As David Bowie says, there are lots of ‘ch-ch-ch-ch-changes’ going on at ACC at the minute. Are you getting sick of posts about all the busy things happening? Sorry! We’ve got loads of projects that have been building up this year and we’re now 110% on the job and getting them going. Particularly our outside ones …

As previously flagged, earlier this year we were the happy recipients of a Yarra Valley Water grant, and we have a plumber who will be spending 3 days on site in the first week of December upgrading taps and toilets and making us as water efficient as possible … along with installing a water tank with pump and hose for our community garden.

The tank will sit against the back wall of the community shed. In preparation we’ve had Lily and Matilda working hard to empty and move the metal garden beds - I am sure they will be feeling fit and strong after all that shovelling! And today (Thursday) we’ll have Mark on site to start preparations to pour the slab for the tank. The pour will happen tomorrow.

Exciting times. And then there has been progress on the outdoor kitchen of course. Installation started last Friday, and Kalimna did some hard-painting-yards over the weekend (it is being finished in painted marine ply to ensure it is robust to the elements and to match in colour-wise with the mural and shed). Yesterday all the framing was completed and now we are just awaiting the stone benchtop - which has been measured up and ordered. We’ve got our fingers crossed that this will happen by the end of next week … ready for our first morning tea on the corner!

Hooray.

Well … we have our COVIDsafe plan in place and with 10 days in a row of double doughnuts (as we all like to say now!) we are feeling good about reopening ACC.

Yesterday it was just lovely to have our Women in the Shed program back up and running. Six women came along raring to go.

We were also delighted to see Ross and Kristian again … who are part of our AAA Art group. We gave Ross his ‘winners’ mug from the Alphington Show … a reminder of just how long it has been since we’ve seen him.

The announcements on Sunday mean we will be welcoming more people back and opening up further next week.

In our tiny centre our biggest hurdle is of course space. With 4m2 per person rules we can only have 9 people at a time in our largest room and 5 people in our smaller room … which is obviously a bit tricky for our larger groups.

But we can all be accomodating, creative and flexible right? We’re thinking for example that an inside/outside mix for playgroups will probably work.

And there are other rules to consider as well. Groups like ukulele that involve singing are only able to get together in groups of 5 people. So we’re hoping they will be happy spread out around the centre …

The next dilemma of course is how to accommodate for example, the book club, that was meeting at the same time as ukulele … agh! There’s going to have to be a lot of juggling.

We’ll be contacting all the group leaders this week to chat about the how and when … expect a call or an email from us in the next couple of days. Or feel free to drop us a line of you’re super keen.

It’s going to be SOOO nice to see you regularly again friends!

On Monday Jen made a special trip from Leongatha to drop off the first of our two old (but new) metal tables.

I think I may have told this story before … but anyway … 2 years ago I found the frames in hard rubbish (thanks to the kind people in Rushall Street who put the pair out) and made my teenage daughter help me carry them to my front yard (as you can imagine she was thrilled?!). After a few months of complaints from my husband about them being at our house I wrangled them onto a trailer and brought them round to ACC … where they sat in the garden here for about a year. Do you remember? I am sure out gardeners do. They were always having to move them to get to the tap.

Before Christmas last year Jen took them home. And now … they’re back … well the first one is anyway. Transformed!

I am not sure my photo does the table justice, But it is really gorgeous. Mesh and various bits of metal welded together. Old sleepers for seats. It is just lovely. Thanks Jen!

Have you noticed our gardens are looking much tidier? Local gardener Lily has done a great job over the last couple of weeks to get everything back in order … even our back storage area has been swept and tidied. Thanks Lily!

On to other news … we had confirmation on Thursday that we can restart Women in the Shed. We’ll be very happy to welcome our enrolled participants back. The 2 classes will be starting up on 9 and 10 November. Hooray!

Please note this program is currently oversubscribed … however we do have a waiting list if you are keen to join in next year! You can email us here.

We’re also getting organised to run weekly morning teas out on the corner on Fridays at 11am.

These will commence on Friday 20 November. Put it in your diary - we’d love to see you! In the meantime we’re finalising a fancy outdoor kitchen under the community shed pergola. Kalimna has been working with Matt who is a local (and by chance a playgroup dad) to deliver this wonderful new resource.

And Jenny has been looking into catering trolleys and thinking about what we need, to bring all the things outside from inside … she’s also looking at safety processes around food in corona times …

Then … Jen has finished her fancy welded tables … and will be delivering them soon, increasing our artiness in the garden AND our capacity for outdoor meeting. Which is exactly what we need right?

All of a sudden it is all happening. So, see you next week at ACC. Yikes! We haven’t said that for a while.

Our Children’s Week edition of Craftberry Jam has proven very popular. The project kits were out last weekend and on Thursday … and will be out again this Sunday. If you are in the neighbourhood you should pop past and collect one! Make a rocket. Decorate and stuff your own alien doll … and more! Free crafty fun for everyone.

One of our happy customers (and her mum!) on Thursday morning.