Activities at Milford House Care Home

We had a great afternoon thanks to everyone who came along to our Christmas Fete. We were honoured to have the Deputy Mayor of Salisbury, Councillor Atiqul Hoque attend along with Salisbury Community Choir who sang carols around the Christmas tree in the courtyard. We had an array of crafts and food and other items on show and special thanks to Lucinda Nicholas - Artist, George Shapland - Woodturner and Mary from Phoenix Artists for setting up their fabulous stalls with lots of things to tempt! There was also an array of delights from the Milford Kitchen and handmade chocolates amongst other things. It was lovely to welcome so many people to the home and we will look forward to doing it all again next year!

Our huge thanks to everyone at Riding for the Disabled - Wilton Group who hosted us for such a great afternoon at their centre where residents got to see the facilities and meet super friendly ponies Tommy, Mikey, Frankie and Poppy and not forgetting Marmite the cat as well! We were able to see some of the ponies in the fields as well as the yard as, fortunately after all the bad weather this week, it was a gloriously sunny afternoon, before getting up close in the covered menage. It turned out that one of our residents had volunteered here some 20 years ago so it was a real trip down memory lane. After meeting the ponies, residents enjoyed a tour of the tack rooms before being treated to tea and chatting about the work that the volunteers do here. It really was a great afternoon with smiles all round and we hope to be back before too long!

A group of residents were delighted recently to take up the invitation to attend the 'Celebrate Age Gala Concert' featuring some of the international cast of the festival opera ‘Pirates of Penzance’ who performed a range of music covering opera, musical theatre, folk songs, parlour songs and popular music. Organised as part of the Celebrate Voice Festival in Salisbury, the concert took place in the loveliest of settings, Salisbury Guildhall, and with a scrumptious tea served during the course of the concert it was a very special afternoon indeed.

Residents at Milford House have been enjoying a series of movement sessions with Jenny from Harnham Physiotherapy.  These sessions are proving very popular and the sessions in our conservatory are always packed. Everyone clearly enjoyed the session with a programme designed to help maintain movement and motor skills as well as an emphasis on having fun! We are looking forward to having the team running a series of workshops for us and we are loving having them working alongside our regular activity team.

Residents at Milford, like so many across the country on the 11th at 11am observed the traditional 2 minutes silence and on Remembrance Sunday had a service led by members Vineyard Church who helped residents to mark the day. The ceremonies at the Cenotaph in London were also featured on our TVs around the home.

In the run up to the day, residents created some beautiful poppy wreaths that were displayed around the home. This is such an important time for so many people. Our activities team also supported residents with reminiscence sessions about the meaning of the day for them personally and helped individual residents to mark the occasion in whatever way felt most appropriate to them.

Following on from a fabulous drawing masterclass with The Wallace Collection focusing on flower painting, Milford residents entered the follow-up competition the theme of which was ‘Impossible Bouquet’ and all winners were judged and carefully selected by members of the Wallace Collection: Milford residents were thrilled to be announced as the winners for the South Division and the feedback from the judges was that they loved the use of finger painting and paint to create the different flowers and the fact that the artwork was framed. The 'Bouquet' will shortly go on display in our newly refurbished 'art gallery'. Well done to everyone involved!