Activities at Highview House Care Home

We took a few residents out for a bike ride courtesy of the lovely “Spokes for Folks”.  The daughter of one of our residents joined us too and it was a lovely day out for everyone.  We met them at Eden Court, Inverness and then we started our trip by going along by the river to Whin Park. We stopped there for a few minutes where we fed the ducks before moving on the see the new Hydro. Finally we went down along the canal and then back to Eden Court.

Graeme Roger from Luminate Scotland came into the home for the first of 5 visits.. These visits are to spend time with individual residents and show them about photography and film making.  Before coming into Highview, Ronnie had a passion for photography and was very much looking forward to spending time with Graeme today.  

We took Ronnie outside to take photos of things that he wanted to including the flowers and the fish pond.  After Ronnie had taken his pictures, Graeme then spent time with him back in the home editing his pictures on the laptop.  Graeme was very patient and made sure that Ronnie was happy with all the edits before saving them.  Here are a few pictures of Ronnie and Graeme and after the 5 weeks we will receive the file with all the pictures which we will then share with our residents. #artsincare

Our homes had a brilliant time with curator Sarah Deters as she took us on a virtual ‘Music Through the Ages’ tour of St Cecilia’s Hall: Concert Room and Music Museum.

Our residents were thrilled to discover weird and wonderful musical instruments, hear their unusual sounds, and find out how instruments have changed over the last 500 years.

The virtual live event explored the world-renown collection of musical instruments on display at St Cecilia’s Hall, Scotland’s oldest concert hall.

For Book Lovers Day we decided it would be a lovely idea to have some children come into the home and read some of their favourite books to our residents. Charley, aged 11, brought in The Roald Dahl Treasury as it has a variety of brilliant stories in it.  She chose some of her favourites including Esio Trot, The Minpins, Matlida and Fantastic Mr Fox and then offered the residents the choice of which ones to read. Charley was reading a little bit of Fantastic Mr Fox to John and very much enjoyed this time.

Jack, aged 9, decided that he would bring Gangsta Granny Strikes back by David Walliams as he thought that the residents would really enjoy this as many of them are Granny’s. Jack read some of his book to Dush and then they both took turns in reading bits of it to each other which was amazing to see.

Annie, Mairi and Margaret all loved to see young children in the home and Annie said she couldn’t work out if she was the Gangsta Granny or the accomplice. Our residents very much enjoyed the interaction with the children and it was lovely to see both generations enjoying the books.  Having a love of books is a great way to improve not only your vocabulary but also your imagination.  It is great to see young children who have a love of books and don’t just always opt for technology as their choice of entertainment.

Miele's Gelateria Inverness came to our home and parked their “Parlour on wheels” in our car park.  The residents and staff all really enjoyed the experience and we cannot thank them enough for coming.  We provided all the residents, staff and visitors with tables and chairs in our front car park and we had some music playing which many enjoyed singing along to.  It was great to also see lots of visitors to our home from the wider community and many sat and chatted with our residents whilst enjoying an afternoon treat of the delicious gelato.  For those who didn’t wish to come outside, the staff took their order and hand delivered their gelato to them in their rooms.  As you can see from the pictures, a great afternoon was had by all and we do hope that all our visitors did too.

One of our residents, Bruce, was on an outing to the local garden centre when he happened to mention to the staff that he would love to see Caley Stadium as he has a passion for the team and has always supported them.   They of course agreed, and as a surprise to Bruce the staff asked them if we could go in and see the pitch from the inside. He was smiling ear to ear and he even told us about some of the games he had been to and where he used to sit. The staff at Caley Stadium were so kind and took us on a small tour. They even gave Bill and Bruce calendars and window stickers to decorate their rooms back at the home.