Activities at White Lodge Care Home

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.

We had Royal Wotton Bassett Dementia Choir at White Lodge today performing songs like "somewhere over the rainbow" "my favourite things" "he's got the whole world" "try a little kindness" Lisa Williams came up with a brilliant idea of using musical instruments this time which created magic in the afternoon. An afternoon full of laughter, singing and dancing.

At White Lodge we had sensory tea tasting competition where the residents had to taste 6 different types of tea which includes lemon & ginger, pure green tea, pure camomile l, pure peppermint, Earl Grey and English breakfast tea.

The activity team served one tea at a time to all the participants, providing them 6 tea bags to choose from. The residents analysed the colour, smelled the tea and then tasted the tea. As you can see from photos, some of us didn't like the tastes!!!

The activity team also encouraged the participants to write on the paper given to promote writing and helped who needed.

During the competition we realised we are so used to the regular milk tea that we almost forgot the other types of tea!

At the end of the competition, we had 2 winners who got right 6 out 6 flavours and they both were very happy to win prizes! The residents enjoyed the sensory tea tasting competition so much that they requested for more tasting competition!

At White Lodge we celebrate resident of the day which ensures each person receives at least one day each month where the focus is all about them. On the day all the team including maintenance, housekeeping, kitchen, activities make sure to visit the residents to meet all their needs. The teams try to make the special by talking with the residents or with the family.

One of our residents of the day is Vivian F. As Viv is not able to communicate, the activity team found out that she loves doing her hair, make up and nails a lot from her getting to know me book. So, Shayla from the activity team took Viv to the salon of the home where she did Viv's hair, nails and make up. The amazing thing is Viv opened her own make up bag, got all her makeup out and applied the blush and lipstick herself. While doing her hair, Viv was looking at the mirror and smiling. Not to mention she was moving with the music that was being played on the background!!!

The impact of the pampering was so visible. When you feel good about yourself, it makes a difference. We could see it in viv's eyes and smiles when she came back from getting their hair and makeup done.