Diamond Valley Uniting Church | Community organisation

Diamond Valley Uniting Church

Phone: +61 419 361 487

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Community organisation
• Religious organisation

25.01.2022 Day 8 of my very rugged 4th course of Chemo. My local psychologist tells me that I can experience some control over how I remember these experiences by intentionally deciding to focus on some images, in preference to others. The human brain does not have the capacity to capture all of the multi-million stimuli available to us in every moment. My family cooked an amazing breakfast before I left for hospital. As we do not want all our whole lives overshadowed by ‘The Big C’ (...cancer), we remembered that we had not celebrated our dog’s 9th birthday, so said: ‘HB, Hip, Hip, Hooray’ to Cyprus the Beagle. He did not show much interest; but the plant-based menu was ‘Oh, so good’. I came home to a bouquet of gorgeous white irises by my front door from some amazingly kind and mysterious soul - maybe there are Angels flying all around! During todays’s chemo stint, I read a book sent to me my sister-in-law Anne. It is called : ‘I got some kisses’. Anne acknowledges (with an inscription in her own handwriting) that it is a particularly tough time for families and care support people who are not allowed into hospitals or patient’s homes during the Covid-19 Pandemic. However, this beautifully illustrated book (by Ami Muir, Becky Lazarevic and Sara Miranda), shows a kind parent going off to stock up on kisses for a little one about to be tucked up in bed. The search winds through dreams, imagination and many favourite places - the zoo; deepest, darkest Peru where its best to ride on a friendly Llama; to a little sailing boat on the ocean; in trees and on swings; from the stars to flying around Mars; the hat stand near our front door; and the town fair (oh how we missed it this year!); into the mailbox; and long-forgotten pockets; magically gaining access to a blast-off rocket; enjoying cups of tea at well set picnic tables and jumping in puddles; on your nose; and between babies’ toes.... Kisses are like love, you find them absolutely everywhere! When I arrived back in Diamond Creek, another Angel had added silverbeet to our ‘Food is Free’ table. I say Angel because it seemed as if my Grandma Alice (who passed away in 1997) had just walked by saying: ‘I just picked you some silverbeet, dear.’ I am going to sleep now ... but this is how I want to remember today... Love and kisses to everyone! Good night peeps!

24.01.2022 Today in The Manse Garden ... Shortbread, lemons, locally grown Australian garlic, parsley and a small number of potted plants.

23.01.2022 Eggplant has just arrived. Please help us reduce food waste. Front lawn of The Manse Garden, next to Diamond Creek Uniting Church.

21.01.2022 Green Tomato Pickles have just arrived at the Food is Free Table, front lawn of The Manse Garden, next to Diamond Creek Uniting Church.

21.01.2022 Shortbread has just been delivered to the Church Stall on the front lawn of The Manse Garden, next to Diamond Creek Uniting Church. Happy Monday Peeps!

21.01.2022 Get your Paddington Bear on... It’s time to make marmalade!

20.01.2022 What is the difference between Second Bite and Food is Free? The Rotary Club of Diamond Creek offer Second Bite on Saturday mornings at the Diamond Creek Uniting Church property. Next door, at the church house (manse), a Food is Free table is provided for people to share garden produce 24/7. I am the minister of the church but I am on sick leave. I am trying to do what I can to continue to serve the community during the personal and community restrictions that we all face. ... The Food is Free Table just came about through community support because local residents want to swap and share, decreasing food waste, during Lockdown. Some people like to give a small donation to the church in return for supplies, but the table is about grassroots community love and kindness. It is not an official church project.

19.01.2022 Food is Free and the Church Stall are on the front lawn of The Manse Garden, next to the Diamond Creek Uniting Church. These are community-based initiatives aimed at helping us all to stretch the budget further and to help reduce food waste in our local area. Members of the Parish and local residents have begun using this as a space to share what they are ‘making and doing’ during lockdown; and also to ‘swap’ excess produce. Today we have a large supply of fresh eggs on the ‘Food is Free’ table - so if you can use them - come on down! Expiry date: 25 September 2020.

