It’s always nice to end the term with a crowd, and it was lovely to have so many people along on Friday morning for Arty Gardening followed by Morning Tea. It was a gorgeous morning.

So many things were happening … we had Crystal drawing flowers, Sandra and Mark picking herbs to make little wardrobe bags to keep the bugs out of clothes and things smelling nice, Debra setting up seed trays (we’re getting some calendula and pak choy seeds sprouting hopefully) and Derek and David helping Clare in the shed to drill the holes in our soon to be finished worm towers.

And then we had more people turn up for morning tea - on the menu the most AMAZING chocolate biscuits made by Kinfolk.

In the garden this week Clare planted some more natives out on the front corner. And we dug some fertiliser in to the second productive garden bed in the front yard so it’s ready for a new crop to be planted when we are back.

Which will be on Tuesday 26 April.

So happy Easter, we hope the Easter bunny visits you … and we’ll see you on the other side of the school holidays! If you need to get in contact with us during this time please email info@alphington.org.au.

This Friday our lovely crafty friends Marie-Louise and Anne added some ADDITIONAL craft bling to our already craft-blinged tree in the community shed garden … now it looks extra fabulous.

Anne uses up all her wool scraps and turns them into pompoms - and we are very grateful to be the lucky recipients.

Thanks ladies! Your crafty goodness is good for us all!

On Friday we took some time to walk around the garden and snip some of our best smelling herbs. We then cut them up even smaller, mixed them together and filled little gauze bags with lovely smelling garden goodness.

Some of our participants (such as Sandra - pictured) took one home to hang in their own wardrobe … and the rest of them went into the seed library for local families to collect.

Also in the seed library were little packets of sweet peas - donated by an anonymous neighbourhood friend. Cute hey?

Last week we decorated seed packets together … marigolds … and filled up our seed library with the gorgeous packets.

This week we welcome Clare Mannion to run our Friday morning program. Some of you will probably know Clare - her children were at Alphington PS.

We’ll be looking forward to exploring some more Arty Gardening projects together in the coming months and tapping into both her gardening knowledge and arts background. Welcome Clare.

If you are interested in gardening, engaging in garden based arty activities outdoors with others or keen to have a neighbourhood chat you can join us in the garden from 10am on Fridays, followed by morning tea at 11.30am.

Yay! The official posters are complete and we’re getting excited about the upcoming Alphington Show!

Kalimna has been looking into booking the pony rides again (how cute were they last time) and we are firing up the BBQ and the CWA is cooking up a scone storm for devonshire teas …

If you are a local maker who would like to be part of the Makers Market you can book a stall here. Only $20 and we’ll have our fingers crossed for the weather (note it is an outside market).

And if you are skilled in the domestic arts (calling all jammers and preservers, bread bakers, flower growers and arrangers, sewers, knitters, crocheters, vegetable growers, olive harvesters etc.) PLEASE enter our show! The full list of categories is below. It only costs $1 to enter … and perhaps become a proud neighbourhood winner!

Download your entry form (with all the categories clearly listed) and see photos from previous years here.