Activities at Tennyson Wharf Care Home

After a summer of armchair travel to Greece, Spain and Poland, we finished our trip with a visit to the African continent. Residents were treated to singing from our Senior Carer, Esther, who is from Kenya. She wore traditional clothing, shared stories, played the drums and sang for our residents. Residents were enthralled at her performance. 

We also learnt a few facts and figures and completed puzzles matching the countries with their capital cities and flags. It was a lovely afternoon with residents commenting on how much they enjoyed getting to know Esther better.     

It was a delicious celebration of all things ice cream when we celebrated National Ice Cream Day. Knickerbocker Glories, Banana Splits, Sundaes and cones were all on offer. 

Residents and staff thoroughly enjoyed themselves and thanked our kitchen team for putting on such a wonderful array of sugary goodness! Brian and Peter challenged each other to see who could eat the biggest ice cream. Brian won by a scoop! Mint choc chips seemed to be the flavour of the day.    

Staff, families and residents came together to enjoy a fabulous Mad Hatter’s Tea Party for Dementia Awareness Week. The home was decorated in an Alice in Wonderland theme with many donning costumes to add to the fun. 

We were entertained by carer Adrian singing and playing the guitar and chef Emma made the most fabulous afternoon tea. Resident June said: “It was marvellous, the staff made so much effort, it was incredible, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.”    

Staff, residents, relatives and the local community came together to enjoy a Summer Fete that was held in the home’s grounds on Saturday 13th June.

Tennyson Wharf  hosted a variety of activities, including entertainment from singer Jules, pony rides from Comfort Horse Therapy, craft stalls, raffle and a tombola, something for everyone that came to the event.

Staff at Tennyson Wharf made everyone feel welcome and were delighted to see different generations having fun together. Visitors enjoyed plenty of refreshments, with a delicious lemonade stall provided by Ginger Lemonade and scrumptious cakes and bakes provided by Bakes by Natalie. 

What a fabulous way to celebrate International Day of Dance!

We had a visit from Steve Mason from Lincolnshire Lindy Hop Clubs for a wonderful morning of singing and dancing. Steve brought students from Market Rasen, Louth and Grimsby to entertain and interact with our residents. The team pulled out all the stops and our home was buzzing with excitement. 

We had an absolute blast and can't wait to see them again!         

Peter and General Manager, Sarah Noutch, had the honour of presenting Sue with a cheque from Barchester Charitable Foundation. 

Our host, Sue, runs North Scarle Village Hall Community Cuppa, where she organises fantastic entertainment, guest speakers, crafting activities as well as large-scale events such as the recent summer fête. 

Sue applied to Barchester’s Charitable Foundation for a grant to hire a coach to take disadvantaged and vulnerable villagers to the zoo for a memorable day out. She was so excited and thankful to be able to treat so many, saying, "We are really looking forward to this, it is going to be fantastic. With this help, we have even managed to take a few service dogs with us too! We really are incredibly grateful to Barchester."

We are grateful to Sue for her hard work and community-minded spirit that literally changes lives in her village.       
 

Dawn has been with us since the very beginning of Tennyson Wharf, a total of 11 ½ years. She has contributed so much to the lives of all at Tennyson Wharf, from raising funds for the Barchester Charity Foundation with sponsored races to being nominated for awards.     

She estimates that in her time here she has cracked close to 50,000 eggs for breakfasts and cakes! She will be sadly missed, and we wish her well with her new endeavours and hope she will pop in to see us from time to time.  

We had a real treat when Lincoln Male Voice choir joined us for the afternoon. It was a full house as 25 members visited and sang Barbershop, Sea Shanty and Choral music. 

They were accompanied by pianist Yuan Styles who gave a stunning performance that enthralled residents. Residents have requested that they visit again and raise the roof with their harmonies.       

We spent the morning learning about cocktails for International Cocktail Day and having a little history tour of cocktails through the ages. We started in 1915 with a Singapore Sling, moved on in 1920 with a Midnight Cowboy, in 1930, a Shirley Temple and into the 1960s with an Arnold Palmer. They were only little tipples and residents could choose to have a cocktail or mocktail!  

The afternoon was celebrated with smooth jazz songs from Gabriella. Yes, the same Gabriella that entertains us with her wonderful operatic voice too. It was a real eye-opener as some residents said they did not appreciate jazz. We think we were all converted by the stunning performance!

A truly wonderful occasion as Connie watched her first ‘Imps’ game since her first visit in 1949! Polly, our chef, had worked with Fan Liaison Manager Allan to give Connie a VIP visit. Connie was dressed head to toe in team colours with streamers on her wheelchair! We sat right next to the goal, the match was electric with a final victory score of 2-1! The icing on the cake was a meet and greet with left back, 

Adam Reach and the Imp team mascot. Connie took it all in her stride and was so grateful for the experience saying it was an experience she will not forget. Other residents were so delighted for Connie and enjoyed trying to spot her on the television with the televised match.     

We did, and we had a great time celebrating it with fabulous entertainment from Vin SamSon. We practised our line dancing and sang along to our country's favourites. We loved the games, including water pistol target shooting. Our favourite was the 'Wanted' posters with our residents' faces on them. They gave us all a really good chuckle!     

We had such a blast over the weekend as we were entertained by Jules and Jay, enjoyed pony rides from Comfort Horse Therapy, ate delicious treats from Bakes by Natalie and drank the most amazing lemonade from Ginger Lemonade. There were craft stalls, raffles, tombola and even a visit from the Bomber Command Mini club and classic cars. 

We had been working with Samantha in our armchair exercise classes to create a dance routine that we could show our families. Jules and Jay sang 'Summer Holiday' as we proudly showed off our moves.
All in all, a wonderful day and money raised for our Residents’ Fund and a donation made to St Barnabas Hospice to boot! 

We could not have done it without all of our providers, friends, church groups and families. We are really grateful.

We celebrated International Museum Day with a trip to Lincolnshire Life Museum, which is always fascinating, but James Newbolt from Trinity Court Potteries really stole the show! His talk had our residents thoroughly engrossed as he brought history to life with interesting facts, explanations of common phrases and a demonstration on his replica mediaeval potter’s wheel. 

James, who makes replica pottery for museums, often dons period costume in his presentations. Some of you may have seen him in a toga for Lincoln Historical Weekend but we celebrated the Mediaeval period. Residents truly appreciated his effort and in-depth knowledge.        

What could be better than celebrating with our friends from Burton Hathow Prep School? We made delicious treats of sopapilla, prepared a quiz and games to share a little bit of the history of this Mexican festival and even made sombrero piñatas filled with sweets.  

The children were so enthusiastic about the smashing of the piñatas, no one held back, but it was still a battle! Eventually they were smashed, and the children were delighted. They had delighted our residents with their antics, everyone laughed heartily. After all the fun, our residents took it in turns to read stories to the class. It was a lovely experience.    

We did it! We Won! 

Residents were delighted to discover that they had won the annual Barchester Easter Cake Decorating competition for the North East and Scottish region. Activities member Joan and resident Brian worked hard to create a design that would be effective and allow many residents to take part with the decorating.  

It was a fun afternoon creating carrots and rabbits out of fondant and Brian was excited to be able to reprise his hobby of cake decorating by piping the ‘grass’. Our residents are looking forward to spending their £50 prize gift voucher.