19.01.2022 The Manse Garden Diamond Creek So for some of us, it’s tipped that life will become even tougher in the next few weeks. ... Today, the Food is Free Table is stocked with parsley and silverbeet which are great base ingredients for salads and vegetable stock. Thirty seconds in a NutriBullet and your family will never guess the green leafy goodness hidden in their food! Featured recipes: Vegetable soup made with a base stock of greens from The Manse Garden; Nibbles platter with Zucchini and Capsicum Relish (courtesy of DC Meats via Second Bite), tabouli, hummus, sun dried tomatoes, olives and dill pickles. Heroes don’t always wear capes. So, swoop in and do your bit to help us reduce food waste. No questions. No names. No judgement. If you are passing, and can use any items, or share the love with others ... feed people with goodness otherwise at risk of going to waste! Happy Tuesday Peeps!

19.01.2022 I agree with Dan about working from home ... but it has its moments when the priorities of us all collide within a small space. For example when Mr H gets one hour’s notice that he is leading a funeral via Zoom and I find him about to start his virtual service with the curtains in the background held together with his own DIY bulldog clips. As I am now in mandatory ‘iso’ I had to grab whatever I could and set it up more appropriately within two minutes. Thank goodness for NOTY Quilts and flowers arriving from gardens around the Parish ... pulled Cyprus out of the way just before he Zoomed in ... phew ... never dull around here!

17.01.2022 A small range of plants, potting containers and non-perishable groceries on stall on the front lawn of the UCA Manse today. Groceries had outer packets damaged in store, so can not be sold commercially but inside water-proofing is still intact. If plants and groceries are left on the tables until they risk spoiling, I will be rescuing what I can to throw in The Manse Garden or use in Care Hampers. Anything left after that goes into my compost bin. I am expecting new donations of tomato seedlings and other gorgeous treats at the weekend. With imagination and creativity, lots of things on the stalls can be prepped with TLC for creative Christmas gifts.

17.01.2022 This Season Finale episode of 'Church from the Manse Garden' is a compilation. Segments have been selected from weekly online services from March - July 2020. Diamond Valley Uniting Church parishioners, leadership and guests feature in prayers, music, interviews, scriptures and news, as well as inspirational thoughts and images. Thanks to the Parish, CHILL photography for production and Training Now for support. Thanks also to all in our 'virtual parish' in the Diamond Valley, elsewhere in Australia, and internationally. Remember that you can access all past services on YouTube. And praise to God, "in whom we live, and breathe, and have our being." https://youtu.be/wJe0bO9tssY

17.01.2022 ‘Church from the Manse Garden’ this week will be a special ‘Best of...’ edition to wrap up the series. Due to Lockdown requirements, we will film Lyn Cole announcing the Parish fundraising total in a FaceTime conversation with Stephen. Government regulations require anyone entering hospital to be Covid-19 tested and then self isolate prior to admission. As of this afternoon, I am confined to my home and I am unable to personally interact with others for any reason. During ...my leave, arrangements are being put in place for lay-preachers to distribute written sermons, for worship and/or fellowship groups via Zoom, and for a collection of on-line resources (filmed by Christa) to be made available for personal devotions or Zoom discussions. As family visiting and support people are highly restricted, I will be keeping a couple of my personal projects to avoid going completely crazy in the coming mix of medical treatment and ‘iso’. The Church Stall on the front lawn of The Manse Garden will continue to run in a safe and socially distanced way. I will continue my Social Media writing in areas such as reducing food waste, living on a shoestring, vegetable scrap gardening and community strengthening. I will (remotely) supervise Christa in producing religious resources, particularly targeted at health care workers, funeral directors and families requiring this support during the Pandemic.

