Activities at Milford House Care Home

Residents and staff started the opening day of the Royal meeting by visiting the home’s specially created ‘Royal Ascot Boutique’ to try on hats, scarves and jewellery to finalise their look for the day while enjoying a cheeky pink cocktail and a chat.  Then in true Ascot style everyone joined in our Royal Ascot Picnic while discussing the form and fashions before settling down to watch the Royal carriage parade followed by the more serious business of watching the racing and of course commenting on the fashions!  Some residents enjoyed  a little flutter between themselves choosing horses by name or colours worn and of course we had a small sweepstake on the colour of outfit that HM The Queen would be wearing – Royal Blue as it turned out!

To celebrate Volunteers Week, Milford House residents and team members invited all our volunteers into the home for lunch so that we could thank them for all that they do for us. Co-incidentally it was also National Fish & Chip Day and so with tables all around the home dressed in suitably fishy colours and our volunteer's table reflecting a wonderful marine team everyone enjoyed a traditional 'fish and chip' lunch prepared by Chef Becky and the team, where the fish was served with the traditional side of mushy peas, grilled tomato and chips in a cone - delicious!

Each volunteer was presented with a certificate by our General Manager Aga Musial to mark the day and also a small gift to take home - we can't thank them enough for the time and effort and commitment they put into supporting our residents in various ways that range from running Sunday services, playing the piano at events, doing the rounds with a gorgeous PAT dog, helping at events and outings and the list goes on!

As we increasingly rely on technology in our day to day lives we were delighted to welcome our local PCSO's John Taylor and Charlotte King  for a session about the rise of on-line scams and the in person dangers we should be know about and how to report them. However 'tech savvy' we may think we are it is only too easy to fall into the clever traps the scammers set for us and be fooled into giving away sensitive personal data. We heard information on how to protect our phones and credit/debit cards from being read while we are out and about and more! Thank you to the PCSO’s for coming in a giving us such a lot to think about and hopefully we will all now be on high alert whenever we are online or out in the community.

Residents at Milford House are participating in the Salisbury Art Trail which runs for three weeks and have finished off their stunning exhibits. Residents have drawn their inspiration from our gardens and the finished pieces are now up in our gallery ready to be seen and we think that they look amazing.  All the works are the result of a collaboration  between different groups of residents and are so vibrant and joyful and are truly brightening up our home. Everyone is rightly proud of the project that has taken shape over the last two months.

It was a perfect day out on the water as a group of residents set out from Hythe Marina aboard the MV Alison McGregor and cruised the Western Docks and Ocean Village marinas. There were two large cruise ships in port and everyone had great fun choosing their preferred cabin aboard and their ultimate destination. The cruise through the marina with its variety of motor cruisers and yachts also fired the discussions around which would be chosen should that lottery win materialise! Thank you to the captain and crew from the Solent Dolphin team who looked after us so well for the afternoon - we were so incredibly lucky to have such a balmy afternoon given all the cold weather we have had recently.

Thank you to Hannah and her troupe of cuddly guinea pigs Fudge, Jessica, Eve, Brownie and Vera who came and visited. The cuddly quintet did the rounds and were fussed over by everyone who met them. Hannah told us a bit about them and what they like to eat and nibble on and they duly obliged as they went around and residents loved feeding them. They are such perfect visitors as, sitting snuggled into their little red cushions, they are perfectly lap sized! We were sorry to have to wave goodbye to the super cute five-some but we are already planning their return.