Activities at Lochduhar Care Home

Last week marked National Story telling week. We borrowed some books from our local library in Dumfries, residents chose their book to read. We spoke of the stories we were reading, this helps to improve our focus, memory, empathy and communication skills, which in turn improves our mental health. The following day we had a visit from Northwest Nursery children. They played outside and then they sat down and listened to their teacher Lorraine read them a story.

Our residents were watching and listening to the children as they got involved in the story and asked questions. The children played the parachute and ball game, which our residents enjoy too.

The children then enjoyed a cool drink and then set off back to school. Our residents always enjoy a visit from the children, they look forward to seeing them every week.

Lochduhar care home in Dumfries has been finding out the favourite stories of residents and staff, and sharing them during National Storytelling Week. Many of the residents at Lochduhar care home have a knack of telling a great story or two, and National Storytelling Week is a perfect opportunity to experience the joy of storytelling.

Storytelling is one of the oldest art forms in the world so, to help keep the custom alive, residents have been reading their own short stories to each other. This was a joint activity as the children from Northwest Nursery visited the home and were involved in reading stories and then played outside with the parachute and bat and ball. Our residents enjoyed watching and listening to the children as they took paet in their games.

As today is World Wetland Day, some residents decided they would like to take a bus trip to the Wetland centre at Caelaverock. We wrapped up warm and set off, admiring the scenery on the way. On arriving at the wetland centre, the ladies chose to have a cup of tea and a look around the centre at various types of bird books. We took a look at the map, and headed off to the Observatory. As we got inside we were amazed to see so many different types of birds were there. As the birds spoke to each other this made the ladies chuckle. The ladies said the swans and geese were beautiful. We also got to see some beautiful snow drops. The ladies said they thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

We celebrated Chinese New Year recently. Each Chinese New Year is represented by a zodiac sign. 2023 is the year of the rabbit, so our residents, took part in some arts and crafts. They made lanterns, drew pictures of rabbits and made a wonderful dragon. We displayed these in our communities. Our kitchen staff made a very tasty meal of, Chicken and sweetcorn soup, sweet and sour chicken with fried rice, spring rolls, dim sum, prawn toast, sweet chilli crackers and thai crackers. The food wes delicious and everyone had a wonderful time.

We recently celebrated International Flower day by arranging some flowers of our own.

There were many different types of flowers and shrubs. While arranging the flowers, some residents spoke of their own gardens and what type of flowers they grew, roses and tulips were a favourite.

We like to keep in contact with the community, and so last week The Northwest Nursery paid us a visit. Our residents faces light up when they see the children coming in to visit them. They played a game of snakes and ladders, did some jigsaw puzzles, loop the loop and a pairs game. The interaction between everyone is so nice and we talked about our time with the children later on that day, with a cup of tea and slice of cake.