work in progress!

Julian has been working very hard over the winter, clearing the garden and planting up the spring bulbs. took this photo today showing the crocus bulbs just beginning to flower outside marjorie and phyll's windows.

the other work in progress is the new hair salon along the annexe - here we have the skip which was delivered last week and will soon be full of rubbish from the refurb...

hollie to the rescue!

trip to Tonbridge yesterday - shopping in boots and coffee in cafe nero for john, lucille, phyll, marie, marian and susan hs.

in spite of the rain we managed to have a nice afternoon, even when the lifting apparatus on the mini bus wouldnt work and hollie had to get it moving manually! thank goodness she was on board to help out!

art and craft afternoon

everyone looks very hard at work, being creative today. we are in the process of making a collage wall hanging for the dining room, made with silk, paper and various other materials...

Julie our tutor managed to get my sewing machine working, lucille and patti are making flowers, marie and marian made pompoms, ursula was coating the paper flowers in pva medium, jean and iris made tassels...

this is a 'work in progress' and will take a few more weeks to complete but the process is fun and will involve as many residents as possible...

looking good peggy!

Peggy's daughter came to visit today - we all remarked how glamorous Peggy looked today and Caroline said she would love to have a photo taken - so here it is!

tuesday fun...

tuesday 'Sonas' followed by keep fit. beautiful sunny day and a few residents took advantage of the lovely weather to take a walk around the grounds.

monday 7th feb

builders have arrived today to start on the renovations for our new 'hair salon' at mount ephraim house. apologies if you tried to park here today - it was a bit chaotic!

elizabeth and joan held the monday discussion group in the library today, and had a lot of fun; the group is growing bigger each week...after lunch it was Reminisence Hour with Sue ...

lucille helped me straighten out the library this morning, patti is busy writing name cards for the dining room, helen was taken out to lunch by her daughter and phyll had visitors too.

friday 4th feb

more flowers today from sainsbury's - Jean kept me company while I put them all in vases, as the residents prefered either to play bingo with christianne, or watch a film in the lounge this afternoon - we had a 'new' film today (just found it still in its wrapper on the shelf) called 'the other boleyn girl' and everyone seemed to enjoy it...

time for a walk

after the chinese lunch, we had a quiz (about china!) in the lounge - then we worked out who was born under which sign - we had a few monkeys amongst the residents as well as a couple of horses, some Ox, and a dog!

then a film show - 'The King and I' - not quite china but close (thailand i think) and that seemed to please most of the residents. the others were offered the option of making chinese lanterns or going for a walk on the common.

luckily, Julie one of our volunteers, had come to assist today, so we were able to take Marie, lucille and patty for a lovely walk on twells common. it was a beautiful afternoon, cold but sunny and the residents were so pleased to have an opportunity to get some fresh air in their lungs after so many horrible days indoors. Phyll opted to just walk around the garden.

we met some lovely dog walkers en route and fell in love with a dear little spaniel called tilly who was a rescue dog and her companion dot, the daschund!

Year of the Rabbit

Gordon and Peggy posed (willingly would you believe!) for this photo, with the Rabbit which had pride of place in the dining room today, to celebrate the new chinese year, The Year of the Rabbit.

chinese new year

sheila decorated the dining room - she had a chinese parasol, chopstick flower displays and a chinese calender. she designed a special chinese themed luncheon, and afterwards this table (helen p, marie, patty, phyll and peggy) posed for photos with their chopsticks!!

Madge - all chilled out!

Madge found a good spot on wednesday, to chill. she looked so comfortable that we decided not to disturb her; hope she appreciates the photo!

A very classical afternoon

Here are the wonderful Lesley and Ray - volunteers who have been entertaining residents of MEH for a number of years. They compile a programme of classical music and in between each piece of music, they tell the story. The lounge is always packed to the rafters when Lesley and Ray 'perform' - they are such a special couple and much appreciated by their audience.

today I asked them to pose in amongst some of the residents, here is grace,then lesley with hilda behind, then ray, sylvia, dorothy and a little bit of lucille.
the second photo shows helen p in the stalls, then susan and diana, patti in the front next to jean and robert.

checking the time zones

Lucille enquired about the time difference between new york and london so I showed her how to find out using our 'simply unite' computer system. she was then able to go and make a call to her daughter, without fear of waking her up!

scrabble champion!

monday 31st - last day of january at last; its been a long cold month.

this morning, the residents were entertained by elizabeth and joan in the library - with stories, quizzes and poetry, always a good way to start the week.

in the afternoon, Sue came to deliver the 'variety hour' which is very popular, and the lounge was full.

meanwhile, margaret, dorothy b and margaret b had a game of scrabble (assisted by hollie our new carer) and margaret (pictured here, smiling broadly!) won the game with the most points.

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.