Last week the home played host to a film crew from  the
Aged Care Channel. The ACC began life in Australia, where delivering standardised training across such a large country was a problem. ACC solved it with a dedicated satellite channel. They came to the UK about three years ago and the Greensleeves Trust which owns Sharnbrook House, was one of the first organisations to sign up to it. A number of the UK training programmes have been made in Greensleeves homes and this time it was out turn.
Our residents threw themselves into it with surprising enthusiasm.

Staff and residents acted scenarios  and gave interviews over four days.

The cast and crew pose for a photo.

November 2011

The garden is preparing for winter and we have been making the most of the last warm dry days.
At the end of October, residents were still able to sit out in the garden .

As things cooled down a bit, the garden club went to choose plants and bulbs from the garden centre to put in their tubs. These provide an important part of the floral display on the terrace throughout the spring and summer.

  Our bonfire party was a success. Many residents wrapped up warmly and came out to watch the fireworks while they ate hot home made sausage rolls and drank mulled wine.

Animals are an important part of life here and many residents are pleased to see visiting dogs. The home's cat is unwell at the moment and we hope he will soon be home from the vets. Meanwhile the chickens are still able to roam around in the garden until they are lead back to their run for the night.   

Autumn and harvest

The continued good weather through late September and into October has given us time to gather much of our ample fruit crop. Residents have helped to pick plums, damsons, apples, pears, quinces and more apples.
The cooks have made chutneys and jams as well as the usual range of fruit puddings.
This week we have celebrated harvest festival with a buffet lunch party.
Here are the cooks making a special cake for the occasion

and here is the result

Residents enjoyed the lunch and afterwards,

The Revd. Robert Evens joined us to lead a short service of thanksgiving.

We have also had another outing to  Harrold Country Park, by popular demand, and a visit from "Owls to Behold", a local organisation dedicated to rescuing owls and educating the public.
Tony brought a number of owls along and gave a talk to residents. The birds on show were all hand tame and residents, staff and visiting children were able to approach them.

It was an interesting afternoon for all but some of our frailer residents remained enthralled for the whole two hours. 

    

summer 2011

Our annual garden party took place in pouring rain this year. In the past we have always been lucky with the weather, but everyone made the best of it and enjoyed themselves none the less. One lady said that eating in a wet tent reminded her of childhood camping trips.
Many of our tents leaked so some people ate inside and a party atmosphere ensued.

The food, as always, was superb. Most of it provided by our cook, Julie and supplemented by some lovely dishes from our volunteers.

Here are two of them helping out on the day.  The help of volunteers is invaluable and we all appreciate their kindness and generosity in giving their time.

Since the garden party we have taken every opportunity to get outside. Some of our more able residents have helped pick fruit from the trees or organised flowers for the house. Others just enjoy sitting out in the sunshine.

...and if weather does not permit, we make our amusements indoors. The outdoor darts board has been popular

Coming up soon: we are expecting a visit from some owls which will be a great opportunity for residents and staff to get close to creatures that we rarely get to see, except on tv.
We are also planning an outing to Harrold Country Park on
23rd of September, so if any family members would like to join us, we would be pleased to have you along. 

July 2011

Summer is here and residents are able to get out and enjoy the gardens a bit more. Some folk like to go out every day, others just to sit out with friends or family, when they visit.

Recently we have had a visit from Bedford Morris Men, who were good entertainment on a summer evening. We followed this with a ploughman's supper, served with beer and cider

Rain rather spoiled the garden party in the middle of the month, but most people enjoyed themselves anyway. The food was very good as always and thanks go to our team of volunteers and especially to our cook Julie. Photos will follow.

June 2011

St. Peter's church held a very successful fete in the garden on a lovely warm Saturday.

The home welcomes occasions like these as they help us form links with the local community and enable residents to meet friends from the village or just join in the fun.

Easter and other celebrations

The Royal Wedding has, of course, topped most events recently but Easter is always and enjoyable and meaningful festival.
The Revd. Robert Evens came in to hold an Easter service with us and residents got busy making cakes for afternoon tea

and making cards for family and friends

On Royal Wedding day everyone sat and watched on our big tv screens and chatted about characters and outfits. Julie, our cook, created a lovely buffet lunch complete with a wedding cake and champagne.

Everyone said how much they enjoyed the lunch

The garden has been particularly lovely this year and we made the most of the fine weather with lots of residents spending time outside.
A good number of us took an outing to Harrold Country Park and some residents families were able to join us

as well as some volunteers

Coming up in June, we have an outing on 15th to Bedford Embankment (weather permitting) and the St. Peter's church will
hold their annual fete  in our gardens on Saturday 25th.
Bedford Morris Men have promised to come and dance for us on the evening of 22nd. June at 7.30. You are welcome to join us.

1st April

This has been a very busy week. On Tuesday some of us attended the Greensleeves annual award ceremony in London.