15.01.2022 I finally started my 4th experience of chemotherapy yesterday. In the 10 years I have been receiving cancer treatment, Box Hill has grown from a place of favourite Chinese restaurants into a monster city of high rise development. And yet, it is eerily population depressed by Covid Precautions. Box Hill Central is offering free car parking as its facilities are almost empty. Police in new snazzy, black ‘Public Order Response’ cars are pulling over drivers and checking papers (...near the hospitals!) It was comforting to arrive back in Diamond Creek, where a gorgeous bunch of garden flowers had been left near my front door. I was able to boost my fluids by topping up my water jug with fruit and mint rescued from Second Bite and Food is Free. The highlight of our Food is Free table this week was a box of delicious eggplant. My 27-year old son made eggplant parmigiana with Italian salad. The non-veggie of the family added crispy bacon. Facebook followers sent in recipes for Massouka, Ratatouille and Babagoush. After every meal, I plant out my vegetable scraps in the garden; and I am now getting good supplies of onions, potatoes and greens to make stock for soups, sauces, stews, risotto etc. this garden is also generating much food for our pet rabbits. Any suitable veggies or herbs that appear at Second Bite or Food is Free, totally past their ‘use by date’, I also rescue and bring to new life in the Kitchen Scrap Garden as part of helping to reduce food waste. I also buy up wilting plants from the Church Stall and nurse them back to health in The Manse Garden. I can not achieve all that I used to attempt, but I try to spend at lease 15 minutes a day caring for my garden and community projects. This morning, I read that the Celtic Devotional Writer John O’Donahue said that the worst risk in life is becoming stagnant from fear of embarking on new beginnings. Those who willingly and joyfully embrace change are usually rewarded one thousand times over ... perhaps this is my life now ....

15.01.2022 A bit of a different post tonight ... some Emergency Relief Bags from Rotary International were left on our Food is Free Table. After a week, no one had claimed the last one, so I decided to experiment in case I ever need to advise anyone on their use. The bags are often air dropped into areas rendered inaccessible by hurricane, tsunami, typhoon, flood, fire, earthquake etc. They can also be used in response to food insecurity and homelessness in Australia. The weather-proof... bag offers a mix of rice, lentils and oats with a small sachet of seasoning. All of this was pretty ordinary to our family; we add oats, bran, other grains and seeds to our breakfast smoothies. We are long-time supporters of the ‘Lentil as Anything’ movement; and have friends in the Wimmera who grow Lentils and Chickpeas on their family farms. The ER Bag suggests boiling up the mixture of grains, pulses and seasonings; and then adding anything available from the local community. We cleaned out our fridge blitzing leftovers in a NutriBullet to make a gravy; adding leftover vegetables from Second Bite and Food is Free, simmering until soft; adding tumeric and curry powder from pantry, serving with small tins of easily opened tuna. The ER Bag says its contents are enough to feed 5 for a meal. This could easily be stretched to 10 with the addition of extra vegetables and fish, if available. So, don’t be embarrassed if you’d like to pick up an ER Bag; with imagination and creative flair, you will be placing sheer yumminess before your family in no time! However, one thing, I am noticing in our journey with the Diamond Creek Rotary Club’s Second Bite Project and Food is Free is that quite a few people want to maintain autonomy and dignity by prepping their own meals; but do not have access to kitchen facilities and utensils. Perhaps as we move toward Covid Normal we can brainstorm how we can all take our food sharing initiatives and the kindness pandemic to new levels. Let’s start the conversations... community kitchens, outdoor kitchens, free food cupboards.

10.01.2022 New family turned up to church this morning ... what? ... they are still in lockdown!

09.01.2022 Today in The Manse Garden, next to Diamond Creek Uniting Church... Lots of gorgeous items to blow away those ‘iso blues’ and grumpy doldrums... New varieties of preserves ... a large supply of garden plants ... Food is Free ... grapefruit ... non-perishable groceries ...... Thanks to all of our Local Legends who are pitching in big time to make this service to our community actually happen... Thank you!

08.01.2022 A few reflections on community life... I have long had a dream of establishing space on Church property where the wider community is welcome to join in the celebration of life with an abundance of food and flowers. Nearly 15 years ago, the dream began to unfold, in cooperation with the State Government’s Neighbourhood Renewal network, in the old Chadstone Housing Commission area, close to Holmesglen TAFE. Many families and international students were living on the edge of dru...Continue reading

07.01.2022 Lunch is served. Tabouli with grated carrot, biscotti toast with spinach hummus, tinned tuna with parsley and lemon. Ingredients were sourced from Food is Free, Second Bite, our local grocer and The Manse Garden.

06.01.2022 Good supply of yellow Limes and heirloom garden seeds @ Food is Free Table, front lawn of The Manse Garden, next to Diamond Creek Uniting Church. Come and get ‘em!

05.01.2022 Just Joey blooms in the front yard of The Manse Garden. A gift given in memory of Mrs Jo Clamp who passed away aged 100 years and 20 days...

