It has been lovely to have people back at ACC … here’s some pictures from our preserve makers. So … put some medlar jelly, cucumber 🥒 pickles and tomato 🍅 relish on your must buy list this Christmas! Our makers market is coming up next Saturday 27th November. Pop past from 10am-1pm for a sausage sizzle kindly run by the Ivanhoe Rotary, some family friendly Christmas craft … and local shopping. We’ll have 25 stalls all run by people from the neighbourhood selling locally made things … how lovely (and a GREAT way for you to have a more sustainable Christmas by reducing your ‘shopping miles’ through locally made gifts). Hooray!

It was lovely to reconnect with everyone again on Wednesday. We had quite a few families out in our garden throughout the morning - playing in the sandpit, using the ride-ons and enjoying the craft activities Lee put out.

And lots of our long-standing friends popped in to see us too - either coming for a sausage or a coffee as part of our 12pm BBQ lunch … or popping past throughout the day for a chat. It was great to see people in the flesh!

Jill ran the lunch, and juggled the timing complexities of sausage cooking and coffee making with aplomb … and I was very happy to be the guinea pig for her latte’s, they were pretty good! We’re very pleased to be able to do some fundraising for Friends of Baucau via the fancy coffee as part of our regular program.

And now we're looking forward to next week! Note we will be closed Monday and Tuesday for the Cup Day long weekend … but will be raring to go on Wednesday.

A special thanks to Brenta Meats in Fairfield who donated the sausages - we’re so luck to have such wonderful community spirit in our neighbourhood (and I can tell you the chicken sausages were really delicious!).

Hi Leanne here.

Well, I feel our news this week is full of creativity and arty goodness. Which is pretty lovely. I am always so inspired when we have new things and creative things on the cards …

Kalimna and I had our first day back together onsite on Friday … it was so very nice to catch up in real life and start thinking about getting going again. And now we’ve both got lists on lists of things to do!

In the next couple of weeks we will be touching base with all our groups to discuss the path forward for each … but feel free to call us or email us too if your group has a plan and/or is feeling impatient … it’s the squeaky wheels that get attention and all (especially in the chaos of once again rebuilding and reimagining everything).

In the meantime we have two things that are definitely happening:

1. Join us for our very casual Playtime in the Garden on Wednesday from 10am … and a BBQ sausage in bread with Jill at 12pm. She’s also upped her barista skills in the last months, and we’ll be firing up the Friends of Baucau coffee machine … and seeing how that goes!

2. Then … on Friday we’re offering another outdoor opportunity to catch up. Join Katrina for Gardening Group from 10am and Arty Gardening from 10.30am (we’ll be decorating tin cans and planting up seeds and seedlings 🌱 this week). Followed by Morning Tea on the Corner with Kalimna from 11.3am.

See you soon.

What’s happening on Wednesdays?

The spring weather is tempting us to go outside and we’re keen to re-engage with our community.

So from Wednesday 27 October (after we reach 70% double dose*) we will be running a weekly BBQ on the corner as a way of reconnecting with you all. We’ll set up outside near the Shed and welcome anyone to come by and enjoy a sausage in bread and a cuppa. We have a coffee machine we can get fired up so you can even enjoy a latte.

Keep October 27th free from 12pm. We would love to see you!

*and subject to any restrictions re. numbers and vaccination status that apply.

And when we reopen families continue to be invited along on Wednesday mornings to enjoy ‘Playtime in the Garden’ with access to our new cubby and sandpit along with craft activities set up by Lee from 10am-12pm. So you can come for a play and have some lunch as well.

We have been helping Friends of Baucau develop a new coffee label. Lee has been working on it and it is pretty gorgeous …. and really tells the story of the wonderful projects that have been delivered in Timor-Leste through the 20 year friendship that has been fostered through the Friends of Baucau formal partnership.

Friends of Baucau is a community group that supports local community initiatives on the ground in Timor-Leste. It also provides a framework and pathway for Yarra and Darebin Councils to work alongside and support the municipal government in Baucau as it gets established over there.

If you have an interest in Timor-Leste 🇹🇱 you can find out more about Friends of Baucau here.

If you have an interest in great coffee (or are looking for a gift that keeps on giving) you might like to buy this coffee. We have it for sale at ACC or you can pop past the Wingrove Street Milkbar to buy either beans or ground coffee (thanks Juliet for helping sell this for us!).

500 gram packs cost $20. The coffee is sourced from cooperative farms in Timor-Leste and roasted and packed by Coffee Mio just up the road in Thornbury. All the profits go straight back to supporting local Timorese led projects.

Do good. Drink (Friends of Baucau) coffee.