We’re hoping to have ‘Blind date with a Book’ back out on the street today (Friday).

On Station Street the lovely folks at Three Locals have volunteered to house the stand for us, so it will be out the front of their cafe once a week.

And … Lee has also made a second stand for ACC.

We’ve been super keen to get ‘Blind date with a Book’ back up and running as it only had one week of glory before we went into lockdown … and there was lots of public interest in it.

This project has come about through a grant from Darebin Council and is a partnership with Darebin Libraries. The broader goal is to help activate our streets and public places and make them feel neighbourhoodly and friendly, arty and interesting. If you are out and about, keep an eye out!

This week our neighbourhood roses post comes from Win’s garden. She hijacked the process and sent us an email with some photos of her stunning roses. I’m overlooking this breach of protocol because they really are beautiful aren’t they? Those dusky pink ones in particular are soooo spectacular.

I imagine that Win’s home not only looks wonderful but also smells heavenly with all these blooms on her table.

Thanks Win for sharing the results of all the love you put into your garden (and friends note that if you picked up a packet of silverbeet seeds from our seed library recently you can also thank Win for those).

The single bloom is “Fiona’s wish”. Named in honour of Fiona Coote and her tireless efforts to support the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

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.

Sunday’s Honestly letter to the neighbourhood is from a poet. Pop past the local shops and collect yours.

I think the white one is my favourite this week … but then again the yellow one has so many petals … and the red one is such a great colour … tricky.