What better way to spend our Annual Meeting than by eating some scrummy chocolate? We were treated to a Yummy Scrummy brownie from Elements for Life whose owner Dan demonstrated the simple way of creating the brownie's chocolate topping - and the pictured handmade chocolates - from just three ingredients; raw cacao butter and cacao plus a healthier sweetener.
We all agreed the finished product was indeed scrummy, even those who normally aren't that keen on chocolate! We were also given a pdf of the recipe demonstrated with 3 others which are available on the Elements for Life website along with lots of other recipes for all kinds of raw chocolate delight. Judging by the evening's reaction, it looks like there'll also be a popular demand for the chocolate workshops when we're able.
There were lots of eager questions for Dan and Paula and as Sam said on Facebook:
"Who knew there was so much about chocolate that we didn’t already know?! A fascinating talk about all things raw chocolate tonight from Elements for life. And the best bit, we got to eat scrumptious raw chocolate brownies while we watched!"
One advantage of having a virtual meeting was the formal side of the evening's business was conducted by email beforehand, which cleared the decks for us to get to know some of our group a little better. Members were asked to bring an object or photo along that held special memories for them and we had time for a good number of those attending to contribute. Perhaps this kind of thing feels less pressurised via Zoom, rather than standing up in a meeting hall to do so?
Steph treated us to some of her father's paintings like the one shown above and we can see where her love of music has come from. Caroline related a story of a concert tour of Latvia, and the emotional moment when the audience joined in the singing of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'.
Inherited jewellery was shown by Sam and Kim, with Jenni joining in with a story about one of her pieces in addition to her pottery pig, which was resulted from the time when she looked after a puppy.
Sheila had a butterfly picture which held happy memories of her grandmother while Gill showed a photo of herself on Clifton Suspension Bridge. She admitted to a fear of heights and a trip booked to New York to go up the Empire State Building meant she had to do something about it. Two sessions with a hypnotherapist together with a tape made for her to listen to resulted in her trip to the bridge and the photo to prove it worked.
Sarah Low showed her needle felted sheep which she'd made on a virtual retreat recently and Michelle enthused about her time spent as a volunteer at the Special Olympics in Dublin in 2003.
Elsewhere this month we've had the formation of our second club formed under Lockdown in the shape of the pictured Boneyard Belles. Contact Fiona Plant if you'd like to join the group - she promises it'll be merry not macabre!
We've also enjoyed dozens of uplifting photos of spring blooms from our gardens and daily walks in response to Our Town's spring photo hunt. Several of Fringe February's online workshops were attended in addition to those put on by Wiltshire Federation and the Happy Hookers. Michelle revealed the craftivism pennant she'd made to commemorate the WI's SOS the Honeybee resolution for International Women's Day, which was well received and publicised by the NFWI. Finally, the Book Club reviewed The Other Passenger and found it wanting.
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