Activities at Atfield House Care Home

Visiting St. Johns church was a lovely experience for some of our Residents today. It is only a small walk away from Atfield Care Home. The Priest met us at the door and made us feel welcome at once. The service was lovely and to see a church with its stain glass windows, the beautiful lights and altar, experience the songs, prayers and being able to participate in communion, was a meaningful time for the Residents. They remembered the street and houses on the way and how they changed over the years, since they have been children. The weather was delightful, sunny and quite warm. It was a lovely time out, sharing a hot beverage and meeting children and adults from the local community after the service!

At Atfield Care Home, our Residents had a very unusual visitor yesterday afternoon. Two Ponies came walking into the Home, and surprised our Residents, though we were eagerly awaiting this unusual visit! The smaller Shetland pony, called Freddy, walked with its guardian from room to room, to visit residents.  Brandy enjoyed visits from Residents and Family members, while enjoying the grass in our  gardens and some apples too!. The response of some Residents were;  expressions of joy and words, like: I love you! Others wanted to stroke the pony or feed them with apples. June looked at the Pony long and concentrated, with sympathy, that made the pony stand still in anticipation for a good few minutes! Other Residents felt more comfortable at a few yards distance and enjoyed posing for photo shoots.

Our Residents felt profoundly touched and lifted up by this experience and we hope to see the team with the Ponies in the future.

This morning, Residents of Atfield Care Home were excited to join the trip to Princess Alice Hospice. During this year our Residents have been very busy, producing lovely pieces of art and craft work. These were sold to raise money for our Residents chosen charity, which was Princess Alice Hospice.

Today was the lucky day, when we handed our funds to Sophie at the Princess Alice Hospice, along with 2 cream cakes our chef had made for the staff members at the Hospice. They were very happy for our Fund raising events and are eager to find out how we will continue with fundraising ideas and events.

The cakes were also very much appreciated and staff will enjoy them for their lunch time treat today!  Very special Thanks goes also to the family members of Residents at Atfield Care Home, who contributed to the funds too!

At Atfield Care Home, we had our first session of the intergenerational music project. 12 children from Nisthtam school took part in the project. Caroline instructed the children in the songs and actions and interactive activities with the Residents. The session was enjoyed by the Children and the Residents alike and we are looking forward to next week`s session already!

Today, on national poetry day, residents at Atfield House were very creative! Together we have written the poem for our autumn display. Stuart took the time to write it out once more, in his best hand writing! All the members of the club contributed with their best memories and experiences of autumn, which we then crafted together into this poem:

Falling leaves, announcing shorter days,
The cold is creeping in,
Covering the meadows with a layer of silvery coating,
Put down by our friend of old, named Jack Frost.
We love walking through the meadow, covered in fallen leaves.
They make a sound under our feet.
The smell of rotting conkers on the ground,
Squirrels running all around,
To find a meal or two, and one to hide beneath the ground.
When darkness covers the earth,
The animals hibernate,
And mankind takes an early rest,
Until spring rises for the best!

By Stewart, Gillian, Sibyl and Carmen

The Residents at Atfield Care Home did extremely well with the start of our ALPHABET QUIZ!  The Residents in Memory lane came up with a total number of 21 words, starting with A. To this our Residents added 67 more words, starting with A! it was a truly mind-boggling performance. There were very unusual and interesting words added to the board. We applauded our winner Stuart, who added a total number of 21 words to the board! We are looking forward to see, how many words we will come up with in our next Quiz session!