We welcomed and enjoyed a fantastic gathering of members from The Surrey Classic Vehicle Club and we can’t thank them enough for coming to display their cars for our residents, family and local community. It was brilliant to take the residents outside to look at the classic cars and talk to the members about them. Our afternoon was filled with great music outside from 2Tanium. They created a real party atmosphere with their live performance and we created our own street party with cake on offer! We also had our own Platinum Pudding Competition and we had 2 amazing entries - one was “A Right Royal Palaver” a beautifully created Pavlova. The other was a Lemon Union Jack Cake made with fresh berries. Both received medals for their entries. 

Residents had a thoroughly enjoyable experience and afternoon with a visit and talk by George from Albury Vineyard who gave us some really great information and insight into wine making. They enjoyed tasting a Classic Curvée and the Silent Pool Rosé with a toast to the Queen. We learnt about the types of wine created based on the UK weather and what it takes with the fermentation process. Our residents had some really great questions to enhance what discussions had taken place and we would most certainly recommend a tour. Some of our residents remember the Silent Pool but probably wouldn’t recognise it now with changes so it would be lovely to visit. 

We recently had the lovely members of the Guildford Scottish Country Dance Club come to our home and showed our residents some brilliant demonstrations and dance routines. We even had some Highland Dancers in Kilts with Swords! They gave us a lovely afternoon of entertainment and highlighted the hard work it takes to come together so we could enjoy traditional Scottish Dancing. It was a really important moment for our Scottish residents and staff to have a little bit of “home” to share with the others. It created some time to enjoy, celebrate and reminisce about moments shared, performing these dances themselves with friends and family past and present. 

We are fortunate enough to be able to join Merrist Wood Volunteer Gardening for their amazing volunteering opportunity. The programme is to improve well-being, learn new skills and make new friends and Rachel has been brilliant with all our residents. It also offers gentle exercise, getting outdoors and connecting with nature. Our residents have thoroughly enjoyed a couple of sessions already in the poly tunnel where they have been shown how to sow seeds and plant planters as professionals. It has been rather therapeutic and interesting as now we can take these skills back to the home and do some more effective gardening and planting to get the best out of our creations and garden. 

We have spent time visiting some of our residents that aren’t very mobile with our Magic Table 360 from Social-Ability, giving them the opportunity to explore the games that support a broad range of cognitive capabilities and enhancing /improving relaxation, sociability, well-being and agitation. We are able to display these images and games on tables, floors, beds, walls and ceilings allowing us to create a suitable space and environment for all residents to enjoy and participate. Some of the games available support residents with movement, motor skills, cognitive and social stimulation, competition, mindfulness, calming and reminiscing. 

We recently had a visit from Jess from ZooLab and it was a brilliant afternoon shared by many residents in the home and we can’t thank her enough for the amazing information she shared and then bringing the animals around everyone. Some residents were brave enough to hold or at least touch some of them. We met a Giant African Land Snail, a Madagascan Hissing Cockroach, an Australian Green Tree Frog, a Royal Python and a couple of Rats. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed seeing and learning about these animal friends and we would recommend organising a visit but we look forward to them returning.