the party for helen

happy birthday Helen! - saturday 29th January 2011

looking good!

friday jan 28th

newsletters and invitations to Oscar night being prepared to send off today - lucille kindly assisted, while helen, marie, doreen, marian, phyll and susan played bingo with Christiane.
Patty wandered down to the library for another book, to find a jigsaw puzzle in progress and couldn't resist having a go - its quite addictive!
helen c had some visitors (its her birthday on saturday) as did peggy and win.

wishing Helen a very happy birthday!

Visit to the Trinity Art gallery

today we arranged a trip to the Trinity Arts Theatre in tunbridge wells; to look at the latest exhibition in the gallery and to have tea in the cafe.

A really interesting and diverse collection of art caught the imagination of our residents, lucille, patty, marie, gordon and marian, who were joined by Julia, one of our volunteers, and carer Hollie.

This exhibition was entitled 'snapshots from the mind of an artist' by Tim Edmonds. everyone seemed to find a painting they especially liked, and provoked much discussion. to our delight, the artist suddenly appeared to answer our questions on the various pieces and agreed to pose for us too.

we told him that we would be featuring him on our 'blog' today!

if you want any more info please visit his website: www.tim-edmonds.co.uk

happy birthday Iris

Iris celebrated her 90th birthday yesterday with the help of her friends and fellow residents and staff at mount ephraim house. Here she is blowing out the candles on her beautiful cake, being applauded by the residents! A special day for a very special lady.

computer training

Val, our computer tutor came today and helped marian get 'online' using her own laptop. she was able to surf the net and check out google earth...

meanwhile, marie was using the meh computer to look at history of tunbridge wells, in particular the site under threat for redevelopment- the civic centre in the centre of town.

Robert Burns celebrations

we broke with tradition today by celebrating Burn's night at lunchtime! Hilda came with me to the Tunbridge wells library to collect some books on scotland, robert burns, a dvd of coast and a cd of robert burns songs.

after a lunch with a scottish theme, we held a quiz in the lounge, read a poem by robert burns and finished with a round of auld lang syne!!

morning entertainment

An enthusiastic Madge joins in with the musical session this morning, with her marakas!
Win, jean, ursula, helen c, patty, pat k, also joined in. Keep fit followed so everyone was ready for their coffee break at 11.30...

thankyou nick

Phyll's son Nicholas sent us these lovely spring bulbs as a thankyou to the MEH staff, as he was leaving to go home to New Zealand.  He said they would remind us that spring is on its way! What a lovely thought!

start of another week.......

Monday, 24 January 2011

start of another week...

called in to sainsburys on my way to work today to pick up MORE flowers!  really lovely spring tulips amongst the bouquets today.  the home looks and smells really welcoming with all the blooms so thanks again to the kind people of sainsburys (denise in particular) who are donating them to us at the moment.

New resident Sheila is settling in well; usual monday morning get together of residents in the library with the volunteers, for a chat over coffee. Sue was back from her skiing trip today and held a reminisence session in the lounge

shopping trip

to round off the week we arranged a shopping trip to Barsley's in Paddock Wood as we heard a sale was on! 
Phyll, lucille, helen p, gordon, john, marie and marion decided to come and spend their money and Christane (one of our volunteers) accompanied us.  we had tea in their friendly cafe (customer service in barsley's is exceptional) and got back before the rush hour.

coffee break!

after the dance class today, beccy posed for photo's with some of her star 'pupils', having their well deserved coffee break - the others got away once they saw the camera!!

here is peggy, pat, ursula and marjorie. win, margaret, phyll, helen and grace also took part. classes move to a wednesday morning from next week.

thursday 20th jan

Finalizing the newsletter today with Claire at Printwells; should be ready to send out next week.  Also planning the Oscar's Party and you should be receiving your invitation with the newsletter!

Charity was in today, styling the residents hair, then it was liver and bacon for lunch, and a regular entertainer, Jon McDevitt came to play guitar in the lounge to an enthusiastic audience. Jon says MEH is one of his favourite homes to visit as everyone is so welcoming and appreciative!

Meanwhile, down in the library,Marian beat me at scrabble -  with Hollie keeping score, and Patty was busy with pen and ink doing some calligraphy for the dining room.

more flowers today!

We received another lovely batch of flowers from sainsbury's today and this time my helpers were Madge, Peggy and Ursula.


we filled another dozen vases to put around the home; these lovely pink flowers Madge wanted for her room - she was thrilled with them!

tuesday 18th jan

lovely sunny crisp day today, marie and dorothy went for a nice walk this morning (we couldn't persuade anyone else to venture out!) and came back glowing.  it was a busy day for visitors - lots of residents seeing their family and friends.  after lunch there was a film show in the lounge, 'ladies in lavender' starring judi dench.  its such a nice film and although some residents have seen it before, they were more than happy to watch it again.

nikita working hard...

meanwhile, nikita was working away in the office, so hollie snapped a picture without her even noticing - she was so engrossed!

a new game..

we had a delivery today of some new games - one of them was a card game called 'trades' which was good fun - patty,jean, hollie and I had go.

patty is checking the blog..

Patty was answering her emails today; including one from Canada - her niece checks the blog regularly, so Patty decided to have a look to see what she has been up to lately!! Hollie, one of the new carers at MEH, is reading along with Patty...

tea time...

tea time at mount ephraim, a welcome sight in the middle of the afternoon! here is jean helping herself to a slice of cake (homemade of course!)

a sneak peek of the results

this is just a taster of some of the art that was produced today, using paint, sponges, large brushes and stamps. the gorgeous silk background was given to us by patty's daughter and it sets off the work brilliantly. there is still a way to go before this wall hanging is finished so watch this space...

art class monday

Our talented art therapy teacher who visits once a month, came today to interest our residents in abstract art - the idea being to get everyone together to produce a collage for our dining room. the theme is flowers, using fabric and paper.

Monday's are also the day that our volunteers elizabeth and joan come to read and chat but today they joined in with the art class, gently encouraging those who are not quite sure about 'modern art'!
once everyone had relaxed a bit and lost their inhibitions, some really good stuff was produced... and they should be very proud of themselves.
here we have susan, pat, doroth with julie and joan, then below, is marie, patty with volunteer elizabeth.