Activities at Lochduhar Care Home

Across our services we had a lovely time joining Mark Piesing for an exciting virtual event to discuss his book ‘N-4 Down: The Hunt for The Arctic Airship Italia’.

Our residents were thrilled to find out more about the book and the fascinating story of the world-famous exploring airship Italia, returning from the North Pole on May 24, 1928. The airship was struck by a terrible storm and crashed somewhere over the Arctic ice, triggering the largest polar rescue mission in history

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Lochduhar care home in Dumfries took a walk on the wild side when they celebrated UN World Wildlife Day on 3rd March.

World Wildlife Day is an annual global event to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.  World Wildlife Day 2023 is celebrated under the theme ‘Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation’ to highlight the people who are making a difference and celebrate all conservation efforts from marine life and our oceans to collaborations with businesses which are helping to reverse the loss in biodiversity on our planet through sustainability and wildlife protection.

Residents had a brilliant time when they visited nearby Mabie Forest. They enjoyed watching the different birds and the rabbits and seeing the spring flowers appearing. They also took time to enjoy the forest and the surrounding views.

The staff and residents at Lochduhar care home in Dumfries have been flipping and turning pancakes all morning in preparation for their annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day celebrations.

Lochduhar has marked this year’s Pancake Day with pupils visiting from St. Theresa’s school who were invited to take part in a pancake race with some of the staff and of course, lots of pancakes were available! Evelyn, head chef at the home, made lots of pancakes, serving them up with sweet and savoury fillings for all the eager staff and residents.

To celebrate National Pizza day, some of our residents set about creating their own pizzas.

The residents had great fun prepping their pizza and choosing their toppings. Our Head Chef Evelyn and our activities team Sally and Maggie, helped the residents, while they too made their very own pizza.

When the pizzas were cooked we all enjoyed a taste test. We can confirm the pizzas were delicious. The residents are looking forward to our next baking day.

Last week marked National Story telling week. We borrowed some books from our local library in Dumfries, residents chose their book to read. We spoke of the stories we were reading, this helps to improve our focus, memory, empathy and communication skills, which in turn improves our mental health. The following day we had a visit from Northwest Nursery children. They played outside and then they sat down and listened to their teacher Lorraine read them a story.

Our residents were watching and listening to the children as they got involved in the story and asked questions. The children played the parachute and ball game, which our residents enjoy too.

The children then enjoyed a cool drink and then set off back to school. Our residents always enjoy a visit from the children, they look forward to seeing them every week.

Lochduhar care home in Dumfries has been finding out the favourite stories of residents and staff, and sharing them during National Storytelling Week. Many of the residents at Lochduhar care home have a knack of telling a great story or two, and National Storytelling Week is a perfect opportunity to experience the joy of storytelling.

Storytelling is one of the oldest art forms in the world so, to help keep the custom alive, residents have been reading their own short stories to each other. This was a joint activity as the children from Northwest Nursery visited the home and were involved in reading stories and then played outside with the parachute and bat and ball. Our residents enjoyed watching and listening to the children as they took paet in their games.