Jewellery craft with jenny

Relaxing in the art room...

Making the most of the lovely weather!

Valentine's day love...

Friday - ray of sunshine

Amazing to see some sunshine and blue sky today... Martina, lucille, Mary p all ventured out for a walk. Visitors arrived, chiropodist came, knit 'n natter in the library, music and quiet time in the lounge, fish and chips for lunch and bingo with Christiana this afternoon ...then the quiz!

Joan's family played a game of pinball - the concentration on Joan's face is priceless- she beat them by a mile!

We made a start on decorating the Home with the hearts we are making for valentines day; Margaret helped thread the wool and hung the hearts on the lit trees. Very pretty
There are daffodils at reception and it feels like spring is around the corner.

oh, and it was 'wear red' for heart foundation day - we had to wear something red for work and donate a pound for the privilege.  a quick trip to Sainsbury's on the way to work ensured I had the requisite outfit - not sure I will ever wear it again but all for a good cause!! Karen was in a red suit and gary of course had his red ensemble (shame about the shoes)... wonder how much we raised today...

Staff (post) Christmas meal

We went to Palio's on Thursday evening and had a lovely meal ... Good fun to get everyone together

The aquarium....

Brian 'the fish' came to do his monthly maintenance the other day and I think we have some new additions. One of our residents kindly looks after the fish every day by dispensing their food ...

craft and choc afternoon with jenny

jenny one of our new volunteers, came armed with her craft stuff and a HUGE box of choccies for the residents!  a good start to the afternoon of knitting hearts, and thinking about other craft ideas for the summer fayre...

iris who was a bit rusty with her knitting, persevered and by the end of the afternoon she had got back in her stride, with a little help from marie.  Eileen, Lucille, peggy, and mary joined in.  Karen popped in to see how we were getting on; Loraine was in the salon for the manicure service and we put the film 'Matilda' on in the lounge for the other residents to watch.  oh and of course, patty was in the background at her easel, doing some posters for us. 

peggy, jean and margaret's lovely artwork...

Thursday

Hairdressing day always busy - a queue for the best slot at the salon so as not to miss anything going on today! Doug wake came to entertain ; always popular - he had the room buzzing with everyone joining in the old favourites - even a bit of 'chair' dancing going on!
When I arrived this morning Peggy, and Mary were already hard at work in the games room with their art work - Margaret and lucille joined us and we got out the paints - with elvis providing backing!

The NCT group met in the library's - 5 scrummy babies played happily with their toys while the mums relaxed with a cup of tea. I took Jude along to see Hester and iris - and he obliged by laughing and smiling on cue - made their day! Marie wanted to nip into town for 'a few bits'

Everyone gone to supper now so time to clear away and go home...

Tuesday

Walking in the garden on a beautiful winter's day, with martina, Peggy, lucille and Eileen - we spotted the first spring flowers peeping out of the earth... Rita came along to chat with olive and iris and a few other residents in the lounge over coffee ...
After lunch, Lorraine our new manicurist set up in the salon, Eileen went shopping for a new lamp and new volunteer jenny arrived for a craft session; she showed us how to make knitted hearts. Meanwhile heather had a lounge full for 'music for health. ' Later, Mary claimed the volunteers from TWGS for herself for a lively game of scrabble!

Had to take some photos in the beautiful lighting shop for Eileen ....spoilt for choice!

We now have a karaoke player and had two wonderful singing sessions over the weekend
Marise sang an Irish song which she knew of by heart.
Peggy sang also along with Gloria, Margaret and Doreen.
Staff also joined in, great fun was had by all.
We plan to have many more Karaoke sessions..........................

         Tiny Babies

We were visited on Friday by Gary with his litter of adorable labrador puppies ..........

Indoor ten pin bowling....

Leanne set up the skittles in the lounge and quite a few people were game enough to have a go....after she had worn everyone out, we had another team quiz complete with limerick and sonnet recitals!

Friday

Another week flown by, still raining but at least it's not too cold and everyone is in good spirits... Gary brought in his puppies to show the residents today - only a few weeks old and soooo sweet... Think Karen may try to adopt one!! Pictures to follow...

The knit and natterers met in the library - we have enough squares for another blanket (any offers to see them all together gratefully received!) bingo, scrabble , colouring and quizzes etc going on during the day while the senior care staff blitzed the office ...

Show and Tell- jan 2014

Our new year show and tell got off to a great start today... I'm always amazed at the variety of interesting things our residents bring along...

This time we had a beautiful spoon from Eileen with a fascinating family story, a very old and beautiful plate, a still life sketch, a painted pebble and lovely knitting.... Mary surprised us by revealing she has a bridge named after her and Eileen persuaded her to show and share with us an amazing Christmas present she received from her daughter....the most beautiful quilt made from her late husbands shirts. It was a very emotional moment and brought a lump to our throats... But then in true Mary style she made us laugh by revealing that she didn't care for one of his shirts but he liked it so she never said anything!!

We had tea and chatted about childhood memories and then of course it was time to clear away so Marie and the others could watch 'pointless' !!

Chinese lanterns...

After an exhausting morning of keep fit (!) we decided on a more leisurely activity this afternoon - making paper lanterns - in preparation for our Chinese New Year celebrations. We used papers that our residents had painted, coloured in or collaged, and the results are stunning! So many took part - we had something of a production line going with Marie at the helm! Afterwards we did a 'team' quiz which was fun - even patty's visitor joined in!

Dart Champions at Mount Ephraim House

on Saturday Di and Sheila hosted a dart competition  in the games room - staff and residents joined in the fun and were rewarded with coffee and homemade cakes!