Activities at Thistle Hill Care Home

Residents and staff at the Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough celebrated all things Irish for St Patrick’s Day this week. The home was decorated with shamrocks and everyone dressed in green to mark the day. 

Held on March 17th, Saint Patrick's Day actually observes the death of St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, but the day has come to be a huge celebration of Irish heritage and culture.

Staff and residents at the home marked the day by dancing along the sounds of classic Irish hits and folk music, whilst enjoying a refreshing glass of Guinness and Irish Coffee before rounding off the day with a themed Irish quiz!.

To mark International Women’s Day, staff and residents at Barchester’s Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough were treated to the third in a series of live talks and tours hosted by Holly and Roxanne from The Wallace Collection.

The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays the art collections brought together by the first four marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the likely illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Lady Wallace, Sir Richard’s widow, in 1897.  Displayed at Hertford House, formerly the principal London residence of the marquesses of Hertford, the Collection was first opened to the public in 1900.

Across our services we had a lovely time joining Mark Piesing for an exciting virtual event to discuss his book ‘N-4 Down: The Hunt for The Arctic Airship Italia’.

Our residents were thrilled to find out more about the book and the fascinating story of the world-famous exploring airship Italia, returning from the North Pole on May 24, 1928. The airship was struck by a terrible storm and crashed somewhere over the Arctic ice, triggering the largest polar rescue mission in history.

The virtual book club experience was truly enjoyed by all.

Bookshelves are bulging at the Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough where book worm residents were keen to get involved in World Book Day.  Staff and residents at the Thistle Hill Care Centre welcomed the children from the Red Kite Nursery to join us for an afternoon of storytelling magic.

Children and residents were enchanted by Eric Carle’s timeless tale of the ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ as well as more modern tales including ‘The Bear Snores On’ by Karma Wilson

Mark the Activities Co-ordinator at the home commented: “Our residents all love to read and to discuss their favourite books so World Book Day is a fantastic opportunity for us all to spend the day with our noses in our favourite books.  We also had a great debate about reading from print or electronically from a tablet, there were strong arguments from both camps!”

The staff and residents at the Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough have been flipping and turning pancakes all morning in preparation for their annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day celebrations.

The Thistle Hill Care Centre has marked this year’s Pancake Day with a live cooking demonstration courtesy of our activities team with a helping hand from our residents resulting in lots of delicious pancakes! Ewelina the head chef at the home, flipped more than 100 pancakes, serving them up with sweet and savoury fillings for all the eager staff and residents over dinner time.

She said: “My secret to the best pancakes is all in the whipping. Give it some elbow grease when mixing the batter and you’ll get perfect pancakes every time. I like experimenting with the fillings – the residents’ favourites are, chocolate spread and banana and of course, good old fashioned lemon and sugar!”

The Thistle Hill Care Centre was filled with flowers, cards and sweets in celebration of St Valentine’s Day. 

Staff and residents celebrated the day of love by hosting a romantic meal for two for our resident couples, courtesy of our Head Chef Ewelina.

Following on from this our residents danced away the afternoon with a fabulous musical performance by home favourite singer Rochelle.