Activities at Thistle Hill Care Home

Across our services we had a lovely time joining Mark Piesing for an exciting virtual event to discuss his book ‘N-4 Down: The Hunt for The Arctic Airship Italia’.

Our residents were thrilled to find out more about the book and the fascinating story of the world-famous exploring airship Italia, returning from the North Pole on May 24, 1928. The airship was struck by a terrible storm and crashed somewhere over the Arctic ice, triggering the largest polar rescue mission in history.

The virtual book club experience was truly enjoyed by all.

Bookshelves are bulging at the Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough where book worm residents were keen to get involved in World Book Day.  Staff and residents at the Thistle Hill Care Centre welcomed the children from the Red Kite Nursery to join us for an afternoon of storytelling magic.

Children and residents were enchanted by Eric Carle’s timeless tale of the ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ as well as more modern tales including ‘The Bear Snores On’ by Karma Wilson

Mark the Activities Co-ordinator at the home commented: “Our residents all love to read and to discuss their favourite books so World Book Day is a fantastic opportunity for us all to spend the day with our noses in our favourite books.  We also had a great debate about reading from print or electronically from a tablet, there were strong arguments from both camps!”

The staff and residents at the Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough have been flipping and turning pancakes all morning in preparation for their annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day celebrations.

The Thistle Hill Care Centre has marked this year’s Pancake Day with a live cooking demonstration courtesy of our activities team with a helping hand from our residents resulting in lots of delicious pancakes! Ewelina the head chef at the home, flipped more than 100 pancakes, serving them up with sweet and savoury fillings for all the eager staff and residents over dinner time.

She said: “My secret to the best pancakes is all in the whipping. Give it some elbow grease when mixing the batter and you’ll get perfect pancakes every time. I like experimenting with the fillings – the residents’ favourites are, chocolate spread and banana and of course, good old fashioned lemon and sugar!”

The Thistle Hill Care Centre was filled with flowers, cards and sweets in celebration of St Valentine’s Day. 

Staff and residents celebrated the day of love by hosting a romantic meal for two for our resident couples, courtesy of our Head Chef Ewelina.

Following on from this our residents danced away the afternoon with a fabulous musical performance by home favourite singer Rochelle.

The Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough has been finding out the favourite stories of residents and staff and sharing them during National Storytelling Week.  Many of the residents at the Thistle Hill Care Centre have a knack of telling a great story or two, and National Storytelling Week is a perfect opportunity to experience the joy of storytelling.

Storytelling is one of the oldest art forms in the world so, to help keep the custom alive, residents have been reading their own favourite short stories, tales they were told as children to other residents, their families at home and local nursery children.

As part of Barchester Healthcare’s Book Club Corner series of virtual events, staff and residents at the Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough were treated to an hour in the fascinating company of Mark Piesing, author of ‘N-4 Down: The Hunt for the Artic Airship’.

Mark Piesing is a successful freelance technology and aviation journalist and author. He writes for titles such as BBC Future, The Guardian, Wired, and The Economist. N-4 Down is his first book.