Activities at Strachan House Care Home

We celebrated Remembrance Day with English National Ballet Associate Dance Artist, Richard Bermange, who led a creative dance workshop for our residents followed by a special extract of Akram Khan’s work Dust, premiered in 2014 as part of ENB’s Lest We Forget programme, commemorating the First World War.

ENB company dancers, Erina Takahashi and James Streeter performed the extract and provided some insight into this moving work.

Our residents had a wonderful time as they listened, danced and were able to singalong to famous war time music performed by ENB Associate Musician, Matt Hartley-Stevens.

Strachan House Care Home in Edinburgh commemorated the signing of the Armistice Day agreement on the day that the guns finally fell silent. They joined the rest of the United Kingdom in holding a two-minute silence at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.

As well as marking Armistice Day by wearing poppies and observing the national two minute silence, residents took part in therapeutic activities Include making poppy displays/listening to old wartime songs, we also had a wonderful opportunity to join the English national ballet virtually as we commemorate remembrance day with a special interactive dance workshop, mini – performance, and singalong.

Mary Grieve a resident at Strachan House Care Home said: “It is very important that we keep the memories of those who fought alive and that we also think about those involved in conflicts around the world today.”

Staff and residents at Strachan House Care Home in Edinburgh celebrated Bonfire Night with a bang this November 5th when they wrapped up warm to gather around the bonfire to watch a fantastic firework display and enjoy lots of seasonal treats washed down with some boozy Hot chocolate.

Residents at Strachan House Care Home in Edinburgh had a brilliant day on Thursday 4th November as they marked the start of the Hindu festival of Diwali, popularly known as the ‘festival of lights’.

Residents helped with making colourful patterned rangoli and lighting ‘diyas’, small oil lamps which are lit to signify the triumph of good over evil. Diwali honours Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, the lamps help Lakshmi find her way into people’s homes.

Head chef Paul Dows prepared traditional Indian dishes including a range of warming curries, spicy samosas, crispy bhajis and papadums with lime pickle and chutneys followed by traditional Indian sweets such as laddoo and barfi for the residents to enjoy.

We had a lovely time joining Chef Alex Connell from Vegetarian for Life for a Halloween-inspired virtual cooking demo.

Alex demonstrated how to prepare a few themed dishes, such as root vegetable tagine, roasted butternut squash mac-n-cheese, chocolate pots with piped biscuits and flapjacks.

Our residents were delighted to be a part of this lovely virtual culinary session by tasting the vegetarian dishes from the comfort of our home.

Marie Christie has beaten all the competition to be crowned Hospitality Champion in the Barchester Care Awards 2021.

The Barchester Care Awards celebrate the staff who go the extra mile for the benefit of the 12,000 residents living in Barchester’s 248 care homes and private hospitals across the country. Categories range from ‘Registered Nurse of the Year’ and ‘Carer of the Year’ to ‘Dementia Care Champion’ and ‘Activities Coordinator of the Year’.

More than 2,900 nominations were received from homes and hospitals across the UK. All entries were a very high standard and Marie is over the moon to have been named the national winner in this category.