February working bee in pics

Hello and welcome to the photo documentation of our recent working bee at the Albert St garden. A huge grazie to Mara Ripani for taking these photos that so beautifully capture the people and energy of the unseasonably cold summer's day.

A small offering of beauty and decay:

John dead heads the older plants and lays them down as mulch.

Jacques and Natalia gather fallen apples.

Kirsten and Meg discuss apple cider vinegar recipes.

In quiet praise of the apple trees.

Rosa weeds.

Tom sings up the world.

Oscar looks for Zero.

Together we work, and honour the soil and seasons and strength of our collective efforts.

Mara took a whole heap of the fallen apples we collected and kindly dropped them off to the Jonai Farm pigs to enjoy. The rest were composted on site to help make new soil to feed back to the trees.

Did you know community gardener Patrick Jones planted the apple trees outside the library 20 years ago? To celebrate, we are planning a celebration of community food and honouring of the apple trees. Stay tuned for more details..

See you all at the next working bee on Saturday March 9.

2018 'Thank You' Bee

Thank you to the broad beans that fed our bellies and enriched our soils with nitrogen.

Thank you trees that so generously shared their gifts.

Thank you friends from near and far who volunteered their time and intentions.

Thank you to the flowers and countless pollinators.

Thank you to the people who donated seedlings for prosperity and sovereignty.

Thank you to those who came and cheered us from the sidelines.

Thank you sharp minds, sharp tools.

Thank you for your energy and enthusiasm.

Thank you for sharing your cabbage stems.

Thank you to our bodies that laboured our love.

Thank you to our love that laboured our bodies.

Thank you Mother Earth for receiving, enabling and sharing. We honour your food and seasonality and literally owe our lives to your gifts. We love you.

* * *

Happy solstice season one and all!

The community gardeners are once again going to participate in this year's Daylesford NYE parade. If you'd like to join us, please stay tuned for more deets.

Here's us at last year's event:

November bee: a floral affair

A working bee usually starts off nice and slow.

A chat,

a smile or two,

before the labour begins.

The labour of reclaiming,



of celebrating,

of sharing,

of togetherness

of quenching,

of replenishing,

of being,

of building,

of enacting,

of planting,

of becoming,

of thanking the mother for her providing.

And thank you once again to Mara Ripani for taking these lovely photos and for sharing your surplus tomato seedlings with us. Thank you Anna and Ben and Artist as Family for your seedlings too!

See you all at the next bee! December 8th from 9am - 12pm at the garden beside the library.

We are also planning to be in the NYE parade again this year so start your op-shop raiding for colour-filled costumes.