Kalimna popped in to visit our line dancers last week whilst they were holding their Biggest Morning Tea event - as you probably already know this is a morning tea to raise money for the Cancer Council, to support those impacted by cancer.

Around 20-30 lovely locals come together each week on a Wednesday morning from 10am down at the Alphington Scout Hall to line dance and then share a cuppa and a chat. It is a real community in and of itself. We drop in and see them every now and then, and also support Shirley behind the scenes (the dynamo behind it all) as she seamlessly organises the whole shebang.

She’s a star.

And anyway … lucky Kalimna went along. Because not only were the dancers happy to give her a demo, they were ALSO happy to do so in fancy dress. How fun - I think it should be a lifegoal for everyone to be part of a group that gets together in fancy dress for special occasions! Why not right?

Thanks Shirley, Thanks Kalimna. Thanks enthusiastic line dancing locals.

Did you know that we have a Toy Library at ACC? We’re noticing that there are increased numbers of people around the neighbourhood living a life that is more family friendly with flexible hours and working from home options. And as a result we’re also noticing that our Toy Library use is growing every week. We’ve welcomed at least 10 new families to the Toy Library over the last month or two and it is so wonderful to think that all those great toys that have been carefully collected and lovingly cared for, for so many years, are getting an outing!

If you know any young families who might like to access a wide range of toys in a sustainable way (ie. borrowing them for up to a month rather than buying them) then point them in our direction.

The Alphington Toy Library costs $30 per year to join (a bargain). Families can borrow up to 4 toys at a time. And we have loads of toys to borrow!

We’re also building up some toy packs that can be booked online and collected any time we are open - ideal for families that can’t pop in and browse themselves. Working families can keep an eye out for these - coming any day now!

Our Toy Library is generally open on Wednesday mornings from 10am-12pm. The opening time coincides with Playtime in the Garden - so you can borrow toys and then also hang out here enjoying our sandpit and some outside craft activities (set up weekly by Lee).

Click here to find out more and/or to join up. Or pop past on a Wednesday to see if it is for you!

Look, we have a logo (thanks Lee Arkapaw). And our podcasting equipment arrived this week. Doesn’t it look exciting! We’re pretty keen to get our new podcasting studio set up and to start using it.

And also … we recently received an Education Week grant for an event that we’ll use as the official marker for this new community resource.

We got funding from the Department of Education to run a podcasting intro course here at ACC for local schools during Education Week, which is the last week of May. What a great way to kick things off hey? Creating, learning and community building with local students.

Alphington PS has taken up this opportunity and grade 5 and 6 students will be working with Tony Wilson.

Tony is an adult and children’s book author, former radio presenter (a fixture on RRR Breakfasters for a number of years), public speaker, speech writing connoisseur (visit Speakola - it’s a great online resource to read and watch the world’s most fabulous speeches), podcaster … and Darebin local.

Fun times! And thanks lovely friends from the Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank for helping us get this up and running.

A few* years ago when Becca was still around we had Maria from My Green Garden come along to run an olive preserving workshop here at ACC. And at the end of the workshop we were instructed to put our brined produce in a dark place to do their magic.

Fast forward to today and at our home we are just about to renovate. And so the ‘dark place’ (in our case that being the bottom shelf of the pantry) was emptied. And the olives emerged.

I have to say they don’t look that fancy on the outside. But oh boy, they taste amazing.

I am convinced and now 150% on board with home olive preserving - if you’ve got the space to put them away for a year or two (or five!).

The method we used that I liked the most was a simple 10% salt brine solution, with a sheet of baking paper under the lid and a dash of olive oil on top of the water. One jar I opened also had a scrunched ball of paper inside to keep the olives under the water level. I know we tried a few methods in the workshop and I think Maria may have presoaked some of the olives for 4-10 days beforehand (my jars had notes on the lids reminding me of the pickling process). Others went straight in (note they just take longer to taste good).

I know I’ve been a bit vague with the details … but it was a while ago now … so here is a similar recipe to what I remember and here is another simple recipe from Mount Zero Olives that you might also like to try … their olives are delicious right? This recipe includes some vinegar and a two step process. But still seems doable.

Did you do that workshop too? It’d be great to hear what you thought (and if your olives were as yummy as mine).

*that’d be 2016!

A lovely photo of Anne starting the process of planting up our new garden bed from last week. We’ve got a dwarf lime for the centre of this bed, and then we’re filling it up around the edges with herbs - parsley, sage and oregano. Under the lime we’ll put some shallow root flowers to add a bit of colourful cheer like nasturtiums and alyssum.

The back two beds will have a clump or two of permanent plants like heritage rhubarb (this donation from our friend Mark has struggled along out on the front nature strip) and pineapple sage (ideal for neighbourhood cocktails hey friends …) and then some leafy greens and other crops that we’ll rotate through seasonally - for cooking and salads etc.

Fun hey? We’re also in the process of putting in a little seed raising greenhouse and potting station.

So if you are interested and would like to do something community minded and outdoorsy on a Friday morning - you might like to join us in the garden. Come along from 10am. We’ll reward your hard work with morning tea at 11.30am!

Note this week we’ll be planting out these beds AND spreading tan bark. So all muscled-wheel-barrow-friendly-folk are particularly welcome!