Activities at South Chowdene Care Home

Residents at South Chowdene showed their appreciation to our Nurses by writing them individual messages. Rene Dixon helped design and make a fantastic large card (as we knew there would be a lot to write), inside which, each resident wrote their message of thanks, and were very happy at the opportunity to say a formal thank you to each of the nurses.

VE Day was marked with a street party style decorations around the building. Residents had helped make the bunting and there were flags aplenty to wave.

Throughout the day we listened to songs of the era and chatted about what experiences residents remembered (both good and bad).

Many of the residents watched coverage of the day on telly which also promoted a lot of discussion and memories.

Each resident was quite amused by the ration book given to them in the morning with the menu for the day on it. They were also very relieved that although the dishes were very much in keeping with wartime fare, the amounts weren’t quite as strict as they would have been on the real thing! Phew!!!

In the current circumstances, we couldn’t do all we wanted to do to show our volunteers how much we treasure their visits, but residents made cards and wrote their messages in them and we hope that these brightened both Mandy and Jane’s days when they received them!

We are hoping that we will soon be able to show our appreciation properly and are very happy that we have been able to sort out Skype to see Annie from time to time.

During the course of the virus so far, the children from Oakfields school have helped us to keep smiling by sending us letters and cards. We were devastated that we couldn’t brighten the place with flowers for Mother’s Day, but our smiles were restored when we received letters with lovely pictures which we put up in all the lounges and corridors.

We received a visit and cards from a few children from the school (who stayed outside) and we all sang ‘Happy Easter to you’ through the windows of the conservatory.

They also left us some lovely Easter wreaths and we gave them a mobile we made of rainbows and the ‘Unity’ message.

Thank you Oakfields! We have also been keeping spirits up singing and dancing along to DVDs.

Over the last few weeks, residents have been busy getting ready for Easter in many ways. Hat decorating was quite a favourite and the place looked very bright when we all wore them on Easter Day.   

We also made chocolate Easter nests which went down very well on the tea trolley.

Residents had a great time getting themselves ready to look their best on Easter Sunday by making our own hand creams, choosing the scents to put in or citrus fruit peel. A fair few new flavours of cream were created and we hope to think up some more soon. If nothing else, just inhaling the different and memory provoking scents was great.

From 16th – 20th March, residents at South Chowdene considered what nutritional and hydration needs they have and how to best meet them. We tried different ways of making water taste more exciting, made our own orange juice and a whole raft of ‘supersnacks’ to keep us going.

We learnt a lot from each other, especially about what has happened in the past to keep nutritional needs met and what drinks were made at home in order to quench people's thirst. Residents enjoyed trying different thirst-quenching fruits.