Activities at South Chowdene Care Home

On Saturday 6th October, we had 7 external stalls and our own tombola and raffle, which were run by our dedicated volunteers, Jane and Julie. Residents manned their own stall, for which they had made paperweights and sweet bags, and our Head Chef made a superb broth with warming hot dogs and burgers to go with it. Gilly entertained with some ukulele hits from '20s, '30s and '40s, which got the residents moving, if not up and dancing.

This year, South Chowdene opened its doors to the local community; everyone was invited to join in a bake off, have a go on the Tombola, listen to entertainment from renowned Accordion player, Leo Brown, or just to have a sit and natter with anyone else around. Everyone had a great time and we managed to raise £61.10 in total.

On Friday 13th July, 3 residents took a trip to Heighleygate Garden Centre in Morpeth. After an interesting ride up the A1, we arrived at this huge garden centre and were pleasantly surprised to find plenty of indoor and outdoor plants that residents could name and remember growing in their gardens. There were also clothes and book shops, which prompted many discussions.

After a lovely lunch in the café, we also discovered the pet corner, with furry and feathered friends bringing back memories of pets and experiences, as well as plenty of tanks of colourful fish of all shapes and sizes.

On the way home, we drove down the coast and had a look at the ‘Couples’ statue at Newbiggin. We arrived back at the home just in time for tea and ready for a rest.

3 residents from South Chowdene Care Home visited Beamish Museum. First of all, they stopped by ‘Orchard Cottage’, where they toasted bread on the open fire. They then played games from their youth and had a good ol' singalong. 

Later on, they visited the schoolroom, the church and had traditional fish and chips in the tea shop. It was a fantastic day!

9th June saw people racing around from early on preparing for our Summer Fair. In actual fact, preparations had been ongoing for the full week before, with residents making various items for their very own sweet stall. They made, iced, displayed and manned the stall themselves and also helped with our other ‘home’ stalls – tombola, bric-a-brac, raffle, etc. In addition to all this, we had some great visiting stalls, a lively Irish dancing display and fantastic entertainment from Alfie Dobson, who had us up dancing and everybody singing along.

On 14th June, residents celebrated Cupcake Day by tasting a variety of different cupcakes and reminiscing about what they used to bake when they were younger. They talked about different ovens they used and how some of their children loved to ice the cupcakes and how sometimes the results of the baking session hardly lasted an hour!