A magnificent effort for our annual charity cake sale and raffle for Julia's House in Devizes last night! We raised £110 and there were several requests for Michelle's recipe for her Windfall Cake. It seems we have a number of members with apples to spare!

What a fascinating talk from our speaker Michelle Hanson on the mind boggling challenges of catering for the Olympics. It made a family dinner for 12 seem a walk in the park! We all knew fish & chips and vanilla ice cream were event favourites, but surprised chicken was the favoured sandwich filling and Twirl the most popular chocolate treat. Our cake sale and raffle raised £110 for Julia's House. Other highlights for September included a look at Chippenham's Lost Buildings as part of Heritage Open Days and a massive singalong at Abbamania for Theatre Club. The Crafty Crew tackled the art of paper folding and Book Club had varied and lively views on The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fr

The Crafty Crew Origami Special! Who would have thought paper folding could be so challenging. We started with some nice easy butterflies before moving on to the more difficult paper bauble all with varying degrees of success. We all agreed this is good craft for the group session next year. Next month we'll have a practise for the Christmas craft session!

September's Book Club choice - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - prompted a great deal of discussion, particularly how life's experiences may influence our character and behavior. All agreed this was a well written book which covered many issues people felt they could relate to. We also had a great debate about the personalities of the key characters. We scored this book 8 out of 10. Unfortunately Rivo was rather noisy so we're going to give Grounded a try on October 10th. Coming up for October: The Good Sister by Jess Ryder.

The latest taste test by the Unofficial Supper Club was at the Gladstone Arms on September 21st. This was a new venue for us and its recent 5 star review by the Swindon Advertiser persuaded us to give it a try. Our testers also gave it the thumbs up!

Around 10 Pewsham Belles enjoyed the varied offerings of Chippenham's first extended programme of events to mark 2017's Heritage Open Days. Most enjoyed Chippenham's Lost Buildings fascinating talk or walk and learnt one or two things about our lost heritage. A look at Chippenham's 20th century architecture, a walk to Pewsham Locks along the old line of the canal, plus a visit to the new Herman Miller factory were other events attended over the weekend. October's meeting will be a Ghost Walk - date tbd.

Pewsham Belles tried Sunday's quiz at the Consti Club in their quest to find a replacement for their Old Lane regular quiz. They achieved a creditable 6th place, just 10 points off the winning team, not bad seeing some teams fielded 8 or more players and we only had three! A sandwich buffet rounded the evening off nicely.

Fiona Turnbull of Lacock Photography was full of hints and tips for us to improve our photographs. Several ladies were inspired to take their cameras out at the weekend and the results speak for themselves. Ask Wendy how she got on at one of Fiona's day workshops in Lacock afterwards. Fiona's website can be found here. Elsewhere in August the Crafty Crew tried tapestry (aka needlepoint) and Book Club reviewed Kate Atkinson's unusual Life after Life. A brand new group was launched when 13 ladies turned up at The Old Lane pub to discuss what they'd like to know about Chippenham!

Tapestry was the choice of craft for our August meeting. Hessian proved a challenge as the material for the background, but the Crew rose to the challenge and all produced some fine stitchery by the end of the evening.