Activities at Atfield House Care Home

This year we decided to have our Christmas afternoon tea in Adrien`s Hall in Feltham. There is a newly opened cafe with great cakes and the atmosphere is buzzing with happy children ready to go on the North Pole Express.

Ice bears entertain with Christmas songs and on top of that there are hundreds of Christmas decorations to feast the eye upon in every possible colour.

Christmas trees and Santa`s are all on display, to lift visitors into the Christmas spirit. Our tables were already booked, when we arrived and we all chose our afternoon tea, to warm us up! On our tour through the halls, everybody found some of their best loved Christmas Dolls and Santa`s to hold and cherish, plus some lovely baubles to buy.

The fresh air on our journey outside was invigorating, but we were still happy to return to the warmth of Atfield House after a trip everybody said they enjoyed.

Family members, who accompanied their loved ones also enjoyed the opportunity to roam around the halls and we are happy for everybody, who made this outing a success.

A group of Residents from Atfield House went to see the Exhibition of two local artists, who work at the Redlees Park Studios. 

The artwork of Amelia Wood and the Ceramics of Peter Smith were on display. The Residents took time to view the different works and style and liked the work quite a lot. 

Sylvia purchased a small original piece of art from Amelia`s work and added another painting to her collection. Stephen, our resident artist brought some of his work along to show to the artists at the studio. He was welcomed with great respect by the artists and was able to showcase some of his artwork. 

Photos with the artists were taken and our Residents enjoyed looking around, accompanied by their family members. We all enjoyed some tea and coffee afterwards and we brought along some cake. Pamela said, she really enjoyed the outing.

Memorial Day Sunday holds a special sentiment to all as it gives us all an opportunity to commemorate those who guard us on the front lines and those who defended us in the two world wars and subsequent wars.

This is an occasion of great reverence among us, and we at Atfield wished to contribute our prayers and gratefulness.

Our residents have been preparing for this day for a while now, hand making poppy flowers to be a part of the display. We recycled old egg cartons and painted them to make the lovely poppies that adorn our premises. 

In addition, we have also been hosting regular choir practices in preparation for the event. We sang some lovely hymns.

Also, we spent the last few days leading up to Sunday making marzipan poppies to decorate all our confectionery.

On the day, we had a Councillor (a relative of our resident) come in and greet and talk to our residents. We also held 2 minutes of silence in respected memory of all those who fought in the two World Wars. We held a special service for our residents and family with hymns and poetry.

Our special visitors Jane and her group of three scouts joined us for the Commemoration in their uniforms. They played along with shakers, tambourines and bells to our ending hymn, which filled our hearts with Joy. Residents and family members placed lights into the field of poppies, remembering and saying the names of loved ones out loud, that had passed away in the 1st and 2nd world war, a truly moving moment.

The Children also joined our Residents and family members, by lighting a candle and placing it in our poppy field of remembrance. At the end they gave each Resident a poppy that they had made during our Commemoration. It was a truly meaningful time for us all, our Residents and their family members, and our special visitors!

Thank you to all, who made this  time so special!

Atfield House opened its doors to our small visitors this year for a trick or treat tour through Atfield House. Many of our residents were excited to welcome our small visitors.

There were skeletons, masks and all sorts of Halloween costumes, but our Residents felt happy and cheerful to see them and fill up their buckets with chocolates and sweets. 

They were greeted by Jean, our former deputy Head-teacher and were encouraged to dip their  hands into the basket and say thank you! Gillian had a big smile and Rosemary handed out the sweets, keeping a few for later. What a wise decision!

Our Manager Subin was at hand with more chocolates too, and when the children left, their buckets were well filled!

In Asia, India and Nepal as they are known as Hindu countries, Diwali is one of the biggest and important festival celebrated. It is the festival of lighting, family gathering, helping others.

At Atfield House Care Home we have always been proud of our diverse workforce and we make it a point to celebrate and showcase this diversity.

This year, the staff here at Atfield House came together to put up a fabulous display of pomp and colour in our shared Diwali celebrations. All of Atfield House was decked up in the festive spirit. Staff too, joined in their best traditional attires to greet and celebrate with our residents.

The celebrations started with an afternoon of learning about the history and significance of Diwali. Residents were given the chance to have a Tika signed on their forehead. Its meaning was described by one of our Staff members as: Tika is believed to prevent the loss of “energy”, the red 'Tika' between the eyebrows is said to retain energy in the human body and control the various levels of concentration. While applying Tika the points on the mid-brow region and Adnya-chakra are automatically pressed.

Staff put their best foot forward as they choreographed and performed special dance routines to enthral the guests.

After a lot of music, dance and laughter, we all indulged in some Asian inspired savouries and sweet treats, prepared by our chef. Residents enjoyed the food, music and dance. Our small and big visitors participated in the Diwali celebrations and had a Tika or a henna Mehendi drawn on their hands, enjoyed some tasty food and joined the dance!

On Saturday, the 28 of September, Atfield House in Isleworth opened its doors to host an Art Exhibition of Stephen Turrell, a resident artist at the Care Home.

The dining room became the art gallery for the afternoon, and slowly guests streamed in, and the room filled up with busy and excited viewers and soon after, the first paintings were sold. 

The art filled every corner of the room, a life-time of artistic expressions. The scenes were of busy London streets, a concert hall, horse races, and much more.

Stephen is a true London artist and he shows a love for people in his art. 

His family and friends were excited about this exhibition and attended this once in a life- time opportunity to see so much of his art- work in one display. Staff members and Residents were impressed with the art work and many pieces were sold in this exhibition.

About the Artist in Residence, by Sally Turrell: 

Stephen Turrell has been an artist for many years now, he enjoyed art as a child but picked up the brush again when his daughter Sally came home from school in 1986 upset because she couldn’t paint something. After a painting lesson from her dad (Stephen Turrell), he was then inspired to pick up the brush again. To this day, Stephen hasn't stopped painting, but not as often as he would like!

Painting became a joy for Stephen, and yearly he submitted artwork to a panel of judges a the Royal Academy of Art,  and his art was hung and sold at the Royal Academy in the year 2000!

Stephen paints from his imagination and places of experience rather than sitting and painting a scene or place and his artwork has made it to many places through family, friends and the local community.

As well as painting, Stephen took a liking to sketching funny faces by starting with a squiggle and making faces out of them.

Stephen recently held an exhibition at his care home it was enjoyed by family, friends and staff- we couldn’t believe how many paintings Stephen has created over the year - he was surprised himself!!!  The exhibition was held in the dining room and it was absolutely full of paintings from corner to corner - As the daughter of Stephen Turrell I’d like to thank the wonderful team at Atfield Hose Care home for hosting such a personal and  memorable exhibition which took me back to my childhood and of course for the continuous care they give to my dad and all residents.

Stephen has enjoyed his exhibition a lot and felt happy selling so much art, but more than that, it gave him joy, that people liked his work.

He has since then participated putting his skill to paper, creating lovely watercolours on cards in our card making work-shop!