This week we have a bunch of our programs starting up for the term including:

• Garden to Plate - Monday 11.30am

• AAA Bowls - Wednesday 10am

• Crunch (creative lunch) - Thursday 12.30pm

• Thursday Supper Club - Thursday 5pm

• AAA Art - Friday 1pm

We’re looking forward to seeing you! Keen to book in? You can do so here.

We also have our first Sustainability Workshop coming up this weekend - a reminder that our Sewing Machine Maintenance/Repair workshop starts at 10am (for everyone booked in) on Saturday. BYO machine.

Hope you enjoyed your democracy sausage on the weekend!

Cheers

Leanne

Lovely to see everyone on Friday!

It was a glorious morning in the garden. We sat outside and enjoyed the autumn sunshine.

Enjoying the sunshine!

Then, we had ‘better than Subway’ (as Sarah said) focaccia for lunch - thinly sliced roast beef and roast capsicum with a yummy horseradish and chive cream cheese, along with swiss cheese and lettuce accompanied by 3 salads. And … for the vegos, a swap out to Yotam Ottolenghi’s portobello ‘steak’ mushrooms (recipe here. Such a winner - I use it all the time).

To top it all off Margaret from the CWA kept us up to speed with the latest cooking controversy (Nagi from Recipe Tin Eats v Brooke from Booki Bakehouse) and ‘their’ caramel slice. Yum! Thanks so much Margaret.

So great to be back with the crew.

Another busy week. Reminiscing … giving out the rest of the prizes to people who we missed on the weekend. Op shopping, gardening, lunching … recovering!

And now … we’re closed for the school holidays. We’ll be back on Monday 28 April, after the ANZAC Day long weekend, raring to go for Term 2.

There are lots of posts to read this week - thanking our volunteers and sponsors, highlighting new programs and detailing our op shop adventures. Just click on the links below to read them and see all the fabulous photos.

We’ll also put out some more posts over the holidays about all the things coming up next term … so please read them and book in! and hopefully you wont miss us too much.

Have a great Easter etc. See you on the other side.

Cheers

Leanne

We had a lovely time catching the 508 bus to High Street Northcote on Thursday 3 April and visiting the op shops. We caught the 10.05am bus from Alphington Station and started our op shopping adventure at Sacred Heart Mission Op Shop on the corner of Separation and High Street, then popped over to The Salvos, before heading down the road to Save The Children. We ducked into Mutal Muse (the consignment style shop just near Mitchell Street) … and then took a much-needed lunch break at Tao Dumplings for lunch and jasmine tea. Then we doubled back to the Northcote Uniting Op Shop, before jumping back on the 508 to Alphington Station (which took all of 8 minutes - amazing). Home by 2.10pm.

If you are looking for a great op shopping adventure this is a super one … and so easy by PT!

We’ve got 3 more great Thriftseekers trips planned for next semester - so keep an eye out for them! Special big thanks to the Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank on Queens Parade for supporting us to run these local adventures this year.

We had a great but crazy community lunch on Friday … people who hasn’t been since before COVID came, and Yarra Deputy Mayor Sarah McKenzie came with Kathy who is our colleague on staff at Yarra Council … and there were also some new faces and friends of friends … and we ran out of food temporarily (yikes that never happens) … but it was fun.

And, in the morning the lovely crew from GenU Thornbury came to craft (first time back for the year) and because I was sitting down with them I made some little Valentine’s Day cards - that I then gave out to everyone at lunch - with a Ferrero Rocher chocolate (donated by Margaret - thanks Margaret).

And then, in the afternoon we ran the first session of AAA Arts for the year - it was lovely to see everyone - we had some newbies there as well!

This coming week we have lunch on Monday - Garden to Plate where we’re preparing and eating Asian food - smashed cucumber salad, garlic chicken with coriander and capsicum, rice and then fruit with coconut ice cream.

On Tuesday we’re cooking up a storm in the kitchen with Preserves Group. Zucchini Pickles and Tomato Relish are on our radar.

On Thursday night at 7.30pm we have our first Alphington Arts for the year - where Rob will be sharing how he draws and paints birds - and bringing along his parrot for some life drawing/painting. If you love being arty and want to make arty friends in the neighbourhood this is for you. Book in online.

Or come along at Thursday lunchtime for Crunch - our creative lunch. 12.30pm.

My Our Thursday Supper Club has 4 or 5 people interested now. Call us if you are keen to share a weekly dinner on Thursdays around 5.30pm … we’ll get started when we get 6-8 people signed up.

Also … book into our op shop tours. They’ll be fun. First one is early March - on a Saturday. Great for those working … and students etc.

See you soon.

Leanne