This week is National Recycling Week and we’ve been celebrating recycling in our programs. We kicked off with Visible Mending Club on the weekend and sent along some fabulous potential mending supplies for the group that Anne had kindly donated (patches and lace and all sorts of interesting things) … then offered a range of fun recycled craft activities for playgroups … and will finish the week mixing up recycling with gardening … making recycled seed packets for seeds we’ve saved from the garden and also potting up some of the lettuce seedlings we’ve been growing - again in recycled pots and tins.

And we made this great sign as well! Just for fun. Using a whole range of donated/recycled things we had hanging around … so Happy National Recycling Week.

On Friday afternoons Clare runs a AAA Arts program here at ACC that is supported by two lovely volunteers - Corrado and Hazel. With so many hands on deck the program can be tailored to follow participants different interests - which is just fabulous. Lately they have been exploring ideas around paint manipulation, printmaking and collage.

The program itself is underpinned by a grant from our lovely and amazing banking friends, Clifton HIll and North Fitzroy Community Bank on Queens Parade.

Did you know we have a compost hub at ACC? It is not huge - just two bins - but they are available for our community to contribute to (if you don’t have your own system at home etc.).

Clare manages them on a Friday … and with a little love (and weekly turning) they are amazingly productive.

We have a collection of neighbours and friends who contribute their kitchen scraps regularly which is just lovely … and we use the compost generated to keep our community garden beds healthy … so we can grow food to share! Like our little seeds that have just been planted and will hopefully pop through the soil any day now.

We hosted another great workshop with Gordon Carr on the weekend.

Our Sewing Machine Maintenance workshop was fully booked and our largest room was filled with sewing machines and their owners - wanting to learn how to avoid costly repairs and how best to maintain their own machines.

Gordon’s long history in this field of work makes him a gem of a teacher.

He has props that explain all the parts of a machine - like the clear-cased sewing machine pictured above! He is very honest about the common things that users often do wrong and he shares simple tips that can help you avoid making the same mistakes with your own machine.

There is a second workshop coming up - this time for overlockers - on Saturday 10th of September from 10am-12:30pm here at the Alphington Community Centre. The cost is $45 and there are still a few spots left if you are interested. You can book in here.

If you are a local with young children you might like to come along and join the other families who hang out in our front garden on Wednesday mornings. Come hail or shine, Playtime in the Garden is running in the front yard near the cubby and under the pergola. Pop in anytime from 10am-12pm and catch up with other families in a Covid-safe way.

Please note this is an outside program - but our toilets and kitchen are of course available if you need them.

And … if you’d like to borrow some toys to take home for the week you can join our Toy Library which is open inside. You can borrow up to 4 toys at a time. So handy! And neighbourhoodly …