the morning the lovely crew from GenU Thornbury came to craft (first time back for the year) and because I was sitting down with them I made some little Valentine’s Day cards - that I then gave out to everyone at lunch - with a Ferrero Rocher chocolate (donated by Margaret - thanks Margaret).

And then, in the afternoon we ran the first session of AAA Arts for the year - it was lovely to see everyone - we had some newbies there as well!

This coming week we have lunch on Monday - Garden to Plate where we’re preparing and eating Asian food - smashed cucumber salad, garlic chicken with coriander and capsicum, rice and then fruit with coconut ice cream.

On Tuesday we’re cooking up a storm in the kitchen with Preserves Group. Zucchini Pickles and Tomato Relish are on our radar.

On Thursday night at 7.30pm we have our first Alphington Arts for the year - where Rob will be sharing how he draws and paints birds - and bringing along his parrot for some life drawing/painting. If you love being arty and want to make arty friends in the neighbourhood this is for you. Book in online.

Or come along at Thursday lunchtime for Crunch - our creative lunch. 12.30pm.

My Our Thursday Supper Club has 4 or 5 people interested now. Call us if you are keen to share a weekly dinner on Thursdays around 5.30pm … we’ll get started when we get 6-8 people signed up.

Also … book into our op shop tours. They’ll be fun. First one is early March - on a Saturday. Great for those working … and students etc.

See you soon.

Leanne