Activities at Lochduhar Care Home

We took a minibus trip from Lochdhuar to the once-a-month Queen of the South Football Memories Group. We are welcomed in and seated. We had a look at some old football players and managers on flash cards. We try and guess who they are and talk about our memories of the players.

There was one gentleman who bought his own collection of football cards, which interested one of our residents very much. They chatted for ages, remembering the players. 

We were then offered a Pie and Bovril, because that’s what’s offered at half-time, so I believe. We enjoyed the Pie and Bovril, still chatting and reminiscing about football. We then thanked them all and headed home. We are looking forward to returning next month. 

But in the mean time, we have our very own flash cards at Lochduhar and will continue to have our own sessions. 

Our residents have been busy here at Lochduhar in the build-up to Alice in Wonderland day! We have been making some Mad Hats for a Mad Hatter Tea Party.

We enjoyed the arts and crafts sessions, cutting, glueing and designing our very own hats. We all got together to make a colourful balloon arch and what a good job we all did. Sally dressed up as The Queen of Hearts as we donned our hats for the tea party. 

The kitchen team made a delicious afternoon tea of egg sandwiches, sausage rolls, profiteroles, strawberries, cakes and much more. We finished off with some strawberry and salted caramel ice cream. 

We held a cheese and wine evening for National Cheese day, which is on the 4th of June. We donned our pinny, and we visited all of our communities. This is quite popular with a lot of our residents. 

We played some golden oldies 60s music, like Pretty Woman and Dancing Queen to name a few. We enjoyed different types of cheeses, biscuits, some fruits, pickles and some radishes which our residents grew in our garden here at Lochduhar. 

The residents enjoyed a glass of wine or a soft drink. Some residents sat in the communal areas, reminiscing of their own evenings and gardening. We are planning to have another cheese and wine evening soon.

We celebrated VE Day's 80th Anniversary here at Lochduhar with a garden party. We spent time decorating our gardens in preparation. We welcomed in vocalist John Caskie and accordionist Willie McRobert to entertain residents, family, friends and staff.

They played some old favourites and some war songs. We sang along to some Scottish favourites too, tapping our feet, clapping and dancing.

We held a two-minute silence to pay our respects. Our kitchen tea made a delicious afternoon tea with some Pimms and lemonade. We had a lovely time and the sun shone all afternoon.

We held a Gentleman's evening here at Lochduhar at the request of some of our residents.

As we gathered together to have a few games of darts, we spoke of the darts tournaments that are on the 
television at the moment. It was also international beer day, so we had a few, no alcoholic beers, juices and crisps.

We thought that we would try our best with our magnetic darts. One of our residents did really well and beat. Maggie from our activities team, they laughed together. We then chose to have a few games of dominoes. This can be very competitive, but we all enjoyed ourselves having a few laughs along the way.

We messaged the Veterans Gardens to see if we could come and visit them again. They said yes, and they were looking forward to seeing us as we were them too.

When we arrived, they welcomed us and introduced us to the chickens and cockerels they had. They said we could name a chicken and a cockerel if we wished too, so that’s what we did.

We named a chicken Christine and the cockerel Brian. They have distinctive markings, and we hope we can recognise them when we return. We then looked around their gardens, and they told us they were very busy planting. They then offered us a coffee and cake. We sat in their outside area and chatted.
We had a lovely time and felt most welcomed. We thanked them and headed home.

We have made the most of the lovely weather we’re having and decided to spend the afternoon in our gardens. We donned our summer hats, got ourselves some cool juice and sat in the lovely sunshine.

We took with us some Oomph on Demand Activity books, with quizzes, crosswords and puzzles. We put some music on in the background, and we sang along too.

We spoke of Blackpool and reminisced of our own holidays there. Some of us even visited the Blackpool Tower.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by decorating our home for the party in the evening.

We invited vocalist Gary, to come into our home and entertain us. He sang some Irish songs to us. We got up to dance, we also sang along and tapped our feet. Our kitchen team made a lovely cheese and biscuits board.

We enjoyed some wine and, of course, some Guinness. We had a lovely time celebrating St. Patrick's Day.

At Lochduhar in our Memory Lane community we recently did some baking. Our residents chose to make an apple pie. They worked together to roll the pastry and spoon the apple into the pie. They brushed the pie with egg and sprinkled some sugar on the top and popped it in the oven. 

When the apple pie was cooked, we waited for it to cool, and we enjoyed a slice with cream and a cup of tea.

Every Wednesday morning we have an exercise group come and visit Lochduhar for some gentle
chair-based exercises. 

The group is called Let’s Get Sporty. They bring in their equipment for us to use.

The residents are keen to join in. They throw bean bags to get a score. They throw or kick a rugby ball
or a football, and they aim to knock the cones down. 

They use a tennis racket to balance a ball, and much more, we all have fun.

After this we enjoy some refreshments and a chat about what we have done.

We took some of our residents from Lochduhar to The Usual Place in Dumfries for their Christmas Lunch.

The Usual Place is a popular cafe with some of our residents. Everything is freshly prepared, cooked
and baked in their kitchen. 

We all chose a two course meal, prawn cocktail for starters and a traditional Christmas lunch. We had crackers too and wore our hats as we jokes, with lots of laughing! 

We had prosecco and Nosecco and raised a glass to each other and wished everyone a very Merry Christmas. We reminisced on what we cooked for our own Christmas dinners too!

We recently had a visit from Laurieknow Nursery, our residents really look forward to seeing the children.

We played the bucket on ball game, to see who could get the balls in the bucket. This was a great hit with
the children and the residents, competing and having fun.

We did some aqua painting together. The residents enjoyed doing this with the children and are looking forward to seeing them again soon.

We think next time they visit we will be doing Christmas arts and crafts.

We recently held a baking club, with Head Chef Evelyn, and the Activities team, Sally and Maggie.

Residents chose to have the baking club in the dining room. 

Chef Evelyn asked the residents what they would like to drink, as she had made some gingerbread mulled wine and some soft juice. Some of the residents who had the gingerbread mulled wine said it was delicious! 

Chef Evelyn then asked what the ingredients are that go into a Christmas cake and residents took turns in saying their answers. 

They then set to work mixing and stirring the ingredients for the Christmas Cake. One resident asked how long it would take to cook and Evelyn said about four and a half hours! 

We then all had a coffee, cake and a chat, reminiscing of when we were younger and how our own mothers use to make Christmas Cakes.

Here at Lochduhar, we enjoyed an afternoon of live entertainment from Gary, an amazing vocalist. 

Gary is known to all of our residents, as he generally performs at some of our parties for us. He sings a selection of songs, which suit all our residents and we all like to sing along and sometimes we get up to dance. 

One of the residenst said the music is catchy and has a lovely beat.

Gary walks around to see the residents while he is singing, some residents join in with him as he passes them the microphone, to offer them to sing with him and lots of our residents love to join in!

We can't wait for the next time Gary performs at our home, we're already warming up our vocals!

Here at Lochduhar, we have a weekly session with Let’s Get Sporty. They are a community group that hold classes for all ages.

Our residents look forward to see them every week, for some gentle chair based exercises. 

The residents start and finish with a warm up and warm down every time.

This week, they used tennis rackets, some hoops and some bean bags, this exercise helps with the upper body. 

They then used small balls and football and this helps with the lower body. 

After each session, we always have some refreshments and we talk about how we think our session went.

We can't wait to get sporty next week!