peggy 'picasso'

lovely afternoon, chance to put up our new parasol!  tried to encourage the residents to join us on the patio for some sun and fresh air... but while some were happy to watch a film in the lounge, peggy, lucille, eileen and patty were the only ones brave enough to come outside! we were joined by some of the staff, had tea and chocolate biscuits and  peggy  surprised herself by trying some 'modern' art - we framed one piece and started a collage from her original canvas- a work in progress! 

the sun is going down now and peggy has gone along to the salon to have her hair done! lucille offered to wash up the tea cups and patty has gone to watch 'pointless'

end of a perfect day

 

 

 

tuesday treats

 

 

after a busy morning of 'keeping fit' with sue,

lilo sits down with jean to share some time colouring - a very therapeutic exercise - patty certainly thinks so!

eileen starts on a new puzzle - 500 pieces but my goodness its a challenge!
ann had some dear friends visit....

and

the ladies in the lounge enjoyed a relaxing afternoon!

happy birthday Peggy & Marise

may 13th - two birthday girls... Peggy who celebrated at MEH today and Marise who has gone to Eastbourne for the week with relatives and missed out on her cake!

these gorgeous flowers arrived for Marise today; we will have to keep them in water and look after them until she returns from holiday!  maybe her hosts will check the blog!

encaustic art...

just thought i would show the 'encaustic' artwork produced by our residents last saturday, with the help of sheila and di.  really fun art pieces, may be made into greeting cards,,,

end of a busy week...

friday finished with scrabble, quiet read in the library, a visit from Thomas the PAT dog, with owner Pam, fish 'n' chips for lunch, and 'Quartet' film show in the lounge this afternoon (complete with choc ices in the interval!) joan and ann had visitors, iris and patty tried some colouring and peggy bravely sat in the garden!

happy birthday susan

susan celebrated her '21st' birthday again today!  her birthday outing had to be postponed until saturday but she enjoyed a quiet birthday, with cards, presents and the obligatory birthday cake and candles, plus of course a verse of 'happy birthday; from her friends at MEH!

SPRING FAYRE

our spring fayre today was fun and helped to boost the residents amenity fund by nearly £100. grateful thanks to our volunteers, residents, relatives and staff who helped to make it possible.

please note:  next relative's meeting is on thursday 9th may at 1pm
followed by our annual SPRING FAYRE

Look forward to seeing you there!

A TRIP ON THE RIVER MEDWAY

The Kingfisher Medway Trust is a registered charity. It was set up to commission the building of a boat which would provide river trips for disadvantaged people of all ages.
She was designed by a marine architect and constructed to meet all necessary safety requirements and is licensed to carry a maximum of 12 passengers.
A team of qualified skippers and trained crew members, all volunteers, operate the boat on its trips from her berth at Wateringbury on the river Medway.

we certainly picked a good day for a trip down the river!  peggy, mary, denis, ann and marie had a wonderful afternoon with lilo, annie and lara plus John our very helpful driver!  the  crew were amazing - providing tea on arrival, letting the staff help with the locks, and handing over the steering to marie, mary and lilo (we were presented with certificates at the end) who enjoyed the experience.

                    We say goodbye to Jess 

We are very sorry to say goodbye to Jess who has been with us for 5 years.

She will be missed very dearly by residents and colleagues.

She has made a fantastic contribution to our team and a difference to the lives of our residents by  always delivering high person centred care taking time to get to know residents.

Jess is beginning a new career as an enablement officer and we are sure that she will be an asset in her new team.

We hope that she will keep in touch and wish her the very best for the future.

Goodbye.................

farewell...

...to Biggi,Svala,Maria,Bee,Dalila, linda and bd, wishing you a safe journey, hope you enjoyed your stay...

Last lunch...

Fish n chips were on the menu today a very English meal to say farewell to our visitors from Iceland; they all enjoyed it very much!

