Activities at Tixover House Care Home

New entertainment within our home and it was a huge hit in our Memory Lane dining room, with all residents involved in the workshop.   

The residents who made a flower arrangement have within their bedrooms, the rosemary within the arrangement is filling their rooms with wonderful scents. The following day, activities took a completed flower arrangement to all the bedrooms in our Nursing Community and completed a sensory activity.

Our residents loved a recent trip to view the beautiful flowers at Elton Garden Centre. 

Our residents always love this location, saying it does the best coffee! We loved going up and down the garden centre, looking at flowers (many of which we hadn't seen before or for some time).     

Residents are celebrating National Carers’ Week, which takes place from June 8-14. Residents wanted to thank all the wonderful staff at the home, whose hard work and dedication make a real difference to the lives of those living in their care.

Staff were treated to artwork by a resident specific for Carers Week, a beautifully written piece by our Resident Ambassador, chocolates and sweets for our staff team, a carers breakfast by our Head Chef and General Manager and Rosebuds Beauty visiting our home and pampering our staff team, (residents and visitors too).

Huge thank you to our friend of the home, Charles, for bringing a military vehicle to our home as part of our VE Day celebrations. It was Charles's Birthday, he still visited our home. We made sure to sing him Happy Birthday! 

We thank you for making the afternoon fabulous for our residents! As well as this, we enjoyed a themed performance by Nicky Downs, VE Day themed afternoon tea and friend of the home Pat Blake using flags with our residents to exercise to a musical performance bedside and showing her family wartime memorabile.         

Mick (former maintenance officer within our home) saw the train-related wish fulfilment we had done for a gentleman within our home and reached out to Laundry Sally, who coordinated with both our Dementia Champion Kathy and Activities Caroline. Mick was kindly seated with our resident for refreshments, who showed photo albums and spoke about past times and his interest in trains. 

We thank you from the bottom of our heart for sharing your passion through our doors today. You are most welcome to visit at any point.   

We loved what Evie brought to our home on a recent visit. Evie brought her flute, having played for 5 years since she was 12 through the army cadets. Evie played her flute and sang her way through each room visit at our Nursing Community. Evie then went to our Memory Lane and completed a Royal Ascot themed room visit, colouring, true or false quiz, reading and word searches. 

One resident told Evie how she used to ride vintage bikes from Royal Ascot to Brighton. Evie then provided a companionship visit over lunchtime, playing Guess Who, Connect 4 and Battleships. It was a hoot to sit in on this, so much laughter, a real uplifting intergenerational activity.

Thank you to Stone Streets Sounds for a fabulous music through the ages production during our Dementia Action Week, a fantastic afternoon for all those involved. 

It was especially lovely to see the interactions between residents and residents and staff and residents.  

Our resident's family let us know their fondness for birds and bird watching, so we arranged an outing specific for this gentleman. It was great as the day we planned was the day the ospreys were due to hatch (coincidence not activities planned unfortunately). 

We enjoyed an informative talk on arrival and had refreshments. On return to home, we are broadcasting the live feed from Rutland Water to keep an eye on the Ospreys hatching (it has become quite addictive to follow).          

Whether you’re a die-hard Scots whisky fan, an Irish whisky lover, or you like to mix it up and try something new, World Whisky Day, celebrated this year on May 16th, is the perfect day to immerse yourself in the wonderful world of whisky. It was certainly a day of fun-filled tastings for the staff and residents.

To mark the day, residents had so much fun taking part in a live virtual event: Scotch Whisky Experience. Where we learnt the history of distilling whisky in Scotland, the production process, and the regional characteristics of single malts. We also enjoyed a dram of whisky alongside this great event.

We recently completed a wish for two friends in the home, supported by Manton Golf Course, Rutland Water.

The ladies' time was golf, with one of the ladies spending many years as Ladies Club Captain of a prestigious golf course.

They enjoyed time putting, looking round the pro shop and having refreshments (we are still having hot cross buns!) One lady said, "It was especially nice as golf on a sunny day was the best!"      

A huge thank you to Activities Denise and our new intergenerational link with Corby Old Village Primary School. You will remember this school kindly helped with a resident's recent big birthday by making decorations. 

They have now kindly written letters and the most fun and fabulous jokes which have had our residents smiling and laughing, pure joy! Thank you for your kindness and I look forward to seeing this relationship blossom.’

Our residents enjoyed a new location for an outing, as we went to New Lodge Farm recently. It is such a beautiful cafe and farm shop which we enjoyed exploring. 

We really loved looking at the beautiful floral and art work on display as well as taking a walk looking at gifts and produce to buy. Where to next? Let us know your favourite local places to visit..        

Our Activities: Caroline and Jess supported a resident and their family with a pub lunch outing to The Old Pheasant, Glaston. This was especially important as the resident's sister is visiting from Australia. We were really pleased to help deliver this wish fulfilment.

It was great to see you all come together in an environment outside the care home. Remember to pop on our wish tree at reception, your loved one's wishes and speak directly with the activities team, as we would love to fulfil as many special moments as possible.  

Through speaking with our resident's family, we found out that our resident's favourite café to visit multiple times a week with her family was Esquires, Uppingham.      

We planned an outing, joined by her son to her favourite café. She spoke so highly of happy memories within the café, sharing her time with her sons. Just look at that smile coming off our mini-bus on arrival and seeing her son accompanying the outing.

Dementia Champion Kathy and Head of Activities Caroline completed training on our new Hapi Table for the home. Residents have been busy exploring what the table has to offer. They have said the following:-

"Isn't it clever."
"You can get just about anything."
"Isn't it wonderful?"
"You wonder how they make these things."
"Oh look at that one."
"It's amazing."
"You could sit here forever."
"All the different colours."
"You could play with it for ages."

It is fabulous to use technology with our residents and we are already seeing the benefits.