Kathy with her brother Geoff and their parents.

Our latest Covid story comes from Kathy who many of you may know from Jika Jika Community Centre in Westgarth. Her story isn’t about having Covid as such, but about the grief of losing both her parents during lockdown … and how much harder the global pandemic made things.

In her interview she mentioned her mum’s singing, and we tried to ring her at Jika to see if she could send the recording through … but unfortunately Kathy has now caught Covid and is at home resting up. Covid really is everywhere at the moment isn’t it?

Best wishes for a speedy recover Kathy. We hope you are feeling better quickly. And thanks so much for sharing your story.

Listen on Apple Podcasts here.

Listen on Spotify here.

Or listen via our website here.

A picture of baby Kathy with her mum and dad.

This weekend Manu will be sharing her skills in the kitchen in a hands on workshop called Indian breads 101.

We think we are very lucky to have people like Manu in our community who are willing to share their skills and also very lucky to have the wonderful Melbourne Farmers Market just down the road - who are so generous in sharing their facilities and have such a strong commitment to the community. Their kitchen is an amazing space and will be the perfect location to learn how to make four types of Indian breads - roti, layered paratha, stuffed paratha and poori.

This sold out workshop runs this Saturday 14th May from 11am-1pm in the community kitchen at the Melbourne Farmers Market, located just a hop, skip and a jump from us at 2 Wingrove Street, Alphington.

If you missed out on being part of this workshop and are keen, I am sure Manu will run similar workshops in the future. Keep an eye on our second semester brochure ... And if you want to find out more about our local farmers market which runs every Sunday morning you can click here. Thanks once again Miranda and co. for your support. It is really appreciated.

This week is Neighbourhood House Week, a great week to stop and reflect on all the fabulous things we do, and remember why we do them!

At ACC we hope to contribute to creating and supporting a strong and connected community … and along the way we want to:

• Enable individuals to live well, and lead healthy, active, creative and sustainable lives

• Nurture community connections, and

• Action a fairer society for all.

Our program of events and activities all contribute to achieving this overarching goal (our vision) and these objectives.

For example, our Arty Gardening program encourages participants to live more sustainably, be creative and get outdoors and do some physical activity through gardening. It ticks lots of boxes!

Our Ukulele Group enables people to live well by learning new skills and doing something they love, encourages creativity through music and enables participants to make friends with fellow musicians.

Our food collection for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is all about playing a part in actioning a fairer society for all.

And we run our weekly morning teas to nurture community connections between locals. We also sell the Friends of Baucau coffee to nurture community connections - at the organisational level - connecting ACC with the Friends of Baucau. And … by selling the coffee via Juliet at the milkbar we are also creating a meaningful three-way partnership/community connection and supporting her small and valued local business along the way. Wins all round right!

This week to celebrate neighbourhood house week we thought you might like to join us for morning tea on Friday. If you are around please come along from 11.30am for a cuppa, some cake and a chat. We’d love to see you!

Hi Leanne here.

In our podcast this week we talk to local Trish about her Covid experience. When she got sick at New Year’s there were hardly any RATS around (remember?) and the whole family had to sit in one car 🚘 with their windows up while waiting 4 hours for a PCR … times have changed so much already - and so I think it’s just super to document these things before we forget.

Also Trish got eczema for the first time ever … and Mark didn’t get sick at all … and Rosie actually got sick for the second time poor sausage - she’d already had Covid once back in June 2020 …

It’s so interesting to understand how others have experienced this pandemic and their thoughts and feels along the way.

I am so excited we got the chance to make this podcast series and am just loving this opportunity to document experiences in our neighbourhood with Tony who is hosting the series - he’s such a great interviewer! So I hope you are enjoying listening along!

And if you ARE - please don’t hesitate to provide a rating or review on your favourite podcast service … we’d really appreciate the support because it is LOTS of work to put together. And … tell your friends how ace it is too! Thanks 😊

Listen on Apple Podcasts here.

Listen on Spotify here.

Or listen via our website here.

What a great workshop. We had 8 adults and 2 children join in our Saturday morning workshop and everyone left with new skills and knowledge … and a gorgeous worm tower ready to put into their home garden.

Thanks Clare for sharing your skills. Thanks everyone involved in the Garden State Festival -we were delighted to be part of it. And thanks neighbourhood friends for coming along!