Activities at Hilderstone Hall Care Home

Resident Mary leads the way for us all into Autumn with an Art Gallery and Poetry display

The leaves descend like rain;

Painting a picture of a red and gold bonfire.

The fallen leaves collect like multi-coloured raindrops on the ground.

Cross children kick the leaves in the park,

Taking out their temper.

A beautiful russet and gold coloured forest.

Timid deer dart around fearful of humans.

Hedgehogs roll into a prickly little ball –

A spiky menace to defend against foes.

A sly fox camouflaged by his coat, creeps up on his prey.

Short misty days; longer dark nights.

This is Autumn.

Residents, and staff members at Hilderstone Hall celebrated the Harvest Festival by delivering their food bank collection box to the Charity, Trussell Trust.

The Harvest Festival is a celebration of food grown on land and, traditionally, a time for families and communities to get together and bring food to the less fortunate. It dates back to the fifth century, where it was common for the harvest season to be celebrated with a huge feast – and from then the tradition grew and evolved.

Liz Walsh, General Manager said: “Staff, residents, and friends from the local community of the home all donated very generously to the harvest hamper, which was sent to the Trussell Trust in Stoke on Trent and it really is heart-warming to see how much people care about helping others who are less fortunate. Thank you to everyone who contributed."

The Activities team always try to make sure that the birthday gift given to residents from the Home is as personal as it can be.  During a conversation with one of the team about books, Hilary mentioned that she loves detective stories and, in particular, the novels of Ngaio Marsh and her gentleman detective character, Inspector Alleyn.  Hilary had been an avid reader of these books some years ago and no longer has any of her own copies, but she said she would love to read them again.  The books are now out of print, but the team found some of Marsh’s novels on-line and bought three as a birthday present for Hilary, along with a lovely bunch of flowers.  Hilary was both surprised and overjoyed and is starting on the first one straight away!

Residents with a faith have the opportunity to come together for a session of prayer, hymns, readings and contemplation. 

The local vicar, who normally visits the home on a regular basis, has been emailing in suggestions for short prayer meetings to allow residents a means to continue to express their faith in her absence.  These get-togethers, hosted by the Activities team, have proved popular with residents who take time to discuss their faith, say prayers and listen to bible readings and hymns during the fortnightly meetings. 

At the most recent session, residents talked about charity and listened to the story of “The Rich Young Man” from the Gospel of St Mark. The session ended with the rousing hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers

Residents enjoyed a day of activities themed around the author Roald Dahl.  During the morning, residents reminisced about some of his famous books – fondly remembering reading them to children and grand-children –  such as “The Twits” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, whilst enjoying a selection of chocolates.  The conversation then turned to the television program “Tales of the Unexpected” and the iconic opening title sequence.  This was followed by a reading of his most famous short story – “Lamb to the Slaughter”.

To celebrate International Dog Day staff of Hilderstone Hall bought in photos of their four legged friends for Residents to judge.  It was a hard decision as there was so many cute faces!

After much deliberation the winner was names - 1st came Billy the Jackawawa who is owned by Tracy Oulton the homes Activities Coordinator, 2nd place was awarded to Bella the Chihuahua who is owned by Gemma Birch, Senior carer and 3rd was Riah the Staffie also owned by Gemma.  The residents had lots of fun picking their favourite dogs.