Activities at Overslade House Care Home

Our residents were treated to an interactive virtual floristry masterclass courtesy of Master Florist, Michal Kowalski, from Blooming Haus. We gathered together flowers and foliage and followed Michal’s demonstration to create our own wonderful displays. We will be entering our residents’ arrangements into the #BloomingBarchester Facebook competition which will be judged by Michal and Michael to win Love2Shop vouchers.

Blooming Haus - Floral Engineers started with a small pop-up shop in Chelsea. They have since blossomed spectacularly on to the floristry scene as ‘floral engineers’, carving themselves an outstanding reputation as one of the UK’s most innovative floral design studios.

Michal Kowalski, Master Florist from Blooming Haus said; “The care sector has endured such a tough time of late, residents unable to see their loved ones, and carers working extremely hard. So we leapt at the chance when Barchester approached us to stage a zoom flower arranging class. It’s a great opportunity for Blooming Haus to give something back, and we hope we provided some light recreational relief to the residents and care workers. Besides shop bought flowers, we encouraged participants to use materials and foliage from the garden. We take a lot of our inspiration from nature and like nothing more than foraging around woodlands on a Sunday afternoon, we believe it assists us with the floral artistry we create.”

General Manager, Violeta Baesu, said: “This was a virtual flower arranging demonstration with a difference, it was wonderful that our residents were able to follow along and create their own floral displays using flowers from our own garden and the local Supermarket. It was a really enjoyable afternoon, we’re so grateful to Michal and Michael from Blooming Haus for this experience.”

We had the absolute pleasure in celebrating with resident Joan Blinco (nee Dytham) on her 101st birthday last week.

Growing up in Rugby, as a teenager Joan loved to play hockey and netball, now in her later years she loves to watch the Rugby and is an avid supporter of The Leicester Tigers. Joan has concentrated her whole life on her family. Her son is a truck driver, and daughter a hairdresser. She has ‘seven’ grandchildren that light up her life every time they visit. Joan’s eldest grandchild lives in Australia and although Joan will say she’s far from technology proficient, calling her mobile that ‘idiot phone’ she has mastered Facetime and regularly links with the family in Oz.

Getting married at the start of WW2 in the height of rations, Joan missed out on a wedding dress, however she recalls it being a very special day for her and husband, Herbert (Bert to his friends) who at the time worked as a machinist at British Thomson-Houston (BTH) in Rugby. Joan is a much loved member of the Rugby community, and Overslade House, and we truly hope she had a fantastic day celebrating with us and her visiting family!

One of her passions is classical music, coming from a musical family. Joan’s mother was in service from 1892, and her father was a musician who played for the soldiers throughout the war years. Joan used to play the same brass instruments. Violeta Baesu, General Manager added: “We’re delighted to be part of Joan’s 101st birthday celebrations, she’s a remarkable lady, always happy to chat, and loves nothing more than listening to Classic FM.”

Happy birthday Joan, you amazing lady. 

Rain definitely didn't stop play today, with a little imagination, a long corridor and several willing residents, our pop-up bowling alley at Overslade House made for a perfect tournament before lunch! 

Denisa, our new activities coordinator is really getting to know our residents; today a master class in playing cards with Barbara. Sorry Denisa, you're not going to win, she's a very skilled player!

The weekly rota to keep our feathered friends happy is working well. Today, Doreen and Tracey were in charge of replenishing their respective community feeders. We have so many little visitors, they should really enjoy the choice of suet, seeds and nuts (no doubt the local squirrel squad will have their fill too!). Thank you ladies for all your hard work.

Here at Overslade House in Rugby, we were pleased to be able to dive into the golden age of ocean travel and enjoy a virtual ‘Ocean Liners: Speed and Style’ talk, provided by V&A Dundee. We learned about the remarkable stories of the Titanic, Normandie, the Queen Mary and the Canberra, from their engineering and interior design to the stunning fashions worn on board.

Though the golden age of ocean travel has long since passed, the ocean liner still remains a potent symbol of 20th century modernity. The talk brought a lot of great memories to our residents and triggered interesting conversations about past cruising experiences around the world. Thank you V&A Dundee for providing such an amazing interactive, and informative session.