Activities at Windmill Manor Care Home

Windmill Manor Care Home, in Hurst Green, Oxted, was filled with flowers, cards and sweets in celebration of St Valentine’s Day. 

Staff and residents celebrated the day of love with a Live Musical Performance dedicated to Valentine’s Day by Annalene Beechey, an actress, singer with over 20 years’ experience in theatre. 

This was followed by a special Valentine’s lunch for our residents and spouses to enjoy together.   

The residents took great delight to planning and preparing their Barchester Residents Christmas Cake Competition entry. 

They made a rich fruit cake, that they fed for a number of weeks with Disaronno liqueur, the decision was made to design a Christmas Tree using rich green colouring.

Once entries were reviewed the residents were able to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Some of the ladies in the homes decided to spend the morning making flower centre pieces for the dining rooms. 

The ladies got their creative juices flowing and loved the sense of achievement that came from their efforts, and even more so when they were used to decorate some of the dining tables. 

Residents of Windmill Manor Care Home had a wonderful afternoon with a live performance. By Mini Concerts singing Abba’s greatest hits.   

There was lots of singing and dancing from our residents contributing to this brilliant show.

The team and residents like nothing more than an excuse to roll out the festive fun. 

This year in aid of Save the Children they all wore their bright and colourful Christmas jumpers.

Windmill Manor got into the Halloween spirit (excuse the pun) with as many pumpkin based activities as they could find.

The regular knitting club made the homes decorations by knitting pumpkins or all colours and sizes. There was a pumpkin carking competition for the residents and their visiting friends and families, the competition was so fierce that there had to be an award for 1st, 2nd and 3rd!

And finally the remaining pumpkins were used as vases for flowers table arrangements. 

Fun was had by all.......although everyone was pumpkined out. 

The residents had an afternoon of baking fun followed by a cup of tea to wash down their efforts. 

Baking allows residents to use remember and use their skills from their past, and discuss cakes and bakes that were firm favourites with their families when they were young, both key ways of engaging memories and keeping the brain strong. 

Thank you kindly to Little Waitrose Oxted for donating these beautiful flowers.

Look what the ladies at Windmill Manor Care Home achieved.

The flower arranging class was led by Julie, currently on respite at Windmill Manor, who was previously

a florist. Julie explained to the group where to start when making a bouquet and showed great technique for us to follow.

Julie created a beautiful bouquet with cream roses and then the group created an explosion of colour with their bouquet.

We had a lovely afternoon made possible by the generosity of “Little Waitrose Oxted”

Our creative Activities Assistant Kate loves to encourage the residents to join in with Art club. 

This week they used still life and trains to work the part of the brain that works intricate movements, and as always the residents are proud of their efforts.

The residents at Windmill Manor love to be part of the wider community, at Christmas they were invited to Oxted's School Festive Lunch.

The school generously invite local community groups in for the afternoon to enjoy a light lunch and entertainment. This year the entertainment included a visit from Santa and a wonderful Carol concert. 

Diwali the Festival of Lights came to Windmill Manor this October.

Staff members came dressed in their celebration clothes to show the residents and bought in homemade traditional sweets, the residents loved trying the new tastes of the sweets and found the colourful clothing enchanting. 

The residents enjoyed a wonderful day out to visit The Lost Gardens in Sevenoaks.

The visit included the home residents being allowed to stroke and talk to the resident Alpacas, for some this bought out smiles and giggles, something so simple can bring such pleasure. 

The trip also included a scrumptious cream tea with scones with lashings of cream and jam and warming cups of tea. 

Resident John, at Windmill Manor previously worked for Aston Martin and the late Sir David Brown in Yorkshire, where John was born.

In 2023 we took John to Supercar Saturday at Hever Castle, where he had a wonderful time looking at all the cars but Aston Martin in particular will always remain a clear favourite for John.

We were fortunate to be able to return to Supercar Saturday again this year, and John’s dream really did come true!

John got to sit in the brand new DB12 Volante, and was overjoyed with this opportunity.

In response to his wonderful surprise, John said “It’s my 91st birthday this Thursday and can honestly say this has been one of the best birthdays treat in my life, seeing the first DB built when I was just a lad, to now sitting in the latest model is incredible, I’ve loved every minute of it”.