Our Semester 2 schedule for the Embracing Life and Death Discussion Series is here! Join us over afternoon tea on the last Thursday of each month at the Alphington Community Centre as End-of-Life Doulas facilitate conversations focussing on a different theme each month  — in a space that's warm, welcoming, and open to wherever the conversation takes us.

27 August: Voluntary Assisted Dying: Dignity and Choice

24 September: Funerals and body disposal: Options  and new approaches

29 October: Bereavement: Living with grief and loss

26 November: Dementia: Your voice, your wishes, your future

📅 Last Thursday of each month
🕡 1:00 - 2:30 pm
📍 Alphington Community Centre, 2 Kelvin Rd Alphington 3078

🎟 Free, but registration is essential via e-mail to eoldoulasinmelb@gmail.com

Hi everyone,

We are running the first sessions of some of our new programs this week, including Heart-Centred Breathwork with John from the Men’s Breakfast on Tuesday morning at 7.30am - should be a lovely way to start the day! … and Cook by the Book on Thursday morning from 11.30am-1pm. Feeling super excited about these programs and seeing both fresh and familiar faces … if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to book in online here at our website!

On Thursday from 12.30pm-2pm we will also have our first session of CRUNCH for the term, and at 1pm-3pm we will have our monthly session of Embracing Life and Death.

Our novel writing workshop The Momentum to Write has been pushed back a week, so it will now be starting on the evening of Monday 10th of August - giving you an extra week to book in.

Looking ahead, we have an event with Dementia Australia coming up in August (read on for more…) and some events for Senior’s Month happening in October (info coming soon…). And we are getting ready for our Winter Arts Salon weekend running from the 14th to the 16th of August. Save the date! And encourage your arty friends to join in.

So we are busy, busy, busy - in a good way!

Cheers Leanne

Our preserves pantry is now overflowing … with the addition of preserved lemons, tomato relish and sweet pickled zucchini (always yum).

Thanks to those that donated fruit, and those that came along to preserves group on Tuesday to help chop, stir, chat (perhaps the most important bit!) and package.

Pop past and buy a jar next time your a nearby. The tomato relish recipe we use was a prize winner🥇in the Alphington Show this year. It’s good. With mustard and curry powder undertones … and thickened with cornflour that doesn’t contain gluten.

And if you are not sure what to do with preserved lemons here’s a SUPER easy and delicious recipe from Claudia Roden … you just chop some stuff up, and chuck it in a pot to do its magic (just make sure you are generous with the salt and pepper - the key to good middle eastern recipes I think).

Moroccan Lemon Chicken

• 1 large chicken ( or you can use 4-6 chicken thighs)

• 2 tablespoons oil

• 1 onion grated, or finely chopped

• 1 teaspoon tumeric

• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• salt and pepper

• a good bunch of coriander leaves finely chopped (if you don’t like coriander you can just add more parsley instead)

• a good lunch of parsley leaves finely chopped

• 1-2 preserved lemon wedges (lightly wash off some of the salt and the flesh, then finely chop up the preserved rind)

Put the chicken in a large saucepan with all the ingredients except the preserves lemon. Half cover the chicken with water and simmer gently, tuning it over a few times until it is so tender that the flesh can pull off the bone (about 1.5 hours). Throw the lemons into the sauce and cook a few minutes longer (you can add more or less lemon - to taste).

Serve with rice or couscous etc. etc.

Hi all it has been lovely to be back at work and see lots of people this week. We’ve been getting very organised - programs, admin, supplies, ideas … all the things! And thank you so much to Akimbo Bakery for their awesome donation of bread dropped off this week.

We’ve got one more week until all our short courses and such things kick off. So please enrol. Here’s some things to think about …

• Cardboard Playgroup - Thursdays 10.30am-12pm. Lee is in the process of making some cute things from cardboard for our Thursday playgroup session. Each week she plans to add something new - at least for a while. Come along and check it out.

• We’ll be doing printmaking this term at CRUNCH … how fun! All welcome. Join us on Thursdays for lunch at 12.30pm before we head out to the Community Shed for some creative fun. Only $75 for 6 weeks, including lunch - what a bargain! Book in online here.

• Cook by the Book - this term we are going to explore Charmaine Soloman’s Complete Asian Cookbook. It is a favourite of mine and has great recipes, many of which were written back when ‘all the things’ were not readily available in Australian supermarkets - so the recipes are delicious but are often made with a handful of staple ingredients and include ideas for how to swap things out if you can’t find them easily. Her recipes are sorted by country - so we’ll explore a different one each week. It is going to be super! And delicious. YUM. Book in online here.

• The Momentum to Write - have you got a story brewing in the back of your mind? This a great opportunity to begin the writing process, or if you have already started something, to get a bit of a boost. Fran is lovely and very talented. Book in online here.

Also of note … we’ve got Preserves Group coming up this week on Tuesday at 1pm … and with a donation of lemons from Wendy’s tree (thanks so much Wendy) we’ll definitely be making some preserved lemon. If you have any produce you could send our way please let us know … we love thinking that our preserves come straight from neighbourhood gardens! If you’d like to join in Preserves Group please come along!

Also … we’ve opened up the artist registration form for the Alphington Winter Art Salon at this link here. If you are an artist please enter some works! It’s a fun and friendly event open for anyone, and it showcases 2D and 3D artworks.

And we’re asking for donations of tiles for a new mosaic project (read the post below for the details of what we are after).

Hope you have a great week. See you soon I hope.

Cheers Leanne

Do you know someone who needs a meal, morning tea, groceries and/or is interested in building social connections through food?

Check out the Darebin food map … it includes our Community Lunch on Fridays at 12pm … along with lots of other free community lunches, morning teas and pantry services that are offered across the municipality.

Thanks Annie (from Your Community Health) for sending this through! It is always lovely for us to connect our hyper-local programs into the bigger picture of services delivered across the inner north of Melbourne.