Activities at Thistle Hill Care Home

The middle of august saw the residents at the Thistle Hill care home enjoy butterfly day.

This saw them create a beautiful display of colourful butterflies for the lounge area, before watching a documentary about the great British butterfly. After lunch our residents were able to go out into the beautiful grounds of thistle hill and observe some beautiful butterflies in their natural habitat.

On 19th August photography lovers across the globe will be celebrating World Photo Day. The main aim of World Photo Day is to inspire positive change across the world. Connecting people and raising awareness through the use of photography.

Founded in 2009 by the Australian photographer Korske Ara, the date of the 19th August was chosen to celebrate World Photo Day as it is the date that the French government purchased the patent of the daguerreotype (an early method of photography). The date also coincides with World Humanitarian Day.

Residents and staff at Thistle Hill enjoyed a Summer Fete held in the home’s grounds.  Thistle Hill hosted a variety of activities throughout the day, including classic fair games that were enjoyed by reisdents and staff on the day.

One Resident said, “I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was surrounded by my friends, and the refreshments kept flowing. The weather held out until we finished. Staff did a great job, not just on the day, but organising the event and entertainment.”

Mandy Scott General Manager said: “Staff at Thistle Hill are dedicated to making sure that our summer fete is a real treat for all. Residents enjoyed some delightful entertainment”

At Thistle Hill we love our dogs and we held our very own virtual dog show for residents, family, and friends to shared their furry friends with us all too. 

Dogs have fun loveable quirks, tricks and general gorgeousness. So, over the last few weeks we held our first ever virtual dog show at Thistle Hill where we had a whole host of fun categories.

Photos of dogs with the category were entered and emailed to thistlehill.activities@barchester.com Categories included the following, Best Dressed, Happiest Smile, Best in show, Best Trick/pose, Sleeping Beauty, Bravest belle and Waggiest Tail

Group judging by dog-loving staff and residents at Thistle Hill took place on, 3rd August with photos displayed on a board for our expert panel of resident judges to study and choose the winners in their respective categories.

Residents of Thistle Hill set sail on a virtual cruise and sailed to an array of different locations including South Africa, Italy, Malta, the islands of Greece where they stopped off for some games on the beach and by request sailed on to the American coastline and made it back just in time for dinner!

Using the homes projector, big screen and Wi-Fi video streaming our residents were able to experience the virtual cruise in a whole new way, been able to see and hear the locations they were visiting.

Each country allowed our residents to discuss and reminisce about holidays and adventures from times gone by as well as have a song and dance to music based on the country they were visiting. Hazel said “I spent a lot of my adult life, living in South Africa and it was just lovely to go and see it all over again”

General Manager Mandy Scott said “it is so important to offer a variety of activities to our residents, the virtual cruise was a great example of this. They had a lovely time and they can’t wait to set sail again”

Not to be deterred by our countries intermittent weather, Residents of Thistle Hill attended an indoor picnic as part of the great get together community event. A whole host of treats were laid on to celebrate including scones, biscuits and cakes.   The fun didn’t stop there as some of the other delights on offer included chilled wine and refreshing juices

Mandy Scott General Manager at the home, said: “The great get together is a special event as it reminds our residents they are a part of a community and they loved having the excuse to take part in a fun indoor picnic in the lounge, we won’t let the rain stop us celebrating! In these unprecedented times, we are continually finding new ways to make sure every effort is focused on creating an enjoyable environment for all of our residents, whilst adhering to social distancing advice.”