Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday are days to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. We unveiled our two newest residents in the form of statues from Royal British Legion to honour veterans and armed forces members of both sexes who have died in the line of duty and remember the sacrifices our residents made. It was a lovely day of remembrance, enjoyed by all.

We spent time learning about the gunpowder plot where Guy Fawkes and his associates planned to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament in 1605. In celebration, we held our annual fireworks display and gave our residents some sparklers to light once the sun had set. We all enjoyed traditional bonfire night treats, including hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows over the fire pit.

Autumn has well and truly arrived, and we have been making the most of the season and keeping warm. We have created an autumn themed board with interesting snippets of information and beautiful pictures of all the things that sum up autumn. Most importantly, the board displays the residents' creative crafts. We have our own tree with personalised fingerprinted/finger painted leaves in a range of autumn colours.

It is always amazing what one can make with paper and residents enjoyed creating their very own paper pumpkins to mark Halloween. 

We marked International Gin Day with a mini tasting session, interesting facts and tours around distilleries in the UK and Scotland. 

We explored the top 10 gin brands and all about gin labels and even explored how to make gin by hand in a small distillery. It showed the process before commercial distilleries with the fancy equipment.  

Residents tried Sipsmith’s Lemon Drizzle Gin with tonic or lemonade with a slice of lemon. They also had Gordon’s Dry Gin with elderflower tonic water and a little gin with fresh blueberries to give it a fruity flavour. We don’t have many gin lovers, but this little tipple was enjoyed by most for the afternoon. 

We are always encouraging residents to tell us about them, particularly their stories highlighting moments in their journey so far. It is amazing what we learn about each resident and what they teach us every day. It’s the special time they get to share and talk about important milestones, what was happening in the world at the time, their jobs, their favourite films, and music, where they may have travelled. Each journey is unique.  

The war years are the most fascinating, the stories are remarkable from men and women. What experiences they had throughout, at the end or the impact on their childhood, factors that make them who they are today. 

Pictures help paint a picture, bring back memories tucked away so it’s important we stop, and listen in these reminiscing sessions. 

Many of our residents, families and staff felt great sadness at the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The last couple of weeks we have watched as the live programme paid tribute to our late Queen with her final journey to Windsor on her funeral day. We have commemorated her through our memory board with photos of her life and our own written condolences, which were shared with the Royal Family. For many, the late Queen represented comfort, hope, compassion and peace throughout her reign of 70 years and she will be sorely missed.