We did it! Our first virtual group meeting - attended by 29 members - and we managed to have our AM to boot.  Thanks to Sally for guiding us through Zoom, Kim for her top tips for mental health and Lesley Holdway for giving us Wiltshire Federation's news. Thanks to Sally and all the committee for their hard work last year, and welcome Kim as our new President! It's not quite the world we expected to be in, but we've shown Pews...

With the current situation as it stands our regular diary slot is replaced with some virtual activities to bring us together plus ideas we've found to help while away the time at home. Don't forget we have an active Pewsham Belles Facebook Group who'd love to keep in touch with you, plus many of our Clubs have active Messenger Groups for a more focused chat. Over the coming weeks look out for other ways to keep in touch; the c...

It was great to welcome new members Nancy and Sue P to Book Club this month where we met to discuss Slow Horses by Mick Herron. We had mixed reviews for this book, the number of 'did not finish' tells its own story. After a slow start and jumping between many characters it eventually got going if you stuck with it long enough. Since meeting a couple of late finishers confirmed it got better!
 

We scored this book 6.5 out o...

A final catch-up post for our recent weekend meetings and it's an important one to share as we'd love to keep the poppy making project going during these difficult times. We've found knitting and crocheting these poppies can have a soothing effect - like a lot of crafting can - and it's even helped some of our members sleep better or stop their fingers straying to the biscuit tin!

We had a lovely get together at Rivo Lounge r...

In a weekend of Flexi-club firsts, our second event saw a group of intrepid Pewsham Belles explorers head into Wales to climb Pen y Fan on Saturday! Pen y Fan is in the Brecons National Park and is the highest British peak south of Cadair Idris in Snowdonia. It's also the county highest point for both Powys and Monmouth and Breckonshire.

As you can see conditions were quite challenging at the top and the group had to hang ont...

A new flexi-club offering this month in the shape of lunch at The Farm Cookery School. Some of you will remember we cooked curries with Gretchen a while ago and had an enjoyable evening.  Well, lunch turned out to be even more delicious! This time Gretchen demonstrated the recipes and our lunchtime five got to eat the results.There were some non-Pewsham Belles attendees as well, and it made for a very sociable and relaxed affa...

A bit of rain didn't stop our intrepid Our Town regulars from enjoying the first day of Chippenham's first ever Fringe February aka #FringeFeb! After coffee at Grounded they headed off into town to find what the streets and shops had to offer.
 

First stop was the RSPCA charity shop where the Knatty Knitters group had set themselves up in the window for the weekend. We agreed this idea was genius and the ladies were a ray of s...

Wendy introduced a new way of prompting stories this month in the form of the Story Cubes she found last year. With pictures instead of numbers they present an intriguing set of possibilities. There are more cubes than those shown, but we decided to use just those images that 'spoke' to us in some way.

Everyone had something to share this month and had managed to incorporate the prompts in clever ways, some quite tenuous, but...

Our first ever mention in WI Life and it's a major splash! When their call went out on the UWI Facebook Group for stories about inspiring women we knew they HAD to feature Pauline. Her amazing world record achievement this year is a story that's hard to beat.

We've always thought Pewsham Belles has a wonderful membership of inspiring women and it's great WI Life thinks so too. Well done Pauline and here's to further success f...

We all love to shop! And if you shop online, then there's an easy way you can help Pewsham Belles WI raise some cash at no extra cost to you.

The easyfundraising website has over 3,000 online stores on its books who are willing to donate commission if you shop via them instead of directly. Pewsham Belles has registered as a 'Cause' on there (we can because our WI is a charity), which means we can get that cash if you register...