Keen to get to know others in the neighbourhood? Join us for community gardening or community craft each Friday morning from 10am … and then share morning tea out on the corner from 11.30am. You’re welcome to come along for any part of this low key community-building morning.

We’ll be starting a new yarn bombing project with community craft participants inside - all skills (and no skills) gratefully received - at the very least everyone’s always keen for a chat! And the garden needs some love after our month of holidays if you’d like to be active outside for an hour or so.

We hope to see you here in 2021!

Hi, Leanne here.

In the midst of wicked global problems I think sometimes it is a bit hard to see the bite-sized chunks that we can digest and act on as individuals. And … even if they are presented to us on a plate, as it were … it is sometimes also hard to see how our individual actions and choices do anything meaningful, or have any real value in a global sense.

On the other hand, I feel that my/our pandemic experience disproves this thought.

When I look around at the Melbourne community and the very different life we are living to people in the UK or USA, just for example, I feel like my actions (to stay home and wear a mask and not whinge too much) have contributed to protecting my loved ones and to broader community safety. And this makes me feel good.

And I feel that our individual actions collectively enabled us as a community to actually see the benefits of putting public health first. Which enabled our State Government to more easily maintain the determination to keep public health front and centre, creating (unquestionably I think) a better reality for us than many other people internationally at this moment in time.

In addition, I can see that Victoria’s approach has influenced how other states across Australia are now tackling the virus when it gets into the community.

My/our action has created both a better place right here in the immediate for us, and also provided an alternative model that has influenced and can continue to inform others, nationally and hopefully even globally.

And this, friends, is my intro spiel to thinking about (or perhaps rethinking) the value of taking personal action on the other wicked problem in our lives, climate change.

Because little everyday actions at the individual level can make a significant difference, driving and bolstering political will, leading to real change at the big picture level. And they can also just make you feel good that you are doing your best and playing your part to look after those you most love.

In this context you might be interested in this latest offering from Yarra Council, a panel discussion they have put together called, ‘choosing a plant-based diet: taking climate action through the food we eat’.

Yarra Council invites you to join Shannon Martinez, Head Chef and Owner of Melbourne's best vegan restaurant, Smith and Daughters and Jess Panegyres, former Campaign Manager, Forests at The Wilderness Society in a discussion about why we need to change the way we eat if we are to tackle the climate emergency.

It sounds interesting right?

Choosing a plant-based diet: tacking climate action through the food we eat
Thursday 11 March, 7pm - 8.15pm
Online event

BOOK NOW

Shannon Martinez, Smith and Daughters

Hi friends, remember … this year if you’ve come home from holidays and your parsley, coriander or silverbeet has bolted you can feel happy instead of sad … and take the opportunity to save the seeds for our new Street Seed Library.

The library was installed by Darebin Council around November, and is all about encouraging sustainable food options, connecting up us locals with backyard veggie patches (we’ve all pretty much got one of some description right?) and building community connections through sharing and caring.

Not sure how to save seeds? Just jump on the interwebs (google, YouTube etc.) to find out exactly how and when to harvest and package your seeds, and then … when you are next passing by, you can leave them in our Street Seed Library for someone else to collect. And at the same time you can see if anyone has left seeds that could be your next crop. Neighbourhood loveliness … neighbourhoodliness!

Our new brochure is out. We’ve created a trimmed down version for semester 1 2021. You can read it here. It is jam packed with old favourites like playgroups and choir and new ideas including a range of short courses, workshops and events you can book in to.

• Women in the Shed is back on Monday (for beginners), Tuesday and Thursday for 6 weeks in Term 1 and 2.

• Our free Access All Abilities Bowls program run with Alphington Bowls Club is back for 6 weeks in term 1 and 2.

• Our new Drawing in the Shed short course will also run for 6 weeks in Term 1 and 2. Run by local artist Louisa, this is a low-cost opportunity for all members of the community to develop the observation and co-ordination skills necessary to make creative drawings in any style. It will cover contour drawing, creating creative compositions, drawing with perspective and more.

• In 2019 we had Gordon come along and run a sewing machine maintenance workshop. It was a fantastic morning and so we’ve rebooked him this year. On Saturday 1 May he will run a sewing machine maintenance workshop and then on Saturday 17 June he will run an overlocker maintenance workshop.

• Local Manu is keen to share her Indian cooking skills with us … starting with a chai tea making workshop (Sunday 9 May). $20. Book here.

• Our History Walk is back! Join local Anne and other history buffs for a stroll around South Alphington on Sunday 16 May from 2pm.

• And finally … Home maintenance 101. It’s a maintenance kind of year it seems … and on the weekend of 19 & 20 June we’re offering a two day workshop (only $50 with Learn Local funding) all about building home maintenance skills. How to unblock a drain, how to stop a cistern running, how to fix a hose leak, how to hang pictures and fix cracks in plaster. How to fix windows that stick … (depending how old your house is the list goes on and on right?).

Book in online today.

Local Manu is keen to share her skills and knowledge and we imagine that there are quite a few people in our community who would be very interested in learning how to make chai tea from scratch.

In this workshop Manu will introduce participants to all the spices and demonstrate a basic brew. She’ll then explain how you can vary the flavour, and participants will work in small groups to make some variations on the basic recipe.

Then everyone will be able to taste the different teas and find their favourite!

You’ll come away with a recipe, an understanding of possible variations and a starter kit so you can make your own chai tea at home.

The workshop costs $20 and will run on Sunday 9 May from 2pm.

Interested? You can book in here.