It’s not only TV chefs who can set up their kitchens anytime any place. With our new mobile kitchen equipment people living at Minster Grange can now cook or bake anytime any place too. Standing by is our first chef to test out the new oven with his chocolate chip shortbread cookies. 

Willowdene Care Home on Lizards Lane, Sedgefield are delighted to announce we completed the memory walk for Alzheimers Society on Saturday 19th September.  We walked from Durham to West Auckland which is approximately 14 miles and took 4 hours 15 mins and we raised £1000.

Thank you to everyone for sponsoring us. 

During these unprecedented times we find ourselves in, we come together on the 10th of September to celebrate International Day.  This Day represents cultural diversity between staff and residents.

We decorated the lounge with flags and balloons to bring the celebration together.  Some talented staff members kept us entertained with traditional dancing.  The Chef and some staff members prepared some traditional foods which was a great highlight to end off the celebration.

A great day was had by all!!

Thanks to the kindness of The York Bird of Prey Centre, our residents were treated to a garden visit by two of their stars. Cobra, a male Harris Hawk, and Angel, a female Barn Owl are two favourites at the centre and often feature in flying demonstrations.  This month, however, they took a day off to bring their handler on a trip to Minster Grange. With his help they settled into our garden for an afternoon and we were delighted in all the attention and admiration we could heap on them.

Celebrating all things French this week at Heeley Bank Care Home with a wine and cheese tasting event to start the week off, which was enjoyed by all.

Our French Boules tournament was very competitive with  lots of laughter and we are all looking forward to more activities throughout the week and hopefully lots more food tasting too. 

During art class one of our ladies wanted to paint a picture of her granddaughter's favourite flowers so she could frame it and give it to her for her engagement present. We went to the garden to pick some of the flowers so she could use them to inspire her painting. Her granddaughter was very pleased when she was presented with the painting.

Jayne the home manager at Wyndham Hall was moved when she saw a balloon release recently held on Copacabaña Beach.  The release was in recognition of the 100,000 people who have died in Brazil as a result of COVID-19 and she decided she wanted to do something similar at Wyndham Hall for the people of Oxfordshire.

After a nail-biting week of dreadful downpours, the rain stopped and the sun peeped out just in time for our Summer Garden Party on Sunday 30th August.  We all enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of live entertainment, hand jiving, garden games, bubbly, jam and cream scones and a chance to try out some rather jazzy photo booth props!

This year, White Rose Lodge brought the Care Awards to the home. It was a day of celebrations. Coming together as a team and a community, celebrating not only nominations for Best Chef and Best New Comer but also celebrating the team in its entirety, for all their dedication and hard work throughout what can only be described as a testing year, mentally, physically and emotionally. It was a wonderful sight to behold, gathered together again and listening to sounds of laughter and chatting amongst residents and staff alike.

This month the notion was to ‘play’. No matter the age ‘to play’ is vital to unlocking our creative selves and our subconscious. Taking this into consideration the residents were gathered together around a large table, with a large sheet of paper for all to share. Residents were invited to ‘play’ and unlock their inner child, using any materials and art supplies that were made readily available, in an attempt of creating a piece of artwork together. There were no rules, the only guidance was ‘to play’ of which residents appeared to enjoy and welcome the notion of playing.