Residents and colleagues at Westvale made the most of the beautiful weather, as they took to the homes beautiful gardens to  enjoy an Hawaiian themed beach day. As we couldn’t go to the beach, the beach came to us!

We enjoyed dipping our feet in the pool, had fruit cocktails & lots of fruit to keep us hydrated in the sun and enjoyed live music with Elvis back entertaining us!

We enjoyed a wonderful virtual introduction to the world of robots with V&A Dundee Curator, Kirsty Hassard.

Kirsty talked us through the history of robots and their early beginnings, the presentation traced the fascination of all things wired and wonderful and considered what the future might hold for our relationship with a multitude of mechanical machines.

It was absolutely thrilling to learn what robots can do now and what they might be able to do in the future.

National Simplicity Day was started by Henry David Thoreau. The day advocates a life of simplicity and recognises the life of Thoreau. This week residents reminisced about simpler things in the past and what they used to enjoy doing as children, some shared stories from books they have read and playing outdoors with friends.

Residents throughout the home have been enjoying the simplicities of life, by taking it easy, by enjoying lots of pampering and relaxation sessions. We had lots of fun learning Tai Chi. We will definitely be trying out Tai Chi again, as we found it so relaxing.

The residents of Westvale and children from Jack & Jill’s nursery had a great afternoon of fun competing against each other in different sports activities as part of the homes intergenerational sports day. Everyone really enjoyed the relay race, with a special performance by the children singing at the end of the day.  Each of the children had brought along beautiful hand-made cards for the residents which they had made and we are looking forward to them returning soon!

We had a lovely time exploring the amazing gardens of Blenheim Palace through a virtual talk, hosted by the Historian - Antonia Keaney.

We enjoyed a virtual look at how the gardens at Blenheim have developed over the past 300 years - from the formality of Henry Wise through to the ‘natural’ landscape created by Capability Brown and beyond.

Everyone was very impressed by the many jewels hidden within the 150 acres of beautiful gardens.

We were able to virtually dive into the impressive wildlife of Dartmoor Zoo.

We explored its grounds and learnt about the unique history of the park from the zoo’s educational team. The culmination of the tour was the live tiger training demonstration, which was wonderful to see and enjoyed by all.

Our residents were delighted to see amazing photos and short videos of the animals and take a peek inside their home.