Sharnbrook House won the Environment award for the second time, in recognition of all our efforts to recycle and minimise waste. Three of our staff were given awards for long service - Anna, Janet and Pauline have each served more than twenty years. Jean Hart won Carer of the Year for our home - in recognition of her steadfast reliability and for  having been an all round good egg for a long time.

      

On Wedesday all staff attended mandatory fire training which took up most of the day but was worthwhile as always.

The home welcomes Margaret who is staying with us for a little while. Here she is keeping Merlin entertained

Our activities lady, Anne, is away having an operation on her knee. She will not be working for the next few weeks and staff will try to fill the void as much as possible.

25th. March

Training
this week and next, staff are all taking mandatory training in food hygiene, health and safety and fire safety. Some sort of training is going on all the time but residents and visitors may see large groups of staff in mufti about the place on these days. It can be a bit disruptive but is all in a good cause.

This week we have been blessed with some gorgeous weather and everyone is starting to get out in the garden a bit more. Anne held a coffee morning on the first day of spring. It was a bit nippy but a number of residents braved it and enjoyed the fresh air.
More, with pictures, soon! 

Friday 18th. March
This afternoon we had a visit from a local belly dancing group. They performed a number of dances for us and explained the origins and symbolism of each.

After they had entertained us a bit, the residents had a go at the arm and upper body movements.....






............................then the staff had to have a go





...which caused a good deal of laughter. We tried but we were rubbish!

However, the experts were very kind!

St. Patrick's day

catching up... On 24th. February, Stuart Cross, The Trust's deputy chief executive, came on a visit to give awards to those staff who have served more than 10 years at Sharnbrook House. Those who have served more than 20 years will be invited to attend the Greensleeves awards ceremony in London at the end of March. We took the opportunity to make a party of it for everyone and also gave some flowers to those of our staff who have achieved degrees this year. 

Julie, our cook made a special cake for the occasion. Staff and residents enjoyed the lunch. so much that we have decided to do it all again on Royal Wedding day .

Last year, some of our residents contributed their favourite recipes to a small cookery book produced by the Trust. We now have some copies of this for sale at the bargain price of £5each. Please ask at the office.

Senior carer Jovie has returned after having a baby girl, Ava, who comes to visit often. Here is  Ava with Pam Miller.
Today is St. Patricks day. Residents will be offered a special Irish breakfast menu with potato pancakes to start the day.

Nathan and George pose with their new creation!  Planting of the new seasons vegetables will begin soon. George is planning to plant much more than we have had for the last few years to try to make us self sufficient in onions and well supplied with potatoes.

Coming up soon:
Relations and friends of our residents are invited to a cake and coffee evening on Friday 18th at 7.30. This will be an opportunity to voice concerns, ask questions and chat about things. We have made some really nice cakes, so we hope plenty of people will come and help us eat them.

The Greensleeves Trust wishes to recognise their long serving staff and to this end we will be having a little ceremony, followed by a nice buffet lunch for staff and residents. The party will be on Thursday 24th. 
Julie and Hannah achieved their foundation degrees in care management last year but by an oversight on the part of the college, missed their graduation ceremony. To right this wrong, we are calling next Thursdays party 'Graduation Day '. They are not the only staff to have achieved so highly, so we hope to say congratulations to them all.
Carer, Aimee is taking on some of the activity hours given up by Anne and will be providing things of interest on Wednesdays. She is starting every Wednesday morning with time supporting residents on the new computer. Some now send and receive regular emails from family and friends and we are trying to build this up, introducing new residents to this specially designed simplified system.
Staff will be training in the next two months in first aid, fire safety, food hygiene and health and safety as well as Eden Alternative training.
More soon.
 

February : Valentines Day

It is beginning to look like spring in the garden and, with the summer in mind, our two gardeners, George and Nathan, have been making preparations:
They recently purchased a greenhouse, have paved the inside and created a ramp for wheelchairs. Hopefully  some of our green fingered residents will enjoy the chance to  pot some seeds and help with the garden preparations.
The grass pathways that run between the vegetable borders have also been covered with a mesh matting to enable us to take wheelchairs along the rows. We would like residents to be able to get down to see the veg growing and be involved if they wish.

January 18th. 2011

Welcome to the Sharnbrook House blog. I aim to put information and news into this space on a regular basis, but it may be a bit hit and miss to start with.
To begin, I would like to thank everyone for all the gifts of chocolates, biscuits,fruit, sherry and good wishes given to the staff over the Christmas season. They were all most welcome.
Recent events:  A number of staff got out in the snow and took some magical photos. We have dozens, but here are a few.

Everyone in the house enjoyed Christmas, not least Merlin, and residents enjoyed many impromptu drinks parties amongst the festivities.

Recent and coming events:

This week we have been asking residents to give their opinions of meals so that we can try to solve problems as they arise and make things better. So far they have come up with lots of helpful comments. we will do it again soon.  Joyce has been creating an album of pictures of the pets and Ken has been teaching the staff to play golf with an indoor putting device.

Thursday afternoon (20th) at 3.30pm, there will be a newspaper discussion group in  the garden room for anyone who would like to mull over current affairs and generally put the world to rights.