We are so lucky to have such a generous community that is so conscious of recycling and reusing. And we regularly accept clean jars without labels. But unfortunately we have no more room to store any more at the moment - our cupboard is full (and overflowing).

We will begin some preserving for the upcoming Alphington Show but even so it is going to take us quite a while to make use of all the jars we have already received.

So could we please ask that you find another place to donate for a while - like Moon Rabbit cafe which is part of Bridge Darebin neighbourhood house in Preston. They make use of clean label free jars as take away coffee cups - which means they get through a lot of them quickly.

Thanks. We’ll let you know when we have space again!

This week we are starting planning for the Alphington Show.

We’re partnering with Alphington CWA to run this event that celebrates the ‘domestic arts’ … if you are into bread baking, jam making, preserving, knitting and crochet this is your chance to shine! The show also celebrates the home garden … admiring your most impressive vegetables, homegrown eggs and gorgeous flowers … along with celebrating your floristry skills … and cake decorating skills.

We’ll publish the full list of categories shortly,

But in the meantime … finish that beanie you started, dig out your family scone recipe and encourage your children to perfect their lemon slice (and cook their own snack for school lunch at the same time … win/win).

The Alphington Show will run on Saturday 26 March here at ACC.

Lovely to have Cr Sophie Wade pop in with Malcolm and Kathy from Yarra City Council on Friday and join us for morning tea.

Brett shared a beautiful poem with us all and we ate chocolate cake and wagon wheels, and drank Friends of Baucau coffee (you can buy yours from Juliet at the milkbar - and feel happy that you’re supporting great things with each cup you drink!).

After the caffeine/sugar rush I took Sophie on a tour of our house and talked her ear off about all the great community building activities we do and creative programs we run.

Thanks for coming past Sophie. We really appreciate all the support we get and the wonderful partnership we have with Yarra City Council staff and councillors.

Aww … how cute. And such a happy end to a Monday! I spotted this porcelain frog 🐸 in our seed library as I was leaving work - minding some new seed packets donated by an unknown lovely community friend.

Neighbourhoodliness is the best! Thanks Darebin Council for installing our seed library. We love ❤️ it.

Some silverbeet, spring onions, tomatoes and dried beans (that we wlll save to replant) … came from the garden this week.

It has been a long hot summer and we haven’t quite got our automatic drip system right yet …so it was nice to even harvest these after 4 weeks of accidental neglect. I expect the families who have been using our garden every day over summer probably helped out and had a tomato 🍅 or two along the way … better to be eaten than wasted!

Thanks Anne and Elaine for coming along Friday to help wrestle things back under control.