Activities at Tixover House Care Home

The much awaited evening of the Rutland Morris performing to our home. This has been in the diary for a year (it isn’t even guaranteed to get a yearly performance, because they are just that busy covering events across the county, sharing their talents with so many). A few residents chose to brave the elements (yes, in June, there were elements!) and be seated outside for the performance, but for most, they were seated in the Garden Lounge, with large windows overlooking the evening entertainment. 

The Rutland Morris made introductions and shared information to all residents throughout the evening, the attires filled the home with colour and jangles and with the dancers we didn’t know which way to look, there was so much to watch. For those, where the event wasn’t accessible, or they were too tired from the day’s events, the care-team put on Morris Dancing on the screens across the home. Rutland Morris filled our Main Lounge following, taking the time to join our home for refreshments and to speak with our residents and staff. Now, I just need a staff member to join the folk dance group, as a way in to get regular bookings, any takers?!

We came together on Sunday to have a day to celebrate our diversity "Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself" and inclusivity "Pride is for everyone." The home has been decorated in hearts (I really don't want to take these down!) All of our staff came together in their colours (don't they look fabulous!) and we used edible pens to decorate our biscuits, which everyone, residents and staff were able to enjoy. Literature was printed, including pride activity books, pride picture quizzes and pride true or false quizzes. 

Lots of 1-1s were logged by our carer-team, who took the time to sit down with residents alongside the literature and have meaningful interactions and discussions surrounding ‘Pride;’ to ensure deeper context is provided besides colour flooding our home. Residents praised the staff, with lots of compliments, in seeing what their staff team look like in regular clothes as opposed to their tunics. A huge well done to the staff-team at Tixover for celebrating diversity not just for the month of pride month, but by being exemplary of celebrating differences on every date of the diary. 

We saw the return of Wittering Community Choir to our home, passing a Sunday afternoon singing uplifting songs to our residents, staff and lots of weekend visitors in our Main Lounge. A particular highlight was when the room was split into three parts each singing different parts to a song, including ‘I’m good, I’m good, I’m feeling good,’ I found myself singing all three parts, but it honestly didn’t matter, it was so interactive and ‘bouncy.’ 

The atmosphere was joyful and full of energy, including Pharrell Williams – Happy, ‘Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth, clap along if you know what happiness is to you.’ We simply adore the community contacts we have to our home and are always looking for new connections; adding to the varied nature of our life enrichment programme. 

Our Head Chef Tony kindly delivered a fabulous cheese and wine event at the weekend. Not only did Tony do this, he set to work making lots of delicious cakes and cookies and making homemade sausage rolls, prawn cocktails and an Eton mess! Thank you for making this event such a success! And to the staffing team alongside Tony, who facilitated this event. 

We love themed dining and food-related activities in our home, whether it is resident baking, baking demonstrations by our chef, or simply enjoying homemade food put together to accompany an entertainment or activity within our home. Cheese and wine are always a hit, a much-asked-for treat, featured in our weekly calendars, the next one being only next week, within our Main Courtyard of our home over a game or two in a social setting (and hopefully in the sunshine!)   

We had a lovely morning spent at Rutland Water at Normanton Café, enjoying a selection of hot and cold drinks, cakes and Magnum ice-creams! It was such a relaxing atmosphere, just quietly taking in the view and discussing the pastimes of sailing and being on or close to the water for many. 

Following, a few residents took a stroll down to the reservoir's edge, and we walked round and saw a viewpoint overlooking the beautiful Normanton Church. On our walk back to the bus, we stopped and saw baby ducklings. It was such a tranquil way to spend the morning for our residents. 

Thank you to Tracey for being a part of this outing! We enjoy regular outings within our home, offering choice to our residents, to enrich their minds, bodies and souls, as well as having our ‘Wish Tree’, whereby residents can name any special outings they would like to take on for an activities team to facilitate their wish fulfilment.  

Kathy, one of our Dementia Champions, kindly supported me by taking some of our residents to this event at the Council Offices in Oakham. We had tea and biscuits, watched a video surrounding Dementia and discovered relaxation techniques during a wellness session. Thank you to the Admiral Nurse team at Rutland County Council for letting us join us this morning, and it was wonderful to meet with the High Sheriff of Rutland, Richard Chesterfield, for the second time within a week. 

Across Dementia Action Week, we made lace cards, watched person-centred documentaries and listened to person-centred music, sketched steam trains and accompanying literature, done magic painting (water painting), been encouraged to access our well-placed, themed rummage boxes, looked through Memory Box items, done ‘show and tell’ of our artwork and photobooks, danced, enjoyed the gardens and neighbouring spaces to our home and had a resident-led read a-long on our Memory Lane (to name only a few of the activities enjoyed across the week). 

Staff and residents joined fellow keen dabbers from over 250 Barchester care homes and hospitals across the whole of the UK, including Wales, Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Wight, to compete in the biggest game of bingo Barchester has ever seen!

The Barchester Big Bingo Bonanza took place on 28th May 2025 when Tixover House Care Home got super competitive and took on its sister homes from all over the country to find out which Barchester home or hospital was a dab hand at bingo.  It was eyes down for a full house as the homes battled it out to find out who would prevail.

General Manager, Ive Alexander said: “We’ve got some real bingo fanatics at our home, we are very competitive - our residents love taking part in anything where winning is involved, you could hear a pin drop in here when we were all playing.”
 

Wow, we simply adore the time we get to spend with our pet therapy. Just a few of the photos taken today, but look how many lives have been enriched this afternoon. Darwen started out upstairs in our Nursing Community doing individual room visits, before settling in our Memory Lane lounge, lots of thought-provoking conversations, questions being asked and beaming smiles through this activity. 

Our day was themed, as in the morning we did an animal-themed sing along with a friend from our home in our Memory Lane lounge. A fabulous day, experienced across all of our home: residents, staff and visitors/neighbouring community!

Wow, just wow, what a busy day in our home! We watched the celebrations live-streamed this morning in our Garden Lounge with tea and baking club scones! We all had a 2-minute silence across our home at midday. In our bedrooms, we had the choice of television broadcast, themed music, reading and/or poetry. Nicky Downs did a superb 1940s set, we had bubbles and then sat down for a magnificent afternoon tea!

Thank you to our Chef Ian and the kitchen team, host, Cheryl, the care team and all the staff who made today a success. In the lead up to VE Day, we enjoyed making bunting within our home as well as the Barchester Virtual historical talk by Historian, Pippa Catterall, which we were glued to; it was simply so engaging.”