Activities at Cubbington Mill Care Home

Residents at Cubbington Mill marked Passover with a cooking class this afternoon. They had a go at baking Matzah Bread, the unleavened bread enjoyed by Jewish people at Passover as a symbol of their ancestors escape from persecution.

Passover is an eight day festival that is celebrated from the 15th to the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan. It commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt when God ‘passed over’ the houses of the Israelites during the last of the ten plagues.

General Manager, Laura Russell said: “Passover is a very special event in the Jewish calendar and so we wanted to celebrate the occasion in style. We have all enjoyed learning about the ancient rituals involved.”

What a treat it was having PAT dog Belle, and her owner Emily from Appoint Us Services in to see our residents earlier this week. Belle is a really crowd pleaser, visiting each and every bedroom and lounge to say hi and offer herself for a stroke or cuddle.

Our residents really look forward to seeing Belle, she's such a sweetheart; very calm, a real furry tonic to put a smile on everyone's face.

The traditions of all countries are of interest to our residents. Today, Marija the Cubbington Mill activities assistant enlightened us on a big part in Lithuania's Easter celebrations; decorating hard-boiled eggs.

'Margučiai' is one of the oldest methods which involves using the tip of a needle, to paint various patterns such as the sun, stars, plants and snakes on each egg before dipping in a natural dye.

The eggs are then put on display over the Easter period to call for good harvest, and ward off evil spirits.

In celebration of Easter they're used in a egg rolling game. The eggs are tapped and rolled off an incline plank in turn as each player tries to hit the previously rolled eggs.

Each player who hits another's egg collects that egg, whoever collects most eggs, wins.

Our residents are so egg-cited to try this out when Marija is back in over the weekend. Do send us your photos if you are doing the same or have a tradition you'd like to share with our residents.

Email: Cubbington.Activities@barchester.com

Residents at Cubbington Mill enjoyed an afternoon full of flavour explosions with a ‘Bizarre Food Combinations’ sensory tasting session from Oomph Wellness. Sampling a whole variety of weird and wonderful ingredients which had been made into bitesize dishes by Head Chef, Oliver Hopkins. They tried Apple Pie with Cheese, Strawberries drizzled with Balsamic, Honey coated chips and Watermelon with Salt to name a few!

The session involved residents trying each dish and describing the texture, taste and smell to each other. They then rated the dish out of ten and created a leader board. Residents felt as if they had stepped outside of their comfort zone in this activity which led them to discuss which other combinations they could try next month.

One resident said “We had lots of fun trying all of the different flavour combinations, sweet and salty always seems to work together- my favourite was definitely the crisps and chocolate, they were delicious!”

The children at Cubbington CofE Primary School have been busy writing reviews of their favourite books for our World Book Day competition. Residents have spent the past few weeks reading through every single review and choosing their favourite. The reviews were so good we've even had a request to stock Diary Of a Wimpy Kid in our Cubbington Mill library!

A BIG well done to winner of the competition... Rebecca, who's book review and amazing illustration you can see below.

#WorldBookDay

Residents got creative celebrating the birthday of one of the greatest post-impressionist artists of all time, Vincent Van Gogh, on 30 March. Van Gogh was born in 1853 Groot-Zundert in the Netherlands and he created some of the most famous paintings in the world.

A prolific artist, Van Gogh’s work was notable for its beauty, emotion and colour. His paintings have been hugely influential since his death, however during his lifetime Van Gogh struggled with poor mental health, he was virtually unknown and remained poor. He completed more than 2,100 works consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolours, drawings and sketches.

Staff and residents spent the afternoon with Max from Creative Mojo learning about Van Gogh’s distinct style of painting, then the real fun began as the residents and staff tried their hand at recreating some his artworks whilst adding their own creative flair into the mix. They created a 3D style version of his ‘Sunflowers’ paintings from the 1800’s.

General Manager, Laura Russell, said: “We have had a fascinating day finding out all about Van Gogh, he was such a talent and created some absolutely beautiful paintings. Many of our residents love to paint and they really enjoyed discussing their favourites amongst his works and trying to recreate his techniques.”

Betty, a resident, said: “We have had such a lovely day looking at Van Gogh’s stunning paintings and visiting his yellow house. I’ve always loved his Café Terrace at Night so I really enjoyed having a go at painting it myself.”