Activities at Thistle Hill Care Home

Today we wanted to share a post of celebration for our beloved woodland walk 'Charlottes Way' and it's history. Our cherished woodland walk was opened on the 5th December 2016 by Former England footballer and sports presenter, Chris Kamara. The walkway, Charlotte’s Way, is named after Charlotte Whittaker, the stepdaughter of Leeds MD, John Middleton, who launched a fundraising campaign after Charlotte suffered a brainstem injury.

Charlottes Way was the result of the tireless hard work by John and Charlotte’s mum, Linda, who raised £10k to rebuild and reopen a peaceful woodland footpath at the rear of the home which had been shut due to disrepair. Now wheelchair accessible, the new trail features rest areas and seating and will be further enhanced by plants to maximise residents’ enjoyment of the vibrancy of the changing seasons.

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Thistle Hill care home 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 28th and 30th.  Last year 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.

Residents had a brilliant time filling up birdfeeders, making fat balls to attract the birds before they got started and then looking up the different species in their bird books to make sure they were logging them correctly.

Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough was transformed into Graceland to mark what would have been Elvis Presley’s 86th birthday on 8 January.

Residents enjoyed an American dining experience courtesy of our Head Chef Paul. Followed by an afternoon musical performance by the king himself.

Thistle Hill Care Centre’s New Year’s Eve party was in full swing with glittering outfits, party games, karaoke and lots of sparkling refreshments. 

Residents enjoyed cocktails and a festive feast prepared by head chef, Paul Drinkel.

A fabulous time was had by all as our welcomed in the New Year.

In a landslide vote that was never in any doubt, we're thrilled to announce that Darren has won the crown of "Miss Thistle Hill". With his long blue locks, beautiful dress and... unicorn horn.. Darren was truly the fairest damsel of them all!  Back to today in our home, Barchester has partnered with 'Oomph Wellbeing' an organisation which shares our aspirations in providing well being and life enrichment to our residents with an extensive resource of online activities, including arts and crafts activities, video events and a constantly updated selection of activity books and much more.

It was another day of Oomph themed fun on Memory Lane as our residents set about creating their very own disco ball ahead of our new year's eve party on Friday.

Some of our other residents were able to enjoy the tranquility of our sensory room, with the sounds of mindfulness music playing softly in the background, the sight of fish swimming along the floor, our residents were able to unwind and relax.