The lovely Bluebirds came into the home to sing for us, the residents were so pleased to see them in the home and they all enjoyed their performances, the alcohol went down very well! 

We had an afternoon of Valentine's crafts, we painted small terracotta pots and decorated them. The residents who joined in really enjoyed the activity, they said it was very therapeutic and looked lovely on the dinning room tables.

We had a great day playing games, snakes and ladders, brick tower, tiddlywinks plus more. Our residents enjoyed all the different games played.

This afternoon we had a relaxing mindful jigsaw puzzle session, we did this in a very small group in a quiet area. It is a simple but effective activity that allows the brain to focus. It is also a great way to work together and bond as a group.

At Hope Green we care about the lives our residents have lived before we meet them and we enjoy spending time exploring memories that are important to them. One of our residents was born in Austria and has wonderful memories of her life there so we have been spending time one to one talking about special Austrian places, and statues, and choosing pictures to make a personalised photo book. We're looking forward to adding more pictures soon too.

Howgate are making staff champions in categories each morning, this includes; Chart champion, Hydration Champion and Communication Champion to name a few, these are being delegated during each handover to empower the staff.

Love is sharing the simple things in life, helping one another with the smallest of tasks can often be the greatest of gestures. Cecil and Myra shared a lovely valentines day lunch. I loved listening to them reminisce about their roller skating days together. Cecil used to build his own roller skates and they both demonstrated their skills at Butlins for audiences of holiday makers.

Mollie planted some cress earlier in the month and left some little pots growing on the window sills, she was pleasantly surprised to see just how much it had grown in such a short space of time.

At Hope Green some of our male residents requested we formed a Mens Group where men could meet to chat about topics they were interested in and look at choosing some games that they would enjoy playing together. Our Lifestyle team really care about requests made by our residents, their interests and their ideas so organised the first session with a short walk in the garden, books to browse and a game of dominoes with drinks and snacks too. What a success! We were most surprised by how competitive and animated our men were! We're looking forward to the next one soon.

For National Umbrella Day the residents had fun designing their own umbrellas in wonderful bright colours and patterns, very appropriate for the showers we were getting between the beautiful sunshine. They loved seeing their designs come to life as they folded together and a handle added.