We love supporting local artists and also love creating opportunities for new people from the neighbourhood to engage with our centre. So thanks once again to everyone who came along to the Winter Arts Exhibition this year.

And a special thank you to the artists that volunteered their time to promote the event, hang the work and manage the space over the weekend.

Here are some photos from the open night.

Thanks to everyone who came along to our first series of repair workshops. They were super!

We’ve got another series in Term 4 … we’re just confirming the dates now and will let you know when they are up for booking in.

Thanks Simone at Richmond Community Learning Centre for applying for the Sustainability Victoria grant that is subsidising these workshops and thanks for sharing the delivery hours with us … and other Yarra Neighbourhood Houses.

Speaking of which, this week Yarra Council will be endorsing the new Yarra Neighbourhood House Partnership Strategy. Hooray! It is just great as a tiny grassroots organisation to have such a strong strategic partnership with local government. With regular funding built in.

And of course it is wonderful to have such lovely supportive colleagues across the houses.

We’re off to see Barbie with Movie Club on Tuesday 8 August. Tickets are $12 on cheap Tuesday … The movie starts at 12.50pm at Westgarth Cinema and we’ll be catching the 12.27pm train from Alphington if PT is your thing …

Personally I am really looking forward to it - I have heard lots of good feedback. And it’s always fun to keep up with the latest things right?

If you are thinking of coming along to Movie Club for the first time please let us know so we can look out for you. Email info@alphington.org.au or call 94997227.

Here’s the link to buy online tickets if you are super organised. Or you can just buy them when we arrive … it’s not usually packed out!

See you there. Leanne

Coming up on Tuesday 9 August. Keen to see movies? We go to Westgarth cinema early afternoon on the second Tuesday of the month - it’s a cheap movie day with tickets for $12.

Let us know if you are interested to join in and we’ll add you to the What’s App group so you can find out what we plan to see (and the exact timing). You can call or email!

This week we replaced one of our compost bins - to keep our compost hub chugging along.

We bought a new Aerobin from Bunnings - but accidentally only picked up part 1 of 2 packages required for the bin when we dropped in before the holidays. Corrado realised parts were missing as he started putting it together … luckily the LOVELY Bunnings folk saved the day … two staff came by to drop the extra box to us within an hour of our call - how nice!

We love our little compost hub that enables neighbours to drop off scraps throughout the week. Along with our own kitchen scraps and the green garden waste from our raised beds, every few months we fill a bin.

Clare turns them on Friday for a few minutes. We keep a bag of straw/organic matter next to the bins and ask all contributors to add a handful as they go (so we’re balancing the ‘brown’ carbon and the ‘green’ nitrogen). Once the bin is full and well mixed we leave it for a month (and start filling the other bin).

And then … in the blink of an eye it seems, we have such great compost! It’s amazing how quickly it all happens with the right processes in place.

If you’d like to learn more about composting at home you can come along on Fridays and chat to Clare. She’s a wealth of knowledge. And if you live nearby and don’t have access to a compost bin you are welcome to contribute to ours!