Activities at Wheatlands Care Home

On the third Thursday of the month we hold a Dementia Café here at Wheatland’s this month’s activities included building bird boxes Ashley our head of maintenance was there to lend a helping hand but the gents taught him a thing or two! The café runs on a monthly basis welcoming members of the public and residents it’s a great place to get together enjoy meeting new friends and try a different activity each month of course always accompanied by a cuppa and delicious homemade cake.

Wondering Wednesday’s started after enjoying a stroll into our home town Much Wenlock as part of Olympic themed events to do the Wenlock Olympian trial. Dr William Penny Brookes founded  the Wenlock Olympian Games in 1850  which in turn inspired the modern Olympic games.

After our walk residents enjoyed a lovely cappuccino on the square in Much Wenlock enjoying its history and  reminiscing about yesteryears. Joyce and Jackie then enjoyed lighting a candle in Holy Trinity Church it hold a lot of very special memories for them both Joyce was christened, confirmed and married she also enjoyed showing us the family pew in the middle third from the back.  Jackie enjoyed sharing stories of her husband being the vicar and the many years she volunteered doing the monthly charity soup lunch.

Everyone agreed our lovely little town is such a beautiful place we need to spend more time enjoying and exploring it. Since that first Wednesday we have enjoyed walks to the bull ring to see Highland cows and enjoyed meeting lots of lovely dogs on our adventures, looking in local shops but our trip always ends with a cuppa and slice of cake!

Person centred care and activities are at the heart of life here at Wheatlands and enriching the lives of our residents is at the forefront of everything we do. Elsie has been with us for just over a month, she enjoys our quieter activities but much prefers one to one based activities. After her daughters completed her getting to know me book we realised how important flower arranging is to Elsie. As part of our preparations for our family BBQ Elsie and I enjoyed a walk around the grounds picking wildflowers to make our centre pieces. We sat down over a coffee and enjoyed getting to know one and another whilst making some beautiful centre pieces. We were joined by various members of the team throughout the morning. Elsie enjoyed teaching each and every staff member about flower arranging. Elsie spent over 25 years as a member of Wigston and Knighton flower club where she enjoyed several committee roles including chairwoman. Elsie has also enjoyed arranging flowers at Chatsworth house and many other venues.

Beryl has always loved the great outdoors and animals and being at one with nature. Being hard of hearing Beryl sometimes feels she cant always join in and communicate properly with others. But when the opportunity came up we knew Beryl would jump at the chance to go to the Cavalier Centre in Much Wenlock for tea with the ponies. She was joined by fellow residents the afternoon started with a cup of tea and some delicious homemade cake whilst enjoying watching a horse-riding class from the viewing platform. After which we where taken down to the stables to meet Superted and Rufus followed by meeting some of the bigger horses. Beryl said how much she loved the horses plaits and bows and the smell of the stables. After our meeting with the horses we enjoyed sometime in the centres sensory garden to reflect on our afternoon.

The rain certainly didn’t stop us enjoying our annual summer BBQ. As residents, family and friends began to gather the sunshine began to make an appearance. We where lucky enough to be joined by many of our Wheatlands family on there day off as they didn’t want to miss out on all the fun.

We were joined by Cuan Wildlife Rescue whom ran a stall but most importantly spent time with our residents chatting about the important work they do at the rescue centre and how many animals they rescue in a year. Una was most interested in how to help hedgehogs.

After a fabulous BBQ and delicious deserts from head chef Martin and his team residents and friends gathered to watch the fabulous Glamsparrow a husband and wife rock and roll band. Everyone got a chance to let their hair down and rock out for the afternoon.

Wheatlands really does have talent!. Wow what a fantastic afternoon we had the room was full of so much talent. A few months ago Joan asked for a talent show as part of her 101st birthday celebrations so we set about making another wish come true here at Wheatlands we invited the local community to enter and take part along with residents and staff, even our housekeeping team got up and done a duet together. Mary one of our lovely residents took to the piano and played some beautiful songs and asked the crowd what else she could play for them.

Joan said there was no contest when it came to deciding the winner, the super talented Avery won first prize she really does have the most beautiful voice. Avery has such a bright future ahead of her and was born to be on the stage!