This week Meredith from Alphington CWA made her own hot cross buns. And not just any old hot cross buns, but Fig, Cardamon and Orange Hot Cross Buns.

They look superbly homemade and delicious don’t they?

Here’s the recipe if you are keen to have a crack yourself. Happy Easter!

We love board games and card games in our family. Every school holidays we go away to the beach or the farm and spend endless hours playing games. In the last couple of weeks we’ve been cracking out our holiday games at home, on an increasingly regular basis.

We’ve accumulated some great new ones in the last year or two - like Catan, Splendor and Sets. You should check them out if you like games! And we’ve got lots of oldies that are well worn and much loved too (like Cluedo, Rummikub, Upwords … and Mastermind).

On Thursday we paused mid-morning (me work, the kids breakfast - they’ll be in for a rude shock next week when school starts online and they have to check in before 11am) for a couple of games of Mastermind. And I thought just for fun I’d share them with you. So we can feel like we’re interacting and all!

If you haven’t played before, the aim is to guess the hidden pattern. And all you get are key peg clues (they’re on the left).

The white key pegs mean you have one pattern peg in your pattern that is a colour of a peg in the hidden pattern, but it’s not in the right spot. The black key peg means you have one pattern peg in your pattern where the colour matches and it’s in the correct spot in the hidden pattern.

Here we go. The first one I played with India.

Game 1. Can you guess the pattern? All the clues are there.

The second game I played with Scarlett.

Game 2. Scarlett’s game went a bit longer …

You can email me your answers here and I’ll let you know if you were right.

As many of you would know, local artist Louisa Bufardeci has been running a monthly excursion from ACC to visit contemporary art exhibitions around Melbourne for the last year or so (which has been just wonderful).

This week she has put together a curated list for us all - to help us explore some contemporary art that is out there in the online universe. Thanks so much Louisa!

And, if anyone else would like to share their expertise or passion and send through their own list, that would be fantastic. Just email us.

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1. 2020 Biennale of Sydney - Nirin curated by artist Brook Andrew is now online

2. Centre for Contemporary Photography - Moving Image series: 7-29 April 2020, Tracey Moffatt: Art Calls

3. National Gallery of Victoria - Virtual tour of Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines

4. Learning to Love You More - this online project from 2002-2009 by American artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher invited anyone to submit an assignment for other people to do. There are hours to lose in this project either reading through the zany assignments and their responses, or doing some of the assignments yourself! 

5. Google Arts and Culture - having recently read Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism I can’t help thinking anything associated with Google needs to be faced with caution, however in these times I am so grateful for Google Arts and Culture. This website offers a selection of work from museums, galleries and art institutions from all over the world. With their trademark high resolution cameras Google have captured detail that’s difficult to see with one’s own humble human eye.  

   Here are some good starting points:

   • The extraordinary work of Grayson Perry.

   • The Museo Dolores Olmedo which houses many works by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

   • Artmossphere - documentation from a street art festival in Moscow in 2014.

   • Eight Views and Nine-Bend Streams of Gyeonggi: Mountains, Rivers and People - a beautiful exhibition of drawings and paintings from China that merges time.

2020 Biennale of Sydney presents NIRIN, a series of digital activations and experiences that draw on seven themes.

Hi it’s Leanne here.

I am just putting it out there that I have an aversion to baking that relates wholly to the AMOUNT OF MESS generated. Despite this, with three tween/teenagers at home I am motivating them to get off their devices by cooking nice things (along with dinner once a week - what an excellent idea if I do say so myself).

So, this weekend we did a menu plan for the week (which also makes my pre-corona being shudder - I’m generally NOT keen on a plan … but let me not get off track) and we added in a number of baked items. I have to say for all my whinging here, I was QUITE looking forward to Scarlett attempting chocolate soufflé … and that’s how I found out that FLOUR is the new TOILET PAPER.

My kids were going to be heartbroken - but luckily I saved the day by buying some Coles butter cake sachets - the cheapest thing I could find in the cake mix section. Only 75 cents each. And so at my prodding Jemima improvised making banana bread and instead made banana butter cake - which actually, if she’d cooked it in a loaf tin, would very much pass for banana bread. In fact I’d have to say it really is banana bread.

If you are interested in the adaptation, we followed the directions on the packet but reduced the milk to half a cup (meant to be 2/3) and added in 2 mashed bananas. We were going to add cinnamon as well, but I think I left my cinnamon at work (I am always misplacing my spices to aid Community Lunch efforts). Some walnuts would be a good addition too I reckon.

Anyway, my point is don’t despair without flour! Where there’s a will there’s a way. And in this instance it’s called Coles butter cake mix.

A lot has changed in the last few weeks and we are all feeling anxious and worried.

But, if you are feeling like it is all a bit much for you to handle on your own, Anne, who is a regular Counsellor at ACC (and one of our keen gardeners - you’ve probably seen her pottering around on a Friday morning if you’ve been past) has contacted us to say that she is adept at Skype counselling - and can assist you in learning skills to manage anxiety or other overwhelming feelings that might arise in these unusual times.

Her number is 0409 237 545. She is Medicare accredited and has a sliding fee scale. She has also offered to help out people who can no long afford to pay.

We know we have already posted this once, but it was sort of hidden away at the end of a long post and so we thought it might be worth highlighting this service again.

Thanks Anne!