Activities at White Lodge Care Home

Today the Alpacas came to visit our residents at White Lodge. The alpacas met the residents who were waiting for them in the lounge and then walked through the corridors, even went to the rooms to visit the residents who are bed bound and wanted to stroke the alpacas.

Pets can help reduce stress, lower blood pressure, increase social interaction and physical activity and help them learn.

Also the children’s from Swindon cub came to visit our home to see the Alpacas and meet the residents.

Thanks to Naz, hope to see you soon again.

White Lodge was filled with red roses, hearts, balloons and sweets in celebration of St Valentine’s Day.

Staff and residents celebrated the day of love by creating heart-shaped decorations to decorate the home, then coming together in the lounge to enjoy all the lovely songs played by Paul from Ukulele Piddle.

Malcom, a resident at White Lodge said: “It has been a lovely day. It was wonderful to see everyone go to so much effort to get involved with the day’s festivities. I really enjoyed singing all the songs that I grew up with.

Staff and residents at White Lodge welcomed in the Year of the Dragon with a day of celebrations and activities.

Inspired by Chinese culture and traditions, lucky red envelopes were exchanged which was filled with a fortune quote and the home was decorated with hanging red lanterns. Residents learnt all about the traditions and superstitions of Chinese New Year. Our chef cooked up an oriental feast including chowmein, spring roll, dumplings, prawn crackers and residents enjoyed the delicious food washed down with a cup of tea.

Ramona Gherendi, General Manager said: “We have had a brilliant day, the home looks absolutely wonderful decorated all in red and we all had such fun finding out what animal we are, the associated traits and reading each other’s horoscopes.

Val, a resident at White Lodge said: “I loved the music, the vibrant colours, delicious food and learning about the Chinese Zodiac animal traits. A person born in the Year of the Dragon is said to be kind, confident and strong. I find it fascinating to learn all about different traditions.

Residents at White Lodge have enjoyed making bird feeders for their beautiful garden using bird seeds, peanuts, worms and lard with our maintenance team part of their monthly maintenance club!

First they prepared the coconut shells by adding a string into it so that they can be hang from trees. After mixing all the ingredients the residents added spoonful of lard and keep adding until they reached the required consistency. Then the residents filled the coconut shells with the mixture and with the rest of the mixtures they made some round balls. Looking at the results we all agreed that it was a good team work!

One resident said, “They were really fun to make and its a good idea to feed the birds as the weather is cold."

Ramona, the general manager at white lodge said: “It was a lovely craft to do together and now we can enjoy watching the birds feeding in the garden.

White Lodge prepared a traditional Burns celebration to the tune of bagpipes and the fun continued well into the afternoon.

Staff and residents at the home were involved in learning the art of Scottish country music. Tony H. from Wiltshire Bagpiper came to White Lodge wearing his amazing tartan outfit and played some tunes for us in the lounge. Also he walked through the corridor playing tunes for the residents who are bed bound. While visiting the residents in their rooms he came across few residents from Scotland and they talked about their holidays with Tony.

One of the residents Susan S. Said, she loves bagpipes as she has Scottish blood. And also mentioned she is hearing the music live after a very long time. Susan thanked white lodge for arranging the event for her and others.

Coming back to the lounge Tony addressed the haggis and said goodbye with another popular tune.

The residents at white lodge went out in a minibus trip this afternoon all the way to Purton village Hall to help finding the missing puzzles of the pantoland.

The name of the show was 'the great panto puzzle' performed by tor theatre which was hilarious with lot of laughs, songs and excitement.

One of our residents Doreen couldn't stop herself from dancing! After the show the residents had a nice chat with the people from the community over a cup of tea.

While we were waiting for our minibus, we saw the actors of the show crossing us so asked if we could take a photo with them. How nice of them to chat with our residents and took a photo together.