Activities at Overslade House Care Home

Celebrations were under way at Overslade House as residents and staff marked St. David’s Day. The home was in high spirits as they celebrated the national day of Wales with daffodil and leek table decorations, daffodil crafting and colouring and traditional Welsh dress, where our Activities Coordinator Ruth, who is Welsh, brought her daughters in to meet and greet the residents and give them coloured pictures of Welsh Dragons and Daffodils.

In honour of the traditional feast day and the country’s patron saint, residents and staff were treated to traditional Welsh food and drink. Everyone tucked in to welsh cakes, and lamb and leek cawl, with teisennau tatws (potato cakes).

Following this in the afternoon residents watched virtual tours of Wales to include, St David's Cathedral, Snowdonia National Park and Railway, Bodnant Gardens, Llandudno and the Great Orme Tramway, and also Dyserth Waterfall, which has been in our Activities Coordinator Ruth Allen's family for generations and runs through the farmland owned by Ruth's family, who became custodians of the falls along with Lord Langford.

General Manager, Violeta Baesu said: “We love celebrating St David’s Day here at Overslade House. All the staff and residents were wearing daffodils and our head chef Joanne Kolat-Furca did a brilliant job of preparing a lovely spread so that we could really celebrate the day.”

We had so much fun celebrating Burns Night here at the home to the tune of bagpipes!

Staff and residents at the home were involved in a number of activities to mark the Scottish institution, including giving the time-honoured address to the ‘Great chieftain O’ the pudding’ race’ – the haggis, making floral arrangements for Burns Night, with Heather, Holly and tartan ribbon, making Scottish Tablets which were then gift wrapped to present to each other, and cooking Haggis, Tatties and Neeps.

General Manager, Violeta Baesu, at Overslade House Care Home, thought it was a perfect occasion to celebrate an evening steeped in age-old tradition as well as a wee dram, learning the history of Robbie Burns and virtual tours of the Robbie Burns Museum, virtual train journeys through the Lochs in Scotland and also virtual tours of Balmoral and Edinburgh Castle.

Violeta said: “Burns Night is always a fantastic event at Overslade House Care Home, it’s so important to continue these traditions.  Our residents enjoyed a hearty meal of Scotch broth, Haggis with neeps and tatties with the help of our stellar Chef, Joanne Kolat-Furca

We also had great fun discovering how much, or is some cases how little (!), we knew about Scotland with our brilliant Scottish quiz.”

John Smith, resident of Overslade House Care Home said: “I enjoyed acting out the part of the whisky-bearer and asking everyone to raise a dram to toast the haggis.  Burns Night is always a brilliant night here.”

Staff and residents at the home got up close and personal with some furry friends when they celebrated Squirrel Appreciation Day on 21st January.

Squirrel Appreciation Day is an annual nationwide event raising awareness of the plight of the native red squirrel population, which is in sharp decline. The aim of the event is to inspire people to take action for wildlife. The cold winter months are especially tough for animals and birds; as temperatures drop and food becomes scarce, wildlife such as squirrels need a little extra help.

Residents had a brilliant time learning about red squirrels and conservation efforts to try to restore the red squirrel population, watching red squirrels on webcams at Balmoral, making feeding stations and putting out food for the squirrels. A video was also played of a rescued Squirrel who was raised by hand.

General Manager, Violeta Baesu, said: “Our residents love to watch all the animals and birds in the garden so these activities were right up their street.   We are very fortunate at Overslade House Care Home to have regular grey squirrels visit our feeding stations and sometimes sit at the glass doors expectantly.   It’s important to look after our wildlife at this time of year when the ground is so hard.  No one wants to think of any of the local wildlife going hungry.”

John Smith, a resident said: “I love to watch the squirrels in the garden performing their acrobatics.  They are really cheeky and eat the food we put out for the birds but I don’t mind, I think they are really cute.  We don’t have any red squirrels around here anymore so I really enjoyed watching them on the webcam at Balmoral.”

We had a great time celebrating International Flower Day here at the home.

International Flower Day promotes the psychological boost that flowers can give to people. From growing and nurturing plants and flowers, to gifting flowers to show love and appreciation, and sometimes just the simple act of admiring their beauty – flowers have the power to make someone’s day. 

Residents took part in flower-based activities throughout the day including making their own flower arrangements and virtual visits to famous gardens on YouTube where they visited 15 of the world’s most beautiful gardens. This lead to conversations about gardens they had visited and Portmeirion Village was one of these where the Series The Prisoner was filmed in the 1960’s Their collective knowledge about flowers gained from years of gardening experience was very impressive.

Violeta Baesu, General Manager at Overslade House Care Home said: “Our garden is a much loved space, residents really enjoy looking after the plants and flowers and watching them grow and change through the seasons. We don’t have many flowers at the moment so our residents very much enjoying the escapism of virtually visiting some of the most famous gardens in the world.”

Residents at Overslade House Care Home in Rugby, Warwickshire, have been discovering all things Antipodean in celebration of Australia Day, which took place on Wednesday 26 January.

Residents took part in Australian-themed activities throughout the day including  a virtual trip down under including a tour of Sydney Opera House/Sydney harbour/Ayres Rock/Bondi beach/the rainforest, the Barrier Reef, and also viewed Australia Day Celebrations and an amazing firework display as a finale to  the celebrations. A short quiz finished the day and none of the residents had any idea what a Matilda was in the song Waltzing Matilda. Everyone really enjoyed celebrating Australia Day. 

Residents at Overslade House had a radiant day as they marked the start of the Hindu festival of Diwali, popularly known as the ‘festival of lights’.

Residents helped with the making, and decorating of candle holders which are lit to signify the triumph of good over evil. It was a colourful day as the variety of home-made candle holder designs gave the home a beam of rainbow light.

One resident Tracey at the home relished the opportunity to express her creative side when colourfully decorating the candle holders, whilst another resident Robert claimed the making of a candle tray made from coins and mosaic mirror tiles was his favourite activity of the day.

Diwali honours Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, the lights help Lakshmi find her way into people’s homes.