Tania Honey is always a popular and regular visitor to Woodland View, where she joins us to sing for residents. On this occasion, we marked Cheltenham Ladies Day at Cheltenham by adding a theme.

'Hats Off' with Tania Honey (or on, actually!) saw the ladies and gentlemen donning hats for the session. It added a completely different atmosphere to the afternoon, which was lovely, and the only thing missing was a few horses!

To mark the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote, local historian, Trudie Mundell, was invited to Woodland View to give a talk to residents. Trudie focused on local characters who made their mark, lending their own voice and political influence in the strive for voting rights for women.

Trudie loved visiting Woodland View and enjoyed meeting everyone. She gave Activities Coordinator, Kevin Riley, contact details for someone else she knows who would probably want to give a talk at the home at a later date on other local historical facts.

Thank you, Trudie, for a fascinating insight into Colchester's own chapter in the fight for women's rights. Who knew?!

Thursday mornings at Woodland View are always popular; Clare Leach conducts her weekly interactive gun and music sessions. Handing out song sheets for everyone, residents sing along to old classics and more recent popular tunes. 

The fun really starts when certain tunes, acting as triggers, are played. 'I'm forever Blowing Bubbles' is the point in the proceedings where Activities Coordinator, Kevin Riley, regardless of what he is doing or where he is located, springs into action. Within moments Kevin appears, armed with a fully loaded bubble machine. He works his way through the audience, showering them with bubbles, much to the delight of most. However, the ladies who get their hair done before the music session are normally scrambling for newspapers to hold over their heads to protect themselves. Hilarity is normally the result.

Things have progressed in the session to now include a huge orange balloon, which takes quite a significant effort to inflate each week. Having just recovered from a storm of bubbles, residents are now engaged in batting away this inflated monster, which invariably keeps coming back to them again – and they love it!

Just about everyone needs greetings cards from time to time and residents at Woodland View have been finding out how enjoyable and satisfying it is to make their own.

Using a number of styles and techniques, handmade cards have been produced by residents to cover a range of themes, including Easter and birthdays.

The standard has been exceptional and residents have requested for additional craft workshops to feature in future activities schedules.

Woodland View has an on-going relationship with The Gilberd School in Colchester and recently received a wonderful gift.

The school held a dress-down day to support fundraising for an interactive light table at Woodland View. After a day of raising funds, teacher, Georgina Scott, handed Activities Coordinator, Kevin Riley, a cheque for £1,176.16.

Fundraising is going well, but there's still a long way to go before the target is reached and the table can be purchased.

Woodland View would like to express its sincere appreciation for the efforts made by staff and pupils of The Gilberd School. The benefits this equipment will bring residents living with dementia at the home will be enjoyed for a long time to come.

The ladies who attend the weekly crafts workshop at Woodland View created a number of bonding squares for St. Thomas's Hospital in London following an appeal on social media. However, they soon found out that the hospital had been inundated and they couldn't accept any more.

After phoning hospitals closer to Woodland View, Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford were in need of them, so they were packaged up and sent over. The hospital sent back a letter of appreciation upon receipt of the squares, so it was wonderful to know they had gone somewhere that needed them.

Although we're already regularly contributing to a number of good causes, the residents at Woodland View are always interested in supporting any organisations that need knitted items.