When our office used to be in what we now call room 2, we had an office window that we could use for customer service. In recent years it has just been a locked sliding window between room 1 and 2.

But this week local carpenter Matthias (who built our outdoor kitchen last year) moved it for us into the foyer, so we now have a reception window. And he put some safety glass into the empty frame between room 1 and 2.

This simple swap has taken more paperwork and planning time than you can possibly imagine. So we’re feeling quite excited.

And I should say a big thanks to Kalimna for persisting. She has the patience (and kindness) of a saint.

Just needs a paint now!

Make your own adventure in Darebin Parklands!

Lee has made a beautiful black and white map of the Parklands with all the walking trails and main features on it …and on the back of the map there is a place to write 12 things.

Take your kids on a trek through the wilds of our amazing collective backyard and make your own Parklands trail. Mark all the nesting boxes, find all the old fruit trees, highlight your favourite places to play - make some notes and share the adventure with another local family …

Or perhaps you could write a 12 part story … Or devise a treasure hunt … With a little creative thinking the world is your oyster!

Collect your copy from the bin outside our front door, grab a pen, some textas or pencils from home, and head off on your next family walk to make your own adventure in our lovely neighbourhood.

Thanks to everyone who has taken a block home to decorate. Thanks to those who have dropped them back already.

They are looking pretty lovely. It is super to see houses and people, and pets all included. Along with fabulous community messages. We’re looking forward to seeing all the other ones that come in. And getting the ‘set’ out for play.

Kalimna took some pretty cute photos of the cubby being used for the very first time by children from Japanese playgroup a couple of weeks ago just before lockdown.

And it has been well used ever since.

As you would expect, we’re asking everyone not to use our playground for the next two weeks whilst we all work collectively to get COVID 6.0 under control.

Then we look forward to seeing YOU in person and IT back in action!

Thanks Yarra City Arts for financially supporting and helping promote the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery. Here’s a link to their latest enews post about Gabe Freeman, the artist currently on our fence.

Also … you might like to sign up to receive their news in your inbox … to keep up to date with what’s going on and coming up. Yarra City Arts do a fabulous job supporting a wide variety of artists, arts projects and events, and art spaces across Yarra each year.