Icelandic exchange

eric's memorial

 

following Eric's funeral on monday, we hosted a tea-party in his memory, so that all the residents could pay their respects and remember eric, swop stories and look at his photographs..

we were joined by his friends, Vivienne, Anne and David.  A special  prayer for was said for Eric by Anne and we celebrated his life. 

choir practise!

residents and staff had expressed a desire to form a choir at MEH and their wish was granted - with the help of Tony and Patsy who arrived yesterday afternoon with a keyboard and music...
they taught the residents four songs - and tony said he was impressed!  he is coming again in a few weeks time and has asked everyone to practise meanwhile !!

 

ERIC LARKIN

Eric Larkin was a much loved resident at

Mount Ephraim House.  He was humorous, kind and thoughtful; he fed the birds, he bought garden furniture for the residents to enjoy, he loved dancing and was popular with the ladies; he went to church regularly, enjoyed bingo and a game of scrabble.....He loved sheepdogs, a pint of beer, reading the paper, chocolate and classical music...!  He will be sorely missed. R.I.P.

 

 

His funeral took place today at the Tunbridge Wells Crematorium.

 

Celebrating 58 years of McDonalds!!

the first franchised McDonalds was opened in Illinois on april 15th 1955 by Ray Kroc.  today is their 58th birthday, so we decided to have a celebration of our own.  we had planned to take some residents to the restaurant on north farm trading estate, but instead, we opted to bring McDonalds to the residents!

Marie accompanied me with the food list and sheila and di laid up the table in the games room.  we had fun with the 'free' toys in our happy meal boxes but first prize must go to Peggy for the longest shot!

good fun today, ronald would be proud...

mary, peggy, marie, and marise were joined by di, sheila, me and heidi... it was the first time some of the residents had eaten a mcdonalds; never too late for a new experience!!

The Mad Hatters Tea Party -3pm today!

Sheila and Diana have spent months organizing a 'mad hatters tea party' at Karen's request, as part of a national competition we are entering.... and what a brilliant afternoon we had...lots of cakes and tarts and tea...music, tea pots and cake stands and bunting, clocks and playing cards....a real mad hatters tea party, complete with the Queen of Hearts (karen) queen of tarts (mb) doormouse (di) alice (heidi) the knave (hilary) white rabbit (gary)cheshire cat (sarah) and of course the mad hatter herself (sheila) - we were even presented with certificates for our costumes and so too were the residents who helped to make things for the party - marie, marise,eileen, to name a few...

nearly all of the residents attended and we were pleased to have friends and family joining in; there was a raffle, cake sale and some gorgeous mini mad hats to buy... in total the girls raised £80.

i think they deserve first prize for the amazing effort, the creative skill and organization of the event which the residents and guests really enjoyed.

the mad hatters theme was such fun that we intend to follow it through with the spring fayre and summer fayre ...!

volunteers lunch

karen and the staff  wanted to personally thank all the wonderful volunteers who give their time and energy to the residents at Mount Ephraim House and a lunch was arranged at a local hotel.

just a few of the guests shown; julia, christiane, lesley & joan with deputy manager hilary and manager karen...

A GENTLE REMINDER.....

its the official
MOUNT EPHRAIM HOUSE
MAD HATTER'S TEA PARTY
ON THURSDAY 11th APRIL at 3pm

please don't forget to RSVP to Sheila and Diana (invitations were sent out last month) asap!
They have made loads of cakes and goodies, you won't want to miss it...

new poetry club...

....started today, courtesy of Annette.  The theme today was 'Roses' - Annette read two poems about roses which led to a lively discussion amongst the residents (marie, phyl, susan, eileen, patty, helen and denis) and was followed by some pampering with rose scented hand cream and to finish, karen provided a tin of roses chocolates!  Annette had thoughtfully bought some beautiful pink roses and arranged them in vases to complete the picture! 

the next session is in 3 weeks time - the topic being 'holidays' - suggested by one of the residents today - Annette whetted their appetite by reading the holiday poem by Pam Ayres.

our new spring collage...

