THE MOAT HOUSE
MAY 2010 UPDATE
Music in the Air 2010 Challenge
Leah Dayes, activities organiser
This competition invites care settings to share interesting ways of bringing music and singing to all individuals in care. Here at the Moat House in Great Dunmow we thought this was just the challenge for us.
Putting our residents in the driving seat, they have come up with lots of original and creative ideas. This will not be some old singalong week, but a week packed full of painting to music - great for creative self expressions, flower arranging to classical greats and much, much more.
Staff and residents have come together as a team to support our efforts by volunteering musical skills and for one particular staff member a voice all our residents love to hear a Dolly Parton sound-a-like – yep - Cowboy hats and tassels is one of our themed days.
APRIL 2010 UPDATE
Discover people’s passion
By Leah Dayes, activities organiser
The smell of lavender on a hot summer’s day or the geranium and petunia baskets at your front door still raises our spirits - it says so much about the countryside and nature and the new life of spring.
Here at the Moat House we preserve this by collecting flowers from around our magnificent grounds and press them.
We use our pressed flowers for craft activities such as scented birthday cards – these are wonderful for the visually impaired – a real treat for the senses. For Easter decorations this year we tried our hand at decoupage on eggs.
We decorated the eggs with dried flowers and varnished them – as Mr Sparrow is doing in the picture. We had such fun coming up with different designs and they’ll look fantastic as the centre pieces for our dining room tables this Easter.
DECEMBER 2009 UPDATE
The Moat House was bustling with Christmas cheer during our most successful bazaar ever at the beginning of this month.
Loads of families and friends came along, our cook baked cakes, residents manned the stalls and the Christmas wreaths made by our residents proved the hottest buy of the season!
We were delighted to raise more than £420.
Merry Christmas from everyone at The Moat House
NOVEMBER 2009 UPDATE
Musical extravaganza
Yes the magic of the theatre is coming to us. We are being visited by a theatre company which will be performing a Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby themed musical extravaganza including hits from the musical White Christmas.
The show is a fully self contained performance with set costume changes which are vivid and flamboyant so even the hard of hearing can enjoy it too.
Party time!
There’s nothing like a spot of carol singing to get everyone in the mood for Christmas and we’ll be holding our own festive singalong to kick off our celebrations.
We’re going to enjoy a Musical Christmas Play followed by a Sing-a-Long with audience participation which will include lots of traditional carols and wonderful classical festive songs.
Resident’s design in print
With Christmas fast approaching, we entered into the festive spirit, taking part in Retirement Villages’ ‘design a Christmas card’ competition.
Raymond Sparrow’s ‘Robin with Hat’ design (click picture to enlarge) was chosen as a runner up, with Frank Stock, Ethel Turton, Doris Clark and Pamela Carter also taking part.
Raymond’s work is one of seven runner-up designs from across the villages appearing on the reverse of the 2,000 Christmas cards, available for suppliers, residents, their families and friends. Raymond receives a box of chocolates to mark his efforts.
OCTOBER 2009 UPDATE
Clothes show and Christmas cards
It’s been a busy month – we’ve held a clothes show and then the ‘design a Christmas card’ competition. A number of us created our own designs in watercolour and pencils. These have now gone off to be judged but we hope to carry some of the designs on this page soon. Fingers crossed, we have a winner amongst us!
SEPTEMBER 2009 UPDATE
By Leah Dayes (Activities Organiser)
Time to celebrate
We celebrate residents’ birthdays and recently held a 60th wedding anniversary party for Phyllis (pictured) and Bert Willey which their family and friends came to. A buffet was laid on by our kitchen and a beautiful professional wedding cake was made too.
A room was decorated to look like the one on their wedding day with confetti sprinkled wedding tables and wedding photos.
Green fingers
A gardening club was started this summer. We’ve grown our own organic tomato and sweet pepper plants, which are now full of fruits ready for harvest. We have planned ahead for winter and have grown winter pansies from seed to fill barrels on our patio area. Many of our residents have shared their experience and knowledge gained from their own gardens over the years.
Residents can enjoy a walk in
our spectacular landscaped grounds or partake in a game of lawn bowls or sit around the lake with a good book as you can see from the picture of David Hopkin and Raymond Sparrow. Of late we have been collecting blackberries, which sets off all sorts of childhood memories for us.
Shared memories
During our activities sessions we often have reminiscence coffee mornings where we talk about the good old days of home made cricket balls. Many of our ladies giggle as they recall the black pencil lines they used to draw up the back of their legs for stockings.
They recall fond memories of cycling down Essex country lanes and proud moments and some funny and amazing heroic brave war time escapades. I’ve worked on memoir scrap books for each resident to share and read to others. I feel very privileged to be included in the stories.
Arts and crafts at The Moat House
These sessions are now happening throughout the week and include painting lessons, weaving, jewellery making and one of our favourites - flower arranging. Our quiz and games afternoons are a great hit too, especially for our more competitive residents!
JULY 2009 UPDATE
Weaving our way
It only takes a word in the right ear for things to happen here at The Moat House. One of our residents mentioned to activities co-ordinator Leah Dayes that he used to enjoy weaving but hadn’t done it for ages. Days later Leah brought in a lovely surprise for us all – a weaving board.
For a lot of us it’s been the chance to try something we’ve never done and for others it’s been a wonderful opportunity to revisit an old skill we haven’t done for years.
Our gardens
The beautiful weather we’ve been enjoying recently has given us plenty of chance to enjoy the wonderful gardens we have here at The Moat House.
Until last winter they had got terribly overgrown but thanks to some wonderful gardeners we now have some lovely views to enjoy from our terrace and also some pleasant walks on the banks of the ornamental lake where you can see over to the island and the arbor.
New activities
Our new activities co-ordinator Leah Dayes is doing a very good job of keeping us all active – that’s her in the picture.
Just in the last week we’ve had an art session, done some flower arranging and had a cinema evening. Most of us joined in watching Gone with the Wind, a real favourite.
Leah’s spent time talking to us about what we like doing and is now busy organising events around that. We’ll let you know what she plans over the coming weeks.