Activities at Crabwall Hall Care Home

Our residents love nothing more than afternoon tea and cake. Our chef made a fresh batch of plain fairy cakes and a small group of residents all sat around a table in our lounge to decorate them. They had icing sugar, marshmallow bunnies and chicks, chocolate fingers, mini eggs and sprinkles.

One lady could not wait, and ate hers as she was going, but was overjoyed to get another to decorate for the competition photos!

After the cakes were finished and they all proudly had their photos taken with their creations, they tucked into their own cakes with a nice hot cup of tea.

Our residents here at Crabwall Hall, like many of us, love the scent and presence of fresh flowers around the home.

Recently, we had a number of bouquets donated from family members, and we all had fun creating our own floral displays.

Flower arranging combines many skills and senses. The imagination needed for a beautiful display requires an active mind; the senses come into play with the pretty and pleasant aromas, as well as the sight of beautiful colours, shapes and textures of the foliage. The arrangements were then spread around the home for everyone to enjoy.

For something completely different, we recently held a murder mystery event here at Crabwall Hall for our residents to participate in.

We started off by asking the residents to identify the physical clues they could see from the scenario we had set out in our garden lounge.

We then read out profiles and encounters of 6 possible suspects, and the residents had to work out from the clues who the perpetrator was…They all managed to figure out the clues and our resident, Cliff, read out the correct answer.

We then had a demonstration and a question and answers session with 2 police officers from Cheshire Police. All of our residents, some relatives and guests from the nearby private houses had a lovely afternoon.

Our residents love pub grub, and no better way to get it than popping down to the local for lunch. On our doorstep is a great pub called The Little Owl and is a firm favourite with many of our residents. It offers decent pub grub at reasonable prices, and has a permanent “Two for One” offer on which ensures the place is always packed.

This week we took a taxi and our home SUV with a small group of 4 out for lunch. The delicious dishes chosen where scampi, steak ale and chips, gammon and good old sausage and mash! Every plate was cleared and every one of our residents went back home fulfilled, not only with food, but with the well being of a trip out, mixing with the public, fresh air and a change of scenery.

We all love a bit of retail therapy and our residents are no exception. Included in our monthly schedule are weekly shopping trips to the local shops. This is offered as a one to one treat, which is very popular or can be done with a small group. This particular trip was requested by our resident Barbara, who wanted to go back to her local Waitrose in the city outskirts of Chester. Barbara used to love the short walk from her apartment in Boughton to the supermarket where she would pick up her weekly groceries and have a good chat with the staff on duty, as well as, the odd neighbour she would bump into.

Barbara thoroughly enjoyed browsing the aisles popping treats and goodies into the basket, and even recognised a member of staff and stopped for  a brief chat.

After shopping, we enjoyed a well earned coffee in the on site café, before getting the taxi home. Barbara was made up with her trip, and even more so when she tucked into the treats she had bought herself later on in the afternoon.

Our residents love to get out and about as much as possible. At the tail end of last year, three of our residents braved the cooler November weather and boarded the mini bus and we headed into the Cheshire countryside to Burwardsley to the Candle Factory Workshops.

The workshops were nice and quiet and our residents started off by painting a glass stand for their candle twist to sit in. There was a good selection of coloured paints and glitters and they all let their creative juices flow and made some lovely bright creations.

They then had a go at making their own candles. The starter wicks were carefully dipped into the melted wax a few times before the last 2 coats of their chosen colours were added. The two candles were then twisted together for the final effect. This was an activity none of our residents had ever tried before and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Whilst the candles were setting, we all enjoyed a tasty coffee and cake with views from the spacious café of the Cheshire plains and could even see Beeston Castle in the distance.