As its National Gardening week, we took the time to enjoy our wonderful gardens here at Farnham Mill and also reminisce about gardens we have visited, as well as gardens we have had ourselves and the plants, we grew in them. We also had visits from some lovely animals – Tiny the dog and Alison’s Pygmy goats. There is always plenty going on at Farnham Mill and as usual, very varied.
Monday 25 April and as it was the start of our gardening week we reminisced about famous gardeners. For our daily word game, we tried to see how many words we could make using the letters in Percy Thrower, he was one of our favourite gardening experts on the television.
On our second floor we enjoyed our morning singalong. Research has shown this to be very beneficial especially with people suffering from dementia so it is something we always encourage and have many spontaneous singalongs throughout the day.
In the afternoon we were thrilled to have a little dog called Tiny visit us. She was so adorable and really brightened our day.
Tuesday 26 April and we started the morning with our garden walks and a check up on the plants our gardening club have planted. This is such a lovely way to start the day, especially as it is our Garden Week.
Later in the morning we had a visit from Alison’s lovely Pygmy goats. We love seeing them at Farnham Mill and it’s a great opportunity to feed and stroke them.
Wednesday 27 April we spent the morning making lovely sunflowers to decorate the garden. We used paper plates and even used real sunflower seeds to put in the middle. If they fall off, they will either be eaten by the birds, or will grow into tall sunflowers.
They certainly looked very effective when we put them around our pond.
In the afternoon we had the lovely Natasha perform for us. It was great being able to dance and singalong with her.
Thursday 28 April and as we were filling up our bird table we were joined by a lovely Robin. Its lovely seeing the wild birds as we go on our morning walks and check on the gardens.
We then played Garden themed handman – trying to guess words that are associated with gardens. Some were very easy such as ‘Hoe’ or ‘Watering Can’ but we did struggle with ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’.
Other residents spent their time relaxing with water painting or keeping in touch with friends and family.
We were also surprised by receiving a special invitation from Hill House to join in a Jubilee Baking Competition between the four homes. Such a pretty way to send an invitation and it got us all discussing what we could enter.
On the second-floor residents enjoyed an afternoon tea. A lovely social event and a chance to sit together and use our very pretty china.
Friday 29 April and in the morning, residents enjoyed doing jigsaw puzzles together. It’s a great way to work on something together.
In the afternoon we also had the opportunity to have relaxing hand massages. This is a great sensory experience and also a chance to have one to one time.
Saturday 30 April and we started the morning by enjoying garden walks. The sun was shining so we wanted to spend as much time outside as we could. We also checked up on our paper plate sunflowers. They are still looking lovely decorating our garden.
In the afternoon, the ducks also paid us a visit. I think they wanted to join in with all the fun we have.
Sunday 1 May and we started the morning with some residents watching the morning Church Service, whilst others enjoyed making our Greetings Cards which are on sale inside the home visiting areas.
After a lovely roast pork lunch some residents watched the afternoon film, this week it was Lassie, whilst other residents helped fill up our bird feeders ready to put out tomorrow on our morning walks.
