Activities at Orchard House Care Home

Chinese New Year always takes place on the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar which starts the day following the first new moon between January 21st and February 20th.

This year Chinese New Year took place on Sunday January 22nd and saw the herald of the year of the Rabbit. The sign of Rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture. 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope. To help celebrate this very important day in the Chinese calendar, a number of creative activities were on offer for residents to take part in.

Sheila is another wonderful resident who marked her 90th birthday here with us! Sheila celebrated her day with family and a small group of friends and we held a small party here for her, she chose chocolate trifle as her favourite cake which we obliged of course. She really loved all the balloons, decorations and fun party games we planned for her and we all had a lovely time celebrating with her and her family. Sheila worked as a secretary in her youth and has 2 grown up daughters who visit and keep in contact regularly.

Mr and Mrs Peter and Helen Reffold, celebrated the extremely special occasion of their 50th Golden Wedding Anniversary. Local papers printed stories of their life together and they gave us an insight of their life, Peter training as a teacher on the mainland teaching mathematics and physics, Helen training as a nurse, then working in a small shop when the children were small. Their secret to a happily married life is to work at it, accept life for what it is and take all the ups and downs as they come.

A huge happy birthday to our wonderful resident Kathlyn, who reached the incredible age of 90! On a residents birthday they are given a choice of favourite flavour birthday cake, a favourite meal and they are spoilt with cards, gifts and their bedrooms and celebration areas fully decorated with balloons, banners and bunting! Kate was visited by family on 2 separate occasions throughout the day and we had a small party attended by friends, staff and family here at Orchard House. Kathlyn trained and worked as a nurse for the NHS in her younger years so it’s our pleasure to now look after her.

All of our Christmas decorations are up and Orchard House is looking extremely festive. Residents helped us decorate our tree by making their own decorations, painting pine cones and glittery baubles. The day co-incided with National Elf Day. Staff enjoyed dressing up and having fun putting smiles on our residents faces. They deserve the very best Christmas and we’re working hard to make sure they have so much fun this season.

Here at Orchard House we have strong community links with schools, we enjoyed children singing for us from Hunnyhill Primary School which our residents thoroughly enjoyed. Children also kindly made their own Christmas cards and gave gifts out individually to our residents which we thought was a lovely touch. We wish them a merry Christmas!