Activities at The Warren Care Home

Thank you to all that came to our Summer Garden party.

We just had to say a huge thank you to our amazing young volunteers who helped out. For such a young bunch of people, you worked tirelessly and so well together. Kush cooked the delicious BBQ, and we served a selection of burgers, hot dogs, marinated chicken kebabs, all accompanied by a selection of homemade Coleslaw & potato salad and green salad too.  All finished off with individual ice creams or Coke Floats.

We were entertained in the morning by Bert's Amazing Creatures. Everyone loved seeing the snake, two bearded dragons, a Millipede, domestic rats and the most adorable rabbit called Teddy.

The afternoon was filled with singing and music from the ladies at Station 366, who were absolutely fantastic, and the residents thought they were wonderful.

To kick off the start of Wimbledon, we held our own tournament!

With the teams arranged, games were played, semi-finals were matched, and the final was in play.  

Well done to Lionel, who won hands down and even shook hands with his fellow player. What good sportsmanship. Once we all finished, we ended the afternoon with strawberries and cream.     

What a wonderful community event to celebrate national cheese day. We had family come along and enjoy the afternoon with their loved ones.  

It was a really nice social afternoon, we held the event in our sun trap of a conservatory with the door open with a wonderful gentle breeze. With a selection of cheeses, an array of Italian meats, crackers, grapes and my homemade chutney all topped off with a glass of Sweet Italian sparkling wine too, the event was a complete success.     

VE Day was celebrated in style.  

With a street party to end all street parties, we started off with a traditional sing-a-long, then onto our street party buffet with lashings of squash, followed by entertainment from Miss Kitty, our 1940s singer, who got all of our residents singing along to their favourite songs. Lots of flag waving and fun was had.       

Animal Therapy is great and benefits residents in a number of ways. Pet Therapy is known to boost mood, reduce anxiety and loneliness, lower blood pressure and stress and stimulate memory in dementia residents. 

 We love it when the Guinea Pigs come to visit as they are great for gentle handing and give joy to all of our residents.       

Myself and Rosemary, our Resident Ambassador, took our donations that we collected for the Parents Pantry at The Buxton Ward at The Norfolk and Norwich University hospital.  This is fantastic enterprise started by the staff on the ward to help parents with ill children on ward, eat and spend time with their children rather than either paying a fortune at the local shops or losing precious time with them. They were absolutely over the moon by the donation they were so happy. They thanked us for the donation and said what a precious commodity it was and the love they received from the parents who used / use it. They have a "thank you" wall. We then went to the NNICU and gave them a blanket one of our resident knitted. 

With this wonderful weather we have been having, it would be rude not to make the best of it. We visited Waterloo Park and the Waterloo Park Pavilion Cafe – The Feed – which, of course, didn't disappoint. We had cake, we had drinks, and we had a wonderful chat about all sorts.     

After the drinks, we decided to have a stroll through the park and took advantage of the cooling splash pad.

We took off our socks and shoes, rolled up our trousers and off we went. Shirley had the best time, we cooled down for a treat by dipping our toes in the water, and we did get a little surprise when one of the fountains went off that we were not expecting. We did a little jump but soon dried off in the sun. All of a sudden we were kids again having such a laugh.      

We have over 10 different nationalities working for us, and today we celebrated them all with World Cultural Diversity day.
With traditional dress, amazing food, music and dancing, it was such a buzz around the home. The home smelt amazing and rich with flavours and spices and just delicious food.

Our staff from The Philippines, Nigeria, Ghana, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Ireland, Germany, England, Cyprus, Thailand and Mauritius all took part. The residents really enjoyed tasting different flavours, listening to the music from different countries and joining in the dancing too.    

It was National Train day, so we tipped our hats to this day by taking a trip on the North Norfolk Steam Train from Holt to Sheringham.  We arrived at Holt’s Vintage Station to the sound of the steam train and the smell of coal in the air.  

The staff were amazing and so welcoming and getting our residents on the train with their wheelchairs was so easy and simple.  We arrived in Sheringham and strolled down the high street, then to the Sheringham Trawler where we enjoyed Fish and Chips, onto the seafront to see the sea, then back to the station and waited for the train to return. All in all, a wonderful day out.        

This morning we played a good old game of darts. Well done to the Red Team who won hands down but well done to all our residents who took part.  

We love playing darts, and it's great exercise and a really wonderful sporting competition among the residents.       

Yesterday I had the honour of taking one of our residents to Pride. The resident arrived at The Warren in December and after sitting down and getting to know him, he told me about his life as a gay man when it was illegal to be gay. We talked about Pride and how he went every year until his illness.  

I asked if he wanted to go again, and it was a resounding yes!! I planned transport, outfits were planned, we discussed what he wanted to do and see, and the scene was set. His nephew made him an amazing plaque which he wore with pride. He took his policeman whistle (which had an amazing story!!), and blew it with pride too.

We cheered at the Norwich Pride speech, we clapped at the Mayor's address and laughed at the Town Criers "Oh Gay" parade send off. He bumped into old friends, he enjoyed a huge hot dog from the market, and generally had a fantastic time.

He couldn't thank me enough for taking him.  

Today we marked American Independence Day. We had a food tasting and tried Beef Jerky, some Hot Raspberry Popcorn and some Salted Caramel peanut bars. We also held a donut eating competition with no licking lips or fingers until eaten.   

Sadly, Paul failed at the first hurdle and licked his lips on the first bite.  

Well done to Roger, who had clearly done it before and went in for a 2nd Donut too. We also held a "Be the statue of Liberty for the day" and seriously some of these faces pulled. It was like she was in the room. It was all silly and we laughed a lot. I love it that our residents are always game for a laugh at the things we suggest.    

We opened our garden and welcomed the community to visit our Spring Lambs from Pakefield Pastures. 

With so many excited residents and children waiting to feed and cuddle the Lambs it really was such a sight to see the happiness they brought to young and old. We even got to take the lambs to our residents in their rooms too, it really was a wonderful day.      

With the weather getting warmer and drier, we have relaunched our Gardening Club.  

Our gardener, Julie, spent a lovely morning planting sunflower seeds with our residents. It was such a beautiful day, warm and just perfect for our activity. Our resident, Peter, said, “It was lovely sitting in the sun doing what I love, just like old times."      

Another lovely day in a gorgeous boat by the Nancy Oldfield Trust.

We left at lunchtime and with a slow drive through the countryside looking at open fields, bluebells in the hedgerows and just enjoying the sunshine, it was already a wonderful trip out.

While they arrived at Stalham, we were greeted by the wonderful volunteers John and Bill. They were so friendly and welcoming we knew we were in for a fantastic afternoon.

Once on board and all the residents were settled, we opened the picnic, and we made cups of coffee and tea to have with their lunch.