05.01.2022 Thanks for all the love and prayers, peeps ... we are all doing well ... stay home ... be safe ... wear a mask ... but still do something every day to help make the world a more kind and beautiful place in which to live ... sending virtual hugs, daffodils and rainbows to you all!

03.01.2022 A big shout out to the local community for keeping the Church Stall on the front lawn of The Manse Garden going over recent weeks. The way everyone chipped in to provide produce and tidy the socially distanced space, reminded me of when I was a young journalist in Horsham and all of the local farmers used to have harvesting working bees to ‘get off the crop’ if one of them had to go to the city for cancer treatment. The amount raised while I was in hospital was $370. The gen...tle movement and connection has been a blessing during a time when my level of isolation is very high. I am also very grateful for health care and rehab teams who have managed to keep my spirits up during what is a very difficult time personally and globally. I had to lose weight in preparation for chemo. My health teams have supported me to walk more than 130km in small spaces and lose 7.5kg. Since coming home, I have been totally exhausted and think my body is asking for time to rest and recover. I cope with the waves of illness by setting new goals - but right now my body is asking for calmness and rest. Thanks for everyone who has done little jobs to help keep the wheels turning. It is so much more constructive to share positive ideas, images and stories ... rather than amplify the doom and gloom that is already burdening us all. Thank you!

02.01.2022 Life in The Manse Garden is never dull! This morning, as Melbourne Metro settles into its Second Lockdown, I publicly announced that I am stepping down from public life for a while as cancer has returned. I am doing really well and feel remarkably calm but just need time and space to myself for a while. I have decided to maintain a few of my projects as personal interests so that I don’t go totally crazy with the combination of medical treatment and isolation. ... The small stall on the front lawn of The Manse Garden will be continuing as it is important for those who want to ‘make and give’ to the community to have an outlet for their produce; and those of us who want to give a donation in return for homemade gifts and treats have the opportunity to do so safely in a socially distanced way. I will be continuing my Social Media and writing in areas just as decreasing food waste, living on a shoestring, vegetable scrap gardening and community strengthening. In recent weeks, I have become very aware that it is a tough gig going through medical treatment at a time when visitors and support people are so restricted - even clergy no longer have automatic visiting rights. So, I will be cooperating with Christa to produce short, high-quality religious resources for people in isolation eg Prayers for those in Hospital; Readings for Funerals, Communion when you are Alone, Spiritual Reflections for Personal Devotions. This week’s recipes for surviving the tough times are: Vegetable soup and hot cheesy bread; pancakes with banana, blueberries and vanilla ice cream; pumpkin and bacon pasta; care pack for students with vegetables washed and cut ready for cooking; meal hamper for seniors with individual serves ready for microwave or freezer, jars of flowers, herbs and silverbeet with an assortment of special treats from the Church Stall ... we are all in this together ... community strengthening.

02.01.2022 Food Rescuing... 27-year-old Liam makes Ratatouille from Eggplant off the Food is Free Table combined with reduced-priced produce from Diamond Creek’s Local Fine Foods. Our Kitchen Scrap Garden is now producing two bowls of greens per day to make vegetable stock and rabbit food. New shoots on carrot, kale and onion tops can be used immediately for these purposes. However, if allowed to go to seed, tiny new generations of seedlings will pop up, adding much interest to our wild and free foraging experiences of food production.

01.01.2022 Today @ Food is Free on the front lawn of The Manse Garden, next to Diamond Creek Uniting Church... Our feature recipe is self-saucing strawberry crumble using ingredients from yesterday’s Second Bite stall (coordinated by the Rotary Club of Diamond Creek). Today, some kind souls donated non-perishable groceries to the Food is Free Table. So, if you can help us reduce waste and share with those who need help to make ends meet, please come and put these items to good use. ... Strawberries left over from Second Bite and Citrus from Food is Free were sent to a charity jam maker. If you are from a community house or charitable organisation, please keep an eye out for things on our table that you might be able to use or pass on to others. So many families are doing it tough in Lockdown. A nicely presented meal hamper or some other thoughtful encouragement gift can make a big difference. This week’s care hamper: Self-saucing strawberry crumble; individual servings of custard, sausage casserole with tomatoes and onions, mashed potatoes with cheese; vegetable soup; bananas, parsley and flowers from The Manse Garden. Stay well ... keep connecting...