....was finished today. its a project we started with julie a month or so ago. today the residents put the finishing touches to it and then all that was left was for the background to be painted on the canvas (courtesy of peggy) the flowers cut out (marie and patty) butterflies and the sun added (eileen) and the whole thing assembled (everyone)  when its dry it will be displayed in the dining room...

meet our new friends!

karen brought these in today - our newest 'residents' - they need names though, any suggestions?

catch-up....

this is what has been happening over the last few days...

 

peggy, denis and mary went to the theatre so see a show called 'soul sister' a tribute to tina turner act - they and the staff had a great time ......

 

thursday before easter we visited burrswood for tea. vivienne and her friend anne arranged to help and kindly pointed out the fritteleries and daffodils on the way. it was nice enough to walk in the grounds and enjoy the views........

easter sunday, special roast lunch in the dining room. vivienne came to help and the staff were presented with this gorgeous easter egg from a very kind relative............

a good day for MEH

while Karen and some of the staff were away today at the annual Greensleeves Accolades Event,held this year at The Oval, our residents were busy...sonas and keep fit this morning & music for health with heather this afternoon for many of the residents.  eileen she did some flower arranging then settled down to do a jigsaw in the library, joined later by James (from school) and Mary, who wanted to play scrabble. Marise came in to make a card and Patty offered to draw a poster for us while marie and joyce went for a walk and susan went out with friends.

we  are pleased to report that the news came through in the afternoon that ....MOUNT EPHRAIM HOUSE won 'Home of the Year' 2013, judged to be best out of the 17 other Greensleeves Homes in the group.  well done Karen, you must be doing something amazing!  Sheila and Diana won a very prestigious (and well deserved) Accolade - 'Unsung Heroes' - recognizing their fantastic contribution to life at MEH, going the extra mile for residents.

garden renovations are underway

julian, our gardener, has taken these photos to show the progress of the current garden transformation- new fruit trees, an extension of the garden path so that residents can do a circular tour without any steps or 'dead-ends' and the new water butt installed to conserve water.  really exciting work going on and should all be ready in time for the summer! 

friday march 14th

wet and windy today, but didnt stop the gardeners cracking on with the garden renovations - they were pressure hosing the patio and getting the vegetable garden ready for sowing...Thomas our 'PAT' dog paid a visit and anne tried her hand at some painting. mary said she had forgotten how to play the piano (she was right) and then announced she would like to learn to play the yukele (any offers?) christiane our friday volunteer came to call the bingo followed by a general knowledge quiz which is always popular.  Izzie and James came from school to visit the residents - they ended up playing scrabble with mary and i think james won this time!

and this is how anne's picture turned out, amazing.

happy christmas karen!

...karen's christmas present was delivered by hand today ....better late than never....

watercolour collage

julie visited today for an art session. she was joined by phyl, patty, marise, marie, eileen,ken and lucille - all enjoyed playing with paint and trying out new techniques.  this is the basis of a collage entitled  'living by design' which residents will finish over the next few weeks.

meanwhile, jane was in the library, giving computer lessons to hester & iris, and later, after their art session, marie, eileen and ken. Marie was keen to find (out using google) what  the 'Aintree Iron' was/is.There are so many possibilities but she is not sure which one she prefers!  Hester has found lots more long lost relatives...sorry denis, you didn't get a turn today but jane will see you next time and you will be first in the queue!!

charity was here in the salon, with a full client list and audrey, joan and helen p had visits from their daughters' today; wins' son came by too...

keeping the students amused!

on wednesday afternoons, our lovely students from the local schools,come to visit residents.  Joan, Jean and Phyl are good fun and enjoy trying to beat Beth and Anthony at connect 4 or pin-ball.Then its time for a cup of tea and a chat before they head home to do their homework...