Activities at Braeburn Lodge Care Home

Our monthly Ladies Tea mornings have become quite popular in our wonderful home. It’s the perfect opportunity for our ladies to get together, have a good old natter about their past adventures, while indulging on a good cup of tea and delicious treats.

Today’s Tea Morning was quite special as it was a Valentine’s themed event, where we focused on talking about our most loved family members. Our residents also spoke out their romantic getaways and how they loved to go abroad with their children also. It was certainly a heart filled Tea Morning at Braeburn this month!

Today was a very special day at Braeburn Lodge. All our residents and staff members received a personalised gift in aid of this romantic Day. We really wanted to spread the love amongst everyone. Our wonderful residents were also treated to a romantic candlelight lunch, as well as being serenaded by the lovely Nick Glover, who sang some wonderful songs dating back to the good old 50's and 60's.

As tradition goes, Saint Valentine wore a ring with a Cupid on it, a symbol of love that helped soldiers recognise him. He also handed out paper hearts to remind all Christians of their love for God. Today was not only a religious day, but also a day for sharing love. We certainly love all our residents at Braeburn lodge.

On this special day, we took some time out to celebrate Candlemas with some of our wonderful residents. Candlemas is known as the festival of light. It is celebrated on 2nd February to honour light warding off evil and death and assuring prosperity. Christians take candles to be blessed in church, while for those with a sweet tooth, this day is also a chance to eat sweet delights such as pancakes!

Our residents enjoyed the morning by reading about the history of this day, as well as watching a pre-recorded Candlemas church service, from The Church of England website. Residents from all four communities within our home joined us for this spiritual event, making it even more special. The prayers and hymns sang during this activity was enjoyed by all.

Across the country our homes and hospitals came together to find out which care home or hospital had the best Bingo players as we teamed up for Barchester’s Bingo Bonanza.

Residents were treated to some exciting virtual games of Bingo as part of Barchester’ very own game show series.

Everyone who participate had a fantastic time and enjoyed some friendly competition.

Across our homes we had a fantastic time joining, Kathryn Delve, Master Florist, for a Valentine’s-inspired live virtual flower arranging demonstration. Kathryn shared brilliant and creative ways to decorate our tables with beautiful flowers that are sure to make your heart swoon!

Those participating in this virtual event put their skills to the test and followed along with some amazing creations of their own.  Residents truly enjoyed the experience.

Reading aloud, whether to someone else or even to oneself, activates the frontal cortex and may have a role in helping to rehabilitate the cognitive functions of residents. Although many of them find it difficult in reading on their own, often due to reduced vision or chronic health concerns.

Today, it was a first for our lovely Nursing community. We created personalised bookmarks and selected a book each before sitting down to read with them. We tried to select novels or books that we thought may be of interest, some of which were selected based on the past careers of our wonderful residents. It was so wonderful to see the faces on our residents during this activity and we look forward to running a regular book club in the future.