If June's meeting was a chance to chill out, then July's meeting was hot! Chippenham Morris gave us a wonderful demonstration in the heat and managed to teach many of us to dance in the process. The origins of Morris dancing are lost in the mists of time. Some say it's associated with the Moors (people not topography!), but no-one knows for sure. There are different forms of the dance and our side dance the Cotswold tradition, which has handkerchief and stick dances in its repertoire. We also learned of Cecil Sharp's work in saving many morris dances from obscurity.
Many dances are specific to an area, often to a particular village and we saw dances from Adderbury and Bampton in Oxfordshire. We got to wave our hankies to the Rose Tree dance, which hails from Bampton. One of the dance moves we learned was the 'Caper', which means 'to skip or dance about in a lively or playful way'. It was most appropriate for the evening and there was lots and fun and laughter too! You can read more about Morris dancing here. Thanks to Sarah Foxley for organising a wonderful evening. We've had two successful wider trips this month. April's superb organisation skills came to the fore for our 'Big Day Out' to HMP Shepton Mallet and Street. We were joined by ladies from the other Chippenham WIs and a good time was had by all. We also joined in with Wiltshire Federation's very different trip - to Trowbridge Sewage Treatment works! We also had an impromptu get together at the cinema. Eight members of Pewsham Belles enjoyed Mamma Mia Here We Go Again at the Astoria in Chippenham - yes it is still open whilst they're renovating it! Our Town looked at Pewsham today in contrast to its formation. Some of the Flexi Group tried mocktails and all learned about plastic alternatives in the process. The Crafty Crew made some chic bracelets using memory wire, which has raised plenty of requests to make this a group activity later this year. The creative writers showed their darker side when tackling the prompts Passport and Bridge. The Book Group struggled with Fingers in the Sparkle Jar, then nominated plenty of books for future reads. Finally they came up with a varied final shortlist to take them into the rest of the year and beyond.