Last week we had our last session of Crunch for the term. It has been such a fabulous new program, and it has engaged a different cohort of locals - it is always nice to make new friends! Crunch will be back next term for another 6 weeks, starting Thursday 24 October.

Speaking of art, did you go to Art for All this weekend? I went along and saw so many people I knew - what a great event hey? We are so lucky to have so many fabulous parents in our community who run community events like Art for All and the Alphington PS Fete.

On Friday we were joined for lunch by our local State MP, Kat Theophanous. She came past to check out the renovations that were primarily funded by two State Government grants (with a bit of our own savings in there to top it up). She was very impressed with all the changes we made, and we also had a great chat about neighbourhood house funding, and how the State Government could continue to support us into the future.

This week Julie Johnston who runs the North East Neighbourhood House Network is taking some of our colleagues on a bus tour of all the Darebin neighbourhood houses … so we will be looking forward to them popping in on Wednesday for morning tea. I will be showing off all the changes we have made recently and talking about the programs we run here to meet our local community need, and also talking about the way we try to present ourselves in the community to build community engagement and establish a sense of place.

Speaking of which, have you seen the new ‘vases’ on the fence - a little celebration of spring for you to enjoy next time you pass by.

Coming up this week our Lemon Cleaner DIY mini-workshop on Thursday morning at 11am. $10. Clare will show you how to make your own environmentally friendly lemon based cleaner … and explore some other ideas for keeping your house fresh and environmentally friendly using things from the home garden. It will be low key and lovely! Find out more and book in here.

Also, click on the links below to find out more about our VCE Exam Help sessions that will run on Saturday afternoons in October. We are also offering a Meet The Candidates session or the upcoming Darebin Council elections.

Also, check out the learn to bowl opportunity sent through from Anne and the Alphington Bowls Club. Coming up this weekend.

Finally … our next Alphington Arts session is coming up next week - on Thursday 19 September at 7.30pm. We are going to be doing life drawing with a model this time - so it should be super fun! If you are interested in joining in you still can here. We have this session, and two more coming up next term.

I hope you have a great week and look forward to seeing you soon!

Leanne

This week we did a bit of a colour study in Crunch. And ate a yummy lunch (once again). Check out the pictures!

We have two more weeks coming up if you are keen to come along please book in here.

Thanks to everyone who came to preserves last week. It was lovely to see you cooking and chatting, and the smells were amazing! What did we make?

We now have a winter fruit chutney and a zucchini pickle for sale. So pop past our office and buy some for your next cheese platter or ploughman’s lunch! You won’t be disappointed. Our preserves cost $7 and the profits made support access all abilities (AAA) programs.

Well it has all been art, art, art this weekend, with our Winter Arts Exhibition running Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.

With 40+ artists work on display, and over 120 works in the show there was a super range of art to enjoy.

We had lots of people come along to enjoy the art accompanied by drinks and nibbles in our lovely new spaces on Friday evening … and works sold - which made the artists happy, I am sure! Then a steady stream of visitors over the weekend. It is great to be able to partner with local artists and support their practice. It is also a thrill for us to be able to provide unique opportunities for our community. There were lots of people who came along who we don’t normally see at ACC - and that is fabulous!

Thanks to all the artists who participated in the show and to everyone who came along.

We are looking forward to touching base with everyone this week as they collect their works and congratulating those who bought a piece as they also drop by to collect them. A reminder that our office is open 9am-3.30pm Monday to Friday.

And … time doesn’t stop! This week we have our:

• Preserves Group on Tuesday afternoon from 1-3pm. It will be super to top up our preserves that we have for sale after a busy weekend of sales at the Winter Arts Exhibition.

• Movie Club on Tuesday evening - we’ll be Iris and the Men at 6pm at Westgarth Cinema if you are interested in coming along please let us know.

• Life Journaling workshop series starting this coming weekend, from 10am-12pm. It runs for 4 weeks with journalist Carmela Ferraro here to help you write your autobiography! How fun! It should be really super. Book in ASAP if you are interested here. We will need minimum numbers for it to go ahead.

Looking forward to seeing you at ACC soon.

Leanne

All the lemon curd has sold! But we still have beetroot relish, dried lime, cumquat marmalade and gin and lime marmalade … made by lovely volunteers (thanks friends who come along!).

All profits from our preserves support our access all abilities short courses that enable everyone in our community to do things that they love.

Pop past and buy some next time you are passing by!