Activities at Rivermead Care Home

Rivermead Care Home in Malton marked the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day in style by throwing a 1940s afternoon tea party to remember.  The home was decorated in red, white and blue and residents and staff dressed up in their 1940s-inspired glad rags and enjoyed a day of reminiscing with a sherry morning and an afternoon showing of the 1987 film “Hope and Glory”.

Head chef Sarah Lightfoot whipped up a delicious 1940’s inspired selection of cakes and jam tarts, all washed down with pots of tea to mark the occasion. 

Sarah Jackson, General Manager at Rivermead said: “Many of our residents can remember the end of the war and we all know what it meant for our country so we wanted to celebrate the date and listen to our residents memories of the war and the experiences they lived through.”

We had a lovely time joining Graham Whitlock for an exciting virtual event to discuss his book ‘The Crystal Palace Chronicles: Star of Nimrod’.

Our residents were thrilled to find out more about the book and the fictional character Joe, who went on a rollercoaster adventure travelling back in time to the heyday of Victorian Crystal Palace.

Everyone had lots of fun during the virtual talk, as Graham took them on a clever and hilarious adventure. A great time was had by all.

We had a lovely time joining Henry Slator for an exciting virtual event to discuss his book ‘Conversations at the Pond’.

Henry had an unusual writing journey, which many of our residents found inspiring, he underwent chemotherapy in early 2020, which allowed him to rediscover his light-hearted outlook on life by imagining conversations with creatures in and around his large garden pond and adding buckets of fun.

The entertaining Conversations at the Pond, with its mass of colourful illustrations, took our residents along his journey, they felt inspired, cheered and loved hearing all about Henry’s experiences.

Our residents came together to enjoy an exciting virtual talk courtesy of the team at National Trust Talks Service.  The illustrated talk took us closer to one of Cliveden’s most famous families, the Astors. Our residents were able to discover what motivated William Waldorf Astor, America’s richest man, to purchase Cliveden in 1893 and how the estate became the centre of high society in the 1920 s and 30 s thanks to his son Waldorf and daughter in law Nancy Astor.

We had a lovely time joining Holly and Marie-Therese from the Wallace Collection, for a virtual introduction to the Collection, followed by a sensory exploratory walk through one of the museum’s most famous landscape paintings.   The Collection ranges from Old Master paintings to 18th century French furniture, arms and armour.  We all had a wonderful time and cannot wait to put our creative skills to a test and paint some landscapes in the upcoming days.

We had a lovely time joining Angela Cobbin for a theatre-inspired virtual talk about her book ‘My Name is Not Wigs’.              ‘My Name Is Not Wigs’ is the ultimate read for fans of witty behind-the-curtains memoirs, especially those with a penchant for the bright lights of stage and screen: tears and accolades aplenty!

Angela shared interesting facts with our residents about her book, her life and her experiences as a wig creator in London’s West End in celebration of World Theatre Day.