Isn't this sunshine amazing! We have been getting outside as much as possible: Walks in the garden, popping to the field to stroke the ponies, refreshments outside and even our team dancing a reel for residents. We had a residents meeting outside too, planning for our summer BBQs! Soaking up some sunshine and that all important Vitamin D is just the tonic!
Thank you to Carlie from Hereford Growing Point, who has been helping residents decorate terracotta pots and plant them with Spring flowers. Lovely to bring some of the outside in.
Paige won best Newcomer Carer at the West Midland Regional Great British Care Awards 2024 and went through to the national final ceremony held in Birmingham. She is such a star! She works nights at West Eaton and helps at her family farm. You can imagine the delight of residents when she brought in a baby lamb Bertie for them to cuddle. You can see from the photos and video here how their faces lit up. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1194670808955899
Nutrition and Hydration Week
This is a national awareness week and is especially important for the elderly. Hydration can be affected by medication and age and often, simply forgetting to drink enough. We tried to make it fun with themes all week. We had Milkshake Monday. Tasty Tuesday was all about trying new things. For Water Wednesday we had watercress soup for lunch and watermelon snacks. On Thirsty Thursday we enjoyed coconut water mocktails, flavoured waters and iced tea. Fruity Friday was fruit salads and kebabs and we rounded off the week making peanut granola bars on Superfood Saturday.
Musical entertainment
We had lots of residents and their families attend our residents meeting, after which we listened to Corrine Frost playing the cello.
Olly and Shula from The Orchestra of The Swan visited and went room to room playing for residents. Eddie Graham entertained us on St Patrick's Day and Wolfen Riverstick also played the guitar and sang for residents. We celebrated Mothering Sunday with families in the Spring sunshine and enjoyed Margaret playing on the piano.
In other news ...
We spent World Book Day revisiting books from our childhood as well as discovering new ones. The residents then spent an afternoon creating their own fictional characters. If you have any good picture books looking for a good home we would love to have them!
The children from Ivington CofE Primary school also visited and sang beautifully for us.
We have kicked off our Easter crafting making a Pajaki - a traditional Polish chandelier made from straw and paper used as decoration during celebrations. We had a go at making our own interpretation for Easter using old lampshades!
We have a big bingo fundraiser on 18th April and we are commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day on 8th May, with an afternoon tea. This is a national event and all out Heritage Manor homes are taking part.
