We love home baking at the home and one of our activities this month was to make our own Pizza’s and cakes. We made margarita,, chicken with peppers and cheese and even made our own delicious sponge cake which was delicious.

In the past we have been blessed with regular visits by children from a local nursery but unfortunately we haven't been able to see them for the last few months and we have missed their visits.

Out of the blue we received these fantastic place mats.  They wanted us to know that they were still thinking about us and are looking forward to seeing us all soon.

We might be living through very different times at the moment at Garden Hill with regards to visitors in the home but we are still continuing to do a lot of activities we have always done.  Every week with our activities coordinator at the home, Stacey, we have been doing our chair exercises which we enjoy and we have such a good laugh.  It also keeps us mobile and in good spirits as these are activities we do enjoy every week.

Heeley Bank Manager, Lynne Cannell and her team launched the 999 afternoon tea break week on Monday 3rd August with a celebration of Yorkshire pudding and onion gravy.

Lynne said "I'm delighted to be able to support local 999 front line workers in these difficult times and provide a light hearted refreshment service throughout this week in the car park."

Nora Batty lookalike visits Howgate House on Yorkshire Day and served a lovely Yorkshire lunch of sausages,mash and beans followed by apple pie and custard.

Everyone also enjoyed lots of Yorkshire based treats. 

We wanted to decorate our activities lounge and when we found some old vinyl records which were really scratched and not fit for playing anymore so we decided to get a little bit creative.  

This was a great activity, a bit messy but lots of fun was had by all, and the path outside got a great clean once we were done. 

We are so happy with the end result of this, and our residents love this and comment on the colours. 

Our Around the World party was a great success. Everyone was dressed their best and enjoyed our live social distancing entertainment by one of our regular singers Deborah. We had a buffet at dinner, a best dressed competition and a photo booth. Pictured is Jed representing Australia as Crocodile Dundee and Joyce representing the UK as the Queen.

We have been entertained by The Bluebirds here at Troutbeck, we selected a rock n roll theme the girls dressed in the style and sang a selection of songs from the era. Our residents were able to sing along and everyone said what a fabulous event it was.

Nora, and her husband Ken celebrated their 70th Wedding Anniversary on Wednesday,  29th July. It was Ken's first time social distance visiting with Nora since we have been on lockdown as he himself has been shielding. They have been video chatting regularly, but it was a very special day for the two of them to finally see each other in person.

This month has been filled with activities focusing on our theme of "Around the World". We have celebrated all of the continents throughout this month. 

We began July with North America. We had a Mexico day where we had fajitas and chilli con carne for dinner. In the afternoon we had a pinata. We also had Canada day bingo and we wrote to our pen pals who live in Waterloo, Ontario.