Activities at Strachan House Care Home

National Pizza Day has been a real treat at Strachan House in Edinburgh, where staff and residents marked the occasion by getting out their aprons and kneading the dough to make home-made pizzas for the occasion.  The day was a celebration of all things pizza-related, and was the perfect excuse to get staff, residents and the local nursery together for some pizza making and taste sessions.  Cargilfield Nursery based at Cramond in Edinburgh are weekly visitors to the home and love sharing some intergenerational fun with their friends they have made at Strachan House.  

Many residents at Strachan House personalised their own pizzas with a selection of common and not so common variations of toppings .Some healthy and some more of a sweet indulgence.

Resident a Marion Cooper, at Strachan House is a big Harry Potter fan and she dreamed of watching the very first movie again on the big screen. So staff at the home made her wish a reality. Mandy Head of Activities said” Our Gone Fishing 23 project is all about moments like this. We dressed the room as though she was walking into the world of Harry Potter complete with props and homemade butter beer to enjoy “

Marion Cooper has lived at Strachan House for little under a year and is beloved by staff and residents alike. Staff at the home were delighted to be a part of making her dream come true, as they knew how much it meant to her and they all wanted to be there to see the smile on Marion’s face.

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Strachan House care home in Edinburgh got out their binoculars and bird books to support this year’s Big Garden Birdwatch initiative.

The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch is an annual event to try to understand what is happening to our native birds. The idea is to log all the birds you see in your garden, from your window or in your local park in a one hour period any time between January 27th and 29th. In 2021 over 1 million people took part and between them they counted 17 million birds. Sadly we have lost over 38 million birds from the UK skies in the last 50 years so it is vital we do all we can to protect our birdlife.

Strachan House care home in Edinburgh prepared a traditional Burns Night Supper to the tune of bagpipes with their gardener Andy who is a talented player. After supper the fun continued well into the night with some poem recitals and then some more entertainment all washed down with a dram or two.

Staff and residents at the home were involved in a number of activities learning the life and times of the great man along with trying to grasp some old scots language. The whole day was dedicated to the Scottish institution, including giving the time-honoured address to the ‘Great chieftain O’ the pudding race’ – the haggis.

Staff and residents at Strachan House welcomed in the Year of the Rabbit with a day of celebrations and activities.

Inspired by Chinese culture and traditions, lucky red envelopes were exchanged and the home was decorated with hanging red lanterns. Residents learnt all about the traditions and superstitions of Chinese New Year. Head chef Paul cooked up an oriental feast for dinner and residents enjoyed the delicious food washed down with pots of Chinese tea.

Gordon Philp, General Manager of Barchester’s Strachan House said: “We have had a brilliant day, the home looks absolutely wonderful decorated all in red and we all had such fun finding out what animal we were as well as learning how to spell our name in Chinese. The associated traits and reading each other’s horoscopes all had us giggling. The residents loved watching videos of traditional lion and dragon dances too.

Across our services our residents have enjoyed a wonderful live virtual talk about starlings, one of the UK’s most gregarious birds, hosted by Rachel Dowse from The Royal Parks London.

Rachel examined our long history with this bird and the importance of common species to our lives. Our residents had the opportunity to find out more about the great murmuration and why we need to pay special attention to these beauties before it's too late.

The virtual experience was truly enjoyed by all.