Our January meeting focused on good nutrition to keep us healthy. Our speaker, Amber Cotton is a Registered Nutritional Therapist who enjoys working with people to build a food program suitable to their age, lifestyle and health. Her topic for the evening was Mastering Midlife Metabolism. She spoke about the six pillars of Metabolic Health: Stress, Blood Sugar, Muscles, Movement, Sleep and Gut Health. The takeaway messages were importance of reducing the tendency to rollercoaster blood sugar, by regulating the amount of sugar and carbohydrates in the diet, both of which tend to spike blood sugar. Spikes increase inflammation and promote insulin resistance. One handy technique is to freeze carbohydrates before consuming which changes their structure into longer chains, making them a slower burn in our digestive system. So, cook your pasta and rice, then put in fridge for 24 hours before reheating, or freeze,

For our June meeting we planned to take advantage of the warm summer weather and long evenings to revisit Her Salisbury Footprint, the walking trail developed through Her Salisbury Story. The weather was sunny and the evening light. A group of us met in front of the Guildhall where we heard about Lady Edith Hulse the first female mayor of Salisbury. Along the south side of the Market Square, we marvelled that Jane Botly had raised seven children above the Ox Row Inn, as well as running the cutlery business. Passing the Poultry Cross we paused at the Haunch of Venison to hear about Louisa Potto who took on the license after the death of her husband. The family were not just innkeepers, but also wholesale wine and beer merchants with cellars under what is now Culver Street carpark. On the corner of High Street

Following the late cancellation of the speaker from the Nelson Trust, Julia gave a presentation about the problems of cooking in Africa. Julia lived in three different Sub-Saharan African countries for ten years and encountered the numerous problems associated with 'dirty cooking'; four out of five Africans cook with polluting fuels like charcoal, wood or kerosene. These fuels cause many problems: carbon emissions smoke - inhaled by those nearby (mostly women and children) causing respiratory problems using up natural resources (deforestation) time consuming to gather firewood (and danger of rape) cooking pot needs constant tending danger of clothes catching fire danger of children falling in fires There are many fuel efficient stoves available worldwide, but often cost too much for the average family. Schemes such as micro finance can help make them accessible. Families save in the longer term from reduced fuel bills and the

Outgoing President Jenny looked back on her two years in office. She was pleased that her aim of promoting friendship during her presidency had been successful in many ways. Although the move to the new venue was prompted by financial considerations, it had the knock-on effect of making our meetings more sociable, enabling members to mingle before and after meetings. Jenny also emphasised that the club has been successful in raising funds, raising awareness and working in partnerships with the community and other organisations to improve the lives of women and girls both locally and in Tanzania. She reminded everyone that the club needed members to step up to fill roles on the Executive as well as to lead/coordinate projects. Salisbury Women's Refuge Caroline Probert, Chair of Trustees at Salisbury Women's Refuge, spoke to the club prior to being presented with £520 from the proceeds