Preston Garden Club is holding a Garden Gala at Darebin North West Uniting Church Hall - 330a Murray Road, Preston, on Saturday 22 April from 11am - 3pm.

There will be plants, preserves, Drewitt’s bulbs, bonsai and herbs and garden tools for sale, along with a sausage sizzle, CWA devonshire tea, garden talks and demonstrations, a raffle and more … Sounds super hey!

If you came along to the Alphington Open Studios in December last year you would have seen some beautiful timber chopping boards in the gallery.

Lovely local artist Jane Hausseger has offered to share her skills and knowledge about working with timber in our upcoming Recycled Timber Design Workshop running on 6 May from 10am-12pm, here at ACC in the Community Shed.

Jane will teach you how to make coffee paddles - small chopping boards - that can be used to serve food or coffee and would make lovely handmade gifts. In the workshop you will learn about selecting recycled timber, cutting, sanding and dressing the timber with products that are suitable for food use.

It is a great introduction to recycling timber and you will walk away with a lovely product at the end. You can book in here.

Coming up in May, we have another really interesting workshop called Pillow Talk, led by local artist Annie Bolitho running here at ACC. This workshop has a strong sustainability theme and is supported with a sustainability grant from the City of Yarra.

Annie is creatively working to find a second life for the cotton fabric that covers pillows.

So … if you have:

• pillows that have reached the end of their usable life, and/or

• an interest in learning how to go about eco-dyeing and/or

• an interest in reducing landfill

this workshop is for you!

Join Annie here on at ACC in the Community Shed on Saturday 13 May from 2-4pm. With supportive funding from City of Yarra this workshop costs only $20 and is suitable for tweens, teenagers and adults (it would be a good one to do as a family). Have fun dipping, bashing, rolling and steaming colours. And learn how the pillow production and waste stream works. Book in here.

Thanks so much to the 29 participants in the 2023 Alphington Dog Show.

Another packed out event that ran as part of the overall Alphington Show.

Lots of cute dogs. Lots of winners. Thanks to Jill for once again being a super MC and to our judges … and to E and A Salce up on High Street in Thornbury for our lovely prizes.

Here are some photos (thanks Kalimna for your amazing photography skills).

What a great weekend we had for the 2023 Alphington Show!

Entries for the show arrived on Friday. We had over 100 entries from people of all ages - it was lovely to see so many people keen to share and showcase their skills and talents.

Michelle and Anne from Alphington CWA were there to oversee the judging on Friday night from 5.30pm, and they brought in the experts, Nola from the broader CWA family (and an expert show judge) along with Bill and Wayne from the Preston Garden Club. We thank them all for their time and enthusiasm for our local event. And we thank everyone who entered. So much talent in our community!

On Saturday we held our annual makers market with 22 stallholders lining the street, whilst inside Devonshire tea was served by the Alphington CWA - and thoroughly enjoyed in the front garden with perfect autumn weather.

Our Show also included face painting and nature crowns, a raffle, a BBQ … and even a leaf pit for nature play!

Thanks to Nelson Alexander, Bunnings, Alphington CWA and Friends of Baucau for our raffle prizes!

Our raffle prize winners were very happy!

And pony rides. And a guess the lollies in the lolly jar (there were 207!).

Another happy winner!

Once again this year a raft of volunteers helped out to make the day a success. Thanks so much to you all! Including (but not limited to) Elaine, Anne and Serene for managing the craft and eftpos machine, Cheryl who again ran nature craft, Corrado, Jo, Ina, Heather and Anne who wrangled the BBQ and Marie-Louise, Lola and Jackson our dog show judges.

Thanks to Kalimna for organising so much of the overall logistics and once again taking amazing photos. And to Lee, Clare and Jill who worked to make the event a success.