Hi all, we have one more Men’s Breakfast coming up this Saturday at 8am. Here is a message from John who is running this activity.

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Dear Men,

First of all I'd like to say, I'm so happy to be back on my feet after a period of healing on my hip with two fractures from a fall I had at my home.

Men’s Breakfast last one of the year — A Morning of Reflection & Renewal.

As we come to the end of another big year, you’re invited to join us for our final men’s breakfast of 2025 — a chance to slow down, breathe out, and share good company around the table.

This is a morning to enjoy the simple gifts of the season: friendship, conversation, laughter, and mateship.

A space where every man is welcome, and no man eats alone.

Bring your stories, your hopes for the year ahead, or simply bring yourself. Just come as you are.

One more thing Men, I'm inviting you to bring something to exchange, no need to spend any money or expense. It could be as simple as a one line quote, a rock from your garden (small), a ribbon, something you are ready to pass on, a piece of music or song, a book, use your imagination, anything you think you'd be happy to pass on to another man.

8am, Saturday 6 December

2 Kelvin Road, Alphington

RSVP to John 0439 899 352 to reserve your place (and help with catering) by Friday 5th December.

Looking forward to seeing you.

John

With the combination of rain and sunshine the winter silverbeet and kale is growing out of control, going to seed and ready to rip out. But … before you do this, here’s a recipe to consider …

This week in Garden to Plate we made a FABULOUS! pasta dish - inspired by Jamie Oliver.

it is fabulous because it uses HEAPS of dark leafy greens!!! Reducing food waste from your garden and good for your health - a real win/win.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 packet of dried spaghetti or other pasta (500g)

• 8 cloves of garlic, peeled

• 600 grams of leafy greens, stems stripped out (eg. kale, silverbeet etc.)

• 90 grams of parmesan cheese

• 90 grams ricotta

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• salt and pepper

• water from the pasta

Instructions

• Boil a pot of water, add salt and cook the pasta

• With 10 minutes to go until the pasta is cooked, add the torn up leafy greens and peeled garlic cloves and cook until wilted.

• Add the olive oil to a blender, then use tongs to transfer the leafy greens and garlic to the blender as well, before whizzing until super-smooth. Add additional water from the pasta to thin out if needed. When silky smooth add the parmesan and whizz again … then add a good teaspoon of salt and lots of pepper to taste (and whizz again).

• Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Add the sauce back into the pot too and mix it thoroughly through the pasta.

• Serve this very green pasta with lovely white ricotta dotted on top.

Bon Appetit! It’s really good!

Garden to Plate runs on Mondays from 11.30am-1pm. We cook a couple of recipes together each week … and then sit down to share a meal - it’s lovely! Book in online.

Hi everyone,

It was nice to finish off last week with a Halloween-themed Community Lunch and our AAA Arts group also got into the spirit of things!

Just a reminder that we won’t be open this Monday and Tuesday due to the Cup Weekend public holiday. We hope you’re all enjoying the long weekend as much as we are!

We’ll be back to business as usual on Wednesday. On the radar this week we have:

• Line Dancing on Wednesday morning from 10am-12pm down at Alphington Scout Hall

• Armchair Theatre in the afternoon from 1-3pm (if you’re feeling a little exhausted by the morning’s exercise)

• Or, if you’re in need of a good stretch, Community Yoga will be on in the evening from 5.30-6.30pm

• Book Clubs are running three times this week, on both Wednesday and Thursday evening from 7.30-9pm, and Thursday morning as well from 10-11.30am.

• We have another great Crunch planned for you this Thursday, starting at 12.30pm

• And, of course, we can’t wait to see everyone at Community Lunch on Friday at 12pm, and hope you’ll come along in the morning for gardening outside or craft and chats inside.

Unfortunately, AAA Bowls won’t be running this week as the Alphington Bowls Club has another event on, but we’ll see you there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed next Wednesday!

See you soon!

Cheers Leanne

Alphington Open Studio Weekends are back! For the last two weekends of November, we will be one of a number of locations around Alphington showcasing some fantastic artists from our community.

We are very excited to feature works from Fiona Currie, Francesca McNamara, Sharon West and Jane Haussegger, and for the workshop Clare Mannion will be running on 29th and 30th of November!

We’ve just got in the new brochures for this event, so pop by soon to pick one up and find out all the details (including a handy map of where you can find all the artists). Come show your support!

Hi Leanne here. Once upon a time I used to work in policy in State Government, and was lucky to be involved in the drafting of new legislation and helping usher it through the processes to become an Act of Parliament. It was fascinating, I was truly intrigued by the Parliamentary Counsel (the people who wrote the legislation) because they had the most pedantic job choosing the exact right words … and they loved it so much! And it was just great to understand how the whole involved process works.

So … on Friday morning we awoke to the news that the Statewide Treaty legislation had passed in Victoria.

And as I don’t really know what Treaty for Victoria means exactly, and the newspaper articles didn’t really explain the full gamut of what it entailed, I turned to the parliamentary documents and Hansard (which holds the official documents) to have a read.

If you are also interested in understanding the legislation that has passed you too might like to read some of these things.

Firstly, we have Premier Jacinta Allen introducing the legislation and explaining the what’s and why’s in the second reading speech in the House of Assembly. Here is the link.

And here is the Explanatory Memorandum. This is very detailed and explains the intent/purpose of each clause of the Bill.

And finally here is the Statewide Treaty Bill 2025 that was passed.

And, if you are interested in finding out more about Treaty you could check out the Treaty Victoria website here. Happy reading.