Activities at Milford House Care Home

We like to make a fuss of our residents on their Birthdays here at Milford House.
Jean had a truly wonderful time with her family who came to share her special day. The cakes were delicious and our front lounge had a great festive feeling as the generations gathered. A memorable day for a lovely lady. 

Preparing for Spring blooms has been top of the agenda for our residents this week. The bulbs are planted so now it's time for starting off the seeds. The reward outweighs the effort when Spring arrives and the flowers make a colourful appearance. Many of our residents are keen gardeners and value the opportunity to continue with this hobby filling the Milford gardens with joy and colour all year round.

Our Regular Intergenerational Visit to 'Imagine This' toddler group was another brilliant morning shared with the group of parents and toddlers in the gorgeous welcoming space that Kirsty and Rebecca have created.

It is absolutely one of our favourite visits out and there are always smiles all round.  However in December we will be turning things around when we invite the children and parents to Milford House as we host a special Christmas party - we can't wait!

We have had two fabulous sailings in recent weeks aboard the MV Alison McGregor as we went out onto Southampton Water with the wonderful crews from 'Solent Dolphin'. Thank you to the crews for once again making us so welcome - these trips are one of the highlights of our summer.

We have been blessed yet again with wonderful weather for our sailings and also had a stroke of luck, as the lock where we sail out from Hythe Marina onto Southampton Water was broken for a couple of weeks - and by some miracle was fixed just the day before the second of our trips - phew! 

On Remembrance Sunday Milford House residents wore poppies and participated in a church service which observed the two minute silence.

Following that they enjoyed a fascinating talk on the well-known local military landmark, The Fovant Badges,  from Dr Tony Phillips and Martin Wallis both members of The Fovant Badges Society. 

For the third year running, the home also hosted a Veterans Lunch where army veterans joined residents and shared memories and experiences both personal and of wider national significance.

Finally, on Remembrance Day itself, residents were joined by students from the St Joseph’s School History Club who spent the morning making a poppy wreath with residents which was later placed on the special poppy remembrance sculpture in the home’s recently created ‘Remembrance Garden’.

An important time marked beautifully and inclusively in our home.

Residents enjoyed another in our monthly series of ‘Art Open Days’ under the guidance of our Artist in Residence’ Wendy.  This time the theme was green and this was translated into frogs who residents definitely turned into princes!  The colourful, joyful canvasses are now gracing our Conservatory and Gallery for everyone to see as part of our ‘green’ themed display which is starting to look like our own mini  rainforest.

These canvasses along with a selection of other work by our residents will be on view to the public when the home is part of the regular ‘Art in the Square’ event which takes place each month in Salisbury’s Market Square.  Residents will be there to meet visitors and talk about their art and sell cards made from some of their art work in aid of the home’s chosen charity for 2025 Childrens Chance.

It's important for our resident's to be involved in the local community, it gives them a sense of purpose and enables them to continue with the hobbies and interests they have always enjoyed.

The Elizabeth Frink Exhibition at The Salisbury Museum was our recent History Club outing  – and thank you so much to Alice and her team for welcoming us each month and giving us guided tours of the galleries, making sure that we don’t miss out on any highlights and the latest special exhibition.

There is so much to see at the museum, but this latest exhibition was a real treat with everyone having their favourite piece that they were just dying to put in their pocket and take home (although they were rather large!).  

How amazing to have this right on our doorstep in the heart of Salisbury, just a short ride away in our mini-bus. We are looking forward to next month's visit already and can’t wait to see what the museum team will focus on.

As the leaves tumble and the nights draw in residents celebrated Harvest with a traditional Autumnal Supper. They enjoyed a delicious pumpkin soup, a selection of cheeses and fabulous dish of pears in spiced wine all courtesy of Chef Becky and her team. A gorgeous table setting and leaf table decorations made by our residents set the scene.

At 'Art in the Square' event where we were exhibiting at the weekend! The weather went from bright sunshine to thunder and lightning, gusty wind and finally drizzle all in the few hours we were there!

Resident's enjoyed the ambience in Salisbury Market Square and were delighted to show their display of art. Many items were admired and bought, with proceeds going to the Resident's chosen charity Childrens Chance; the feedback they got was wonderful and some of their sales were even going transatlantic - achieving global reach for our artists!

It was also a great opportunity to visit the other stalls and admire the creativity that so many of Milford resident's appreciate.

As part of getting to know our residents we try to find out if they have any long held ambitions or wishes that they would like to fulfil, however big or small,  that we might be able to help with.  Recently we were able to do this for three of our residents; we helped Ruth, a lifelong poet, to publish a book of her poems with illustrations (and get interviewed by our local TV station), we took another resident out for a picnic and walk around Elizabeth Gardens with a friend, while a trip out into the New Forest for ice cream also turned a wish into reality.

Everyone is different and we love the range of wishes that our residents have and can't wait to find out what others are in the pipeline.  Our challenge is to see how we can make them come true and create lasting, wonderful memories.

Here at Milford House we are all about trying to make our residents' wishes, however large or small, come true and recently we were able to fulfil a wish to go and have a visit to Elizabeth Gardens here in Salisbury to wander around and then sit and enjoy the sights and sounds. So, of course, we leapt into action, and our Life Enrichment team arranged a morning out in the gardens with a friend, taking with them some suitable summer fayre and a glass of something fizzy just to help things along!

On a lovely warm (but not too hot) morning, everyone set off, and it was just perfect – there were swans and their offspring lazily out on the water, children playing, bees humming and more, all with the spire of Salisbury Cathedral peeking up in the background. The picnic was set up in the shade of a lovely weeping willow where our resident loved sitting and watching the world go by!  It was a special morning thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who went along and a memory created to lock away and treasure.