We’ve got a new brochure out for Semester 2. Hooray! It is full of lots of fun things to do. Here’s a a quick taste.

Neighbourhood Dinner

We’ll be running a new event - a Neighbourhood Dinner. It is on Tuesday 8 August (pretty soon) at 6pm. It is a ‘pot luck’ type dinner and you are invited to bring a plate of food to share and come along to sit down and chat and meet your neighbours. And we’ll probably need your help tidy up at the end. It is open for all ages and it would be super if you could RSVP by booking in here. Just so we can at least take guess at how many will be coming!

Women in the Shed

We have two courses starting in Term 3. Our introduction course will run on Thursday morning at 10am-12pm. This course costs $105 and is subsidised by ACFE funding. Then on Thursday afternoon we are offering an intermediate course that is full fee paying. In this class participants who have completed the beginners course can work on their own projects, still with a tutor available for supervision and continued learning. You can book in to both here.

Winter Art Exhibition

It is on again on the 19-20 August! We’ll organise drinks on the opening Friday night. Email us if you are an artist keen to join in and we’ll send you the link to enter works when we are back on deck. If you want to buy a ticket to the opening you can do so here.

Repair Workshops

Supported by Sustainability Victoria, who are investing in building a repair culture in our community, we’re offering a series of 6 workshops over the coming semester to help build community skills to keep things out of landfill. Check them out and book in to the ones with dates here.

Artful Painting and Drawing

Clare is running a new painting and drawing class here on Monday afternoons. it should be super! You can book in directly with her here.

Meditation

Local Susanna has approached us about running meditation classes on Wednesday evenings. We’ll put out more information in the coming days, but it should be super. Get in contact with her if you’d like to find out more on 0407561586.

Over the last term we’ve had our CWA friends making our morning teas. It has been really and truly fabulous! Everyone is so enjoying home cooked nutritious lunches - lots of soup and toasties as the weather cools down, along with sausage rolls etc. On what is generally a fairly chaotic morning, it is wonderful (for me) to know that the food is taken care of.

And … the sweet treats! (so much BETTER than my efforts of opening a packet of biscuits!). We’ve had amazing cakes, brownies, cookies and slices … yum.

Our Friday community mornings are really blossoming at the minute, with a lovely group of women coming along GenU to do craft, people in the garden and in the shed … and a lot of cross-pollination and movement between activities.

Clare runs a lovely welcoming program and if you are around in the neighbourhood you are welcome to come along a join in. From 10am for activities. From 11.30am for morning tea (early lunch).

And thanks once again CWA Alphington.

If you are keen to find out more about the upcoming referendum, our local Federal MP Ged Kearney is running a series of ‘kitchen table’ meetings - which just means that she’s running informal and friendly conversational meetings.

She’ll be with us at ACC on Wednesday 12 July from 2pm. So come along for a chat for about an hour and then we’ll share some afternoon tea.

If you’d like to be part of this please RSVP here, or call the office on 9499 7227 and leave your name and number so we can get in touch if we need to.

As we approach the end of term 2 we’re all looking forward to a break so that we can return refreshed and ready to roll for the second half of the year.

So, firstly this is a reminder that we’ll finish up this Friday 23 June and take a two week break - then see you all on Monday 10 July bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for term 3.

In this last week we’ll be working on the program for next semester.

We’ve had lots of people come and talk to us about new ideas which is just fabulous! We’ve had discussions about health, wellbeing and fitness classes, maternal/child health support, art classes, community art projects and more. So we’ll spend the week following these ideas up and seeing which ones we can get going.

And we’re also talking with our local artists from Alphington Open Studios about the dates for this year, and talking with the Music from the Wetlands committee about how we can best help out for that fabulous event (how EXCITING - it will be on again in late November, always such a wonderful day!).

We’re also super thrilled that our colleagues over in Richmond got a grant from Sustainability Victoria all about building a ‘repair’ culture. And they have invited us to be part of their workshop series. So we might have a bike repair workshop here, maybe Gordon back for Sewing Machine and Overlocker maintenance/repairs, and a session on how to repair a lamp … Sounds great hey (I’d love to know how to use a kit to rewire my lovely old standard lamp safely … ). Richmond are just in the process of working out what happens at which site!

We also have two students from The Academy of Mary Immaculate here this week, which will be just lovely. I am sure they will be very helpful in getting organised for the end of term. And also a great resource to tap into for programming ideas. Look out for them and make them feel welcome!

And finally I have included a photo from last week of the green tomato relish that our lovely preserves group made. The tomatoes came from Kalimna’s mum and dad who have a big garden - she brought in so many tomatoes that our cooks needed two sessions to get through them all. With donated glass jars and fabric and donated ingredients, our preserves group activities are not just about being productive and helping us fundraise whilst chatting and making community connections, but also about low food miles and recycling! It’s super isn’t it!

Yarra Council is inviting residents to sign up to a food waste challenge. Here are the details.

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Reducing avoidable food waste at home can save you money and time! 

Join the free 12-week online food waste challenge to reduce avoidable food waste, and to go in the draw to win 1 of 10 swag starter packs to keep your refrigerated vegetables and fruit fresh for longer (Yarra residents only)***. 

 By signing up, you will receive fortnightly emails with our top tips for reducing food waste, and a challenge which is both achievable and fun.  

 Sign up to Yarra’s food waste challenge – Be food smart | Yarra City Council