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 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

Hi everyone

Welcome back to Term 3 at ACC. Over the holidays we had the Flukes, our Uke Group run a singalong on the first weekend - which my mum tells me was well attended (she came along, unfortunately I couldn’t make it as my middle child was heading to Europe with her university friends and needed my assistance for last minute organising and a lift to the airport). Thanks to everyone who participated. Great to see new community led initiatives get up and running successfully!

And then the Up Community were here for a week doing their fabulous recycling things - Project Stationary (recycling stationary) and Project Pair-Up (matching up the tops and bottoms of lunchboxes and plastic storage containers). It’s great that our space is in use over the school holidays - and for such excellent activities!

Coming up this term we have some new things on the cards:

• The Momentum to Write (Start your Novel) - Monday evenings for 4 weeks starting in August.

• Heart Centred Breathwork - for the early birds (starts at 7.30am on a Tuesday morning)

And lots of old favourites:

• Cook by the Book (a new version of Garden to Plate where we’ll choose a cookbook to cook from for the term) - 6 weeks on Thursdays from 11.30am

• Crunch (Creative Lunch) we’ll be focusing on printmaking this term using our new printing press - 6 weeks on Thursdays from 12.30pm

• Alphington Arts - from 7.30pm on the 3rd Thursday of the month in August and September this term

• Preserves Group - our next one is coming up on Tuesday 21 July from 1-3pm.

• Op Shop Adventures - save the date Thursday 10 September, we’ll head off for a day of op shopping and lunch from 10am-2pm.

You can book into all our upcoming programs here.

We also have our Winter Arts Salon Show coming up … please note that the original advertised date has changed, and it will now run on the weekend of the 14-16 August. We’ll be opening up our booking system mid week - please encourage any artists you know to enter works. The more the merrier!

Did you know you can hire our space for bithday parties on Sundays? We have quite a few birthday parties booked in this year, but there are still spots available in Term 3 and early Term 4. The price starts at $165 to hire our space for 4 hours which is enough time to set up, host and pack up your party … and all the kitchen equipment is provided. it is a great way for families to both minimise waste and avoid having to spring clean their own house for guests! You can check out the available dates and book here.

We look forward to seeing everyone back for Community Lunch and for our Community Morning on Friday this week. And to catching up with everyone who comes along for various activities throughout the week, including book clubs, playgroups, ukulele, toy library, line dancing etc. etc. etc.

On to bigger ‘world news’ type things … gosh the World Cup soccer has been exciting. So many great matches. I have been glued to the telly in the early hours of the morning most days. Lucky it all happened over the school holidays and is ending soon - so I will be able to concentrate on work again!

Cheers Leanne

Hi everyone,

It was great to see even more of our ACC community last week all back for another year. Book clubs starting, AAA Arts back on Friday afternoons and our Men’s Breakfast had at least 10 people booked in which is super! Thanks John for organising this.

This week the first sessions of Garden to Plate, AAA Bowls, and Sound Healing with Crystal Bowls will also be running. Feels like we are well and truly back in business…….

AND … it is also time to start getting ready for the Alphington Show! HOORAY!!!!! You should start thinking about what you’re planning to enter right now, because this year there’s going to be some tough competition!? In addition to the usual cooking categories (bread, jams, presrves, cakes etc.) we have a new one this year - covering everyone who makes kombucha and kimchi and the like …. (upon request). How fun! Also, don’t forget the Dog Show …. time to start training up those fur babies!

There’s a lot coming up and a lot of posts in our news this week - see all the links below. And in the meantime here is our very official program listed for the week:

• 2nd Monday of the Month Book Club, tonight!

• 2nd Tuesday of the Month Book Club (we’re still recruiting for this new Book Club - so please get in touch - we hope to start it up next month!).

• Toy Library open Tuesday, 1-3pm.

• AAA Bowls at Alphington Bowls Club (email us at info@alphington.org.au to join), Line Dancing at Alphington Scout Hall, and Alphington Playgroup here at the centre (book in online here) all on Wednesday morning from 10am-12pm.

• U3A Armchair Theatre, Wednesday 1-3pm.

• Our new Alphington Playgroup on Thursday morning 10am-12pm.

• Garden to Plate, Thursday 11.30am-1pm (more info and book in online here).

• Sound Healing with Crystal Bowls, Thursday 7-8pm (contact Keiko at her website here).

• Community Morning on Friday from 10am, and stick around for Community Lunch at 12-1pm.

• AAA Arts, Friday 1-2pm (email us at info@alphington.org.au).

Cheers,

Leanne

Week 2 already …. and it really is good to be back! It had been super to catch up with so many of you already, and to have wrangled the leaves (oh the leaves, the leaves) into order and gotten the rest of our organising (that we didn’t get too at the end of last year) organised.

And yes, our brochure is finally out. Check it out here.

And so it is the perfect time to book in online to our programs for this year!

AAA Art (Friday 1pm) and Artful Painting and Drawing (3 classes on Monday and Tuesday) will both be starting back this week with the wonderful Clare. You can contact her directly to book into Artful Painting and Drawing on 0423453160 and call our office on 9499 7227 to find out about AAA Art.

Book Clubs are back! There are still some places available this year - so book in online. Our Thursday evening Book Club starts this week. Get in quick as these groups generally fill up fast!

And this Saturday at 8am we will also be running our first Men’s Breakfast for the year - you can book in on our website or call John on 0439899352 for more information. See the post below for more details …

Also running this week will be:

• CWA on Monday night at the Gleeson Centre in Darebin Parklands

• Alphington Playgroup and Toy Library both Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 10am-12pm.

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

• U3A Armchair Theatre on Wednesday at 1-3pm.

• Alphingtones Choir at St Andrews on Thursday at 7.30pm.

• Our Community Morning on Friday from 10am, and Community Lunch Friday at 12-1pm.

Looking forward to seeing you here at ACC.

Cheers Leanne