Activities at Washington Grange Care Home

We were delighted to join Blooming Haus’s Christmas Wreath Making Masterclass, where Master Florist, Michal and his business partner - Michael showed us the best method to create beautiful festive wreaths.

Following the tips and ideas learnt during the amazing virtual experience, we were happy to put our skills to a test and to enter the #BarchesterChristmasWreaths competition.

We all had a wonderful time creating our festive wreath/s.

Thank you @bloominghaus for helping our residents flow into the true spirit of Noel.

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.

Washington Grange colleague, Carol Knight has received a prestigious 10-Year Service Award in celebration of working at Barchester Healthcare for ten years.

Carol Knight, started at Barchester in 2011 and has worked with residents and their relatives to ensure that their needs have been met over the years.

Paula Joicey General Manager of Washington Grange said: “We’re delighted to be celebrating 10-years of loyal service with Carol. She has demonstrated her dedication and loyalty to this home and its residents year after year. I speak for all of us here at Washington Grange when I say that I’m looking forward to many more years of working with Carol!”

Residents 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.

We had a great time joining journalist and novelist, Mike Gayle, for an intriguing virtual interview, during which he shared top tips for creative writing with our residents and read passages from his latest book, All the Lonely People.

We were thrilled to find out about Mike’s background, to understand what led him to become a writer and his creative process.

It was a lovely talk, enjoyed by all, especially by our keen writers at the home.

We had a lovely time joining Paul Hawkins and Lisa Richards from Unilever for an exciting Virtual Cruise experience.

Our residents were welcomed with mocktails as Lisa and Paul took them on a magical journey to 3 mystery destinations, which were uncovered after a few clues.

Paul demonstrated how to create a few of the local traditional dishes, which our residents had the opportunity to try too.

The event evoked lots of great memories and it was truly enjoyed by all.