What a glorious day hey? While you’re out enjoying the sunshine why not pop past the milkbar … There’s a new letter up (Sunday).

Today we are introducing a new jam. It’s not strawberry OR raspberry OR blackberry OR boysenberry. It’s perhaps a jam you’ve never heard of before … craftberry jam.

This is a jam that will appeal to the creatives in our community - both young and old(er).

Its a bit zingy, full of homemade goodness and its lots of fun!

We’ve jam packed some nice big jars with crafty activities, and on Thursday from around 10am you can pop past and pick one up from the basket on the workbench out the front of the Community Shed.

Flavours this week include:

• Windchime spare key craftberry jam (for school to adult crafters)

• Collage starter pack craftberry jam (for primary school to adult crafters), and

• Make a card (or 2) for someone u love craftberry jam (suitable for pre-schoolers).

Because we love change, our flavours will vary regularly, but we’ll let you know in advance what’s coming up next … and when you can collect them.

Please note: we’d love our jars back once you’ve made your crafty project. You can leave them in the returns rubbish bin near the street library.

AND … if anyone has some label free jars with nice wide necks we’d be keen to help you recycle them. You can leave them in the returns bin too if we’re not at home.

We hope you enjoy our latest community art project. Feel free to share your finished creations on Instagram using the hashtag #craftberryjam. Or send us a pic and we’ll post it for you!

Windchime spare key craftberry jam prototype.

Local Kevin wrote to us recently with some nice words (always lovely to receive) and also a post suggestion.

I think it could be something to inspire our craft group … ?

Specifically he pointed us in the direction of Anne Eunson from Scotland, who made a fence from knitted Shetland lace. It really is pretty gorgeous. And check out her needles! Made from curtain rods. She says she knitted with fishing net twine and that the fence only took her about 3 weeks to complete.

I imagine the fence will last a few years … fishing net twine should be pretty robust right?

Also, when I did an internet search I found that you can actually purchase the pattern here from ravelry.

Fun. Can we look forward to knitted neighbourhood fences? Please let us know if you give it a crack.

And thanks for the post idea Kevin!

This week I was a little sad to see that the last inspirational graffiti we posted has been painted over (PTV is just too efficient - it was at the tunnel under the train line). But then I walked by this on Clarke Street and felt okay again.

Have you seen any other good words out there in your neighbourhood travels?

I’m guessing that many of us are extremely familiar with our local streetscapes by now, with neighbourhood walks becoming a familiar part of our daily routine. We loved the rainbow pictures and teddy bears of Lockdown No.1 and now Lockdown No.2 is offering a treasure-trove of front garden creativity waiting to be discovered. The lure of these whimsical treats are proving to be an effective incentive for getting smallish children out of the house and walking or scooting for that all important daily burst of fresh air and exercise.

Here are a few of our recently discovered favourites…

Spoon family on Kellet Street, Northcote

---

Forest Fairies, Kennedy Street, Fairfield

---

Kindness on corner of Russell and Bank Streets, Northcote

---

St Andrew’s Church, Fairfield

---

Woodland Fairies, Mitchell Street, Northcote, near Hillside Avenue

We’d love to hear from you about your local neighbourhood treasures to add to the map!