Clouds mimicking the shape of the ridge and furrow field .
“I wondered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;”
(I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by Williams Wordsworth)
Welcome to Wardington House’s latest newsletter
You can’t help but notice the nights are now drawing in fast and with Winter just around the corner I couldn’t resist this beautiful bright photo Emma captured recently. You can almost imagine that there are actually daffodils on the left of the photo and fool yourself into thinking it is Spring. Well I hope this photo and news of what has been happening this month adds to the brightening up of your day!
Activities
Do you recall me saying there was still so much to happen in the Autumn – well it certainly has all been happening here!
Two of our Nursing Assistants, Danielle and Becci have joined the Activities team and have been busy with the residents doing a variety of amazing activities.
Cooking and crafting has been taking place, with residents: making wonderful scented cinnamon biscuits; putting their fingers to work with creating some fiddly corn dollies and creating paper autumn leaf wreaths.
Residents making tasty cinnamon biscuits.
Residents creating cute corn dollies.
A paper autumn leaf wreath made by some residents.
Have you noticed the marvellous knitted vegetables dotted about the home? These have been delightful in initiating conversation about harvest and food, as well as an opportunity for the knitters amongst us to admire the handy work and talk about items we have knitted in the past.
A basket of neat knitted vegetables on display in the hall.
With vegetables galore, both real and fake, the residents enjoyed a Harvest themed coffee morning with the most delicious carrot cake ever tasted – second slices were very much in demand.
We were then pleased to welcome everyone for the Harvest Festival Service. This was a joyful service with readings from residents, staff and a family member. Well known hymns such as We Plough the Seeds and Scatter and All Things Bright and Beautiful were sung and a lovely time was had. Thank you to Sarah for designing some stunning floral displays for this occasion.
Harvest themed coffee morning Harvest Festival Service display.
Some of our other visitors had vegetables on their minds too! Residents enjoyed an afternoon making a fuss of some beautiful bunnies and gorgeous guinea pigs that visited.
Residents enjoying the company of some cuddly, cute animals.
A fabulous fruit then took over the scene as Halloween swept through the home. It was very much a ‘Happy Halloween’ with residents creating the happiest pumpkin faces ever seen, a non-serious skeleton and happy grinned ghosts. An afternoon tea of eye boggling cakes was then feasted on to celebrate the occasion.
Halloween themed items – can you spot the ghosts?
Happy carved pumpkins!
Halloween crafts made by the residents.
Residents happy at the Halloween themed afternoon tea.
Memorial Tree
A marvellous magnolia tree has been planted, at the front of the house, in memory of one of our residents, at the request of their family. Thank you to members of the facilities team for helping make this happen. We look forward to watching it grow amongst all the other lovely plants Emma has recently planted.
Facilities team helping in the planting of the Magnolia Tree.
Emma’s Update
Emma’s Update
“Autumn is so beautiful and we’ve had some lovely sunny days which make all the reds, yellows, and browns look even more luxurious. The leaves are falling fast now and we can spend a whole day picking them up only to come back the next day and it looks like we haven’t done a thing. It does make a difference though and it keeps us out of knee high drifts of leaves! We collect most of them up and they go into a bay separate from the compost and when rotted down will be used to mulch some of the beds.
Eye-catching coloured leaves on the trees at Wardington House
Autumn is also the beginning of a big garden tidy up. Working through each area, cutting down the foliage once it’s died back, pulling out weeds and neatening the edges. We’ve also been doing a bit of planting, dividing and moving plants that the dry spring and summer has prevented us from doing until now. Some hedges are also getting haircuts now there is no danger of disturbing any nests or baby birds.
Yellow holly berries – have you spotted them on your walk around?
Watch Out Chickens About!
We love letting the chickens out in the garden to enjoy a free range life. With less plants/flowers/foliage from them to scratch about in and destroy, autumn and winter is the perfect time for them to be out and about. So anyone visiting us with your lovely dogs please make sure they are on a lead at all times to keep our girls safe. You never know where they might pop out from. Thank you”
One of our photogenic chickens posing perfectly.
The Month Ahead
November promises to start off with a bang with Bonfire Night being the theme for the first week. The traditional staff sparklers display will take place, as well as a variety of colourful creative activities.
Sunday, 9th November is Remembrance Sunday. A selection of activities will be happening in the build up to this important day: poppy crafts; reminiscing; car rides to see the local decorations as well as a Remembrance themed coffee morning on the 11th of November.
World Nursery Rhyme Week also takes place in November. Like them or love them they are something that stay with us throughout the years. We will be reminiscing all about them – whether as a child being sung to or singing them to our children/grandchildren.
With St Andrew’s Day being the last day of the month our activities the week prior will be based on stunning Scotland.
Amongst our themed activities we will be holding a banana split afternoon tea – this was very popular with the residents last time so is back on popular demand! Another popular demand event is the African Drumming with In2Culture. This will take place at 2pm on Friday 21st November.
The following regular activities will also take place this month: singing with Tristan Pate (weekly) and Katie Holland (monthly); Exercise Classes with Alfie (fortnightly); Josie the PAT dog (fortnightly); afternoon tea at Harley Equestrian Cafe (monthly) and in-house Church Services (fortnightly).
Care at Wardington House
If there is anyone you know, who might need our care, please tell them about us and we will be happy to help.
Wardington House Contact Information:
Telephone: 01295 750622
This goes to the office during the working day, or to the nurses’ office during evenings and weekends.
For general or administration queries, please email [email protected].
For Accounts, please email Julie Linzey at: [email protected]
For George Tuthill, please email: [email protected]
P.S If you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter please contact Gemma Shaw at [email protected]
Compiled and edited by Gemma Shaw
