2015 Newsletter
Edited by Vanessa Avery- Activity Co -Ordinator
Hello, and welcome to my latest newsletter. Well, how are you all? At long last it is summer
and there is no better place to have activities than outside in the fresh air with my activity
team, so get your sunglasses ready!! A few weeks ago, my volunteer Sarah and her dog
Nuffy joined myself and our residents for a game of Charades. There was so much laughter
at our ‘acting’ that some of our carers came along and joined in the fun of acting
with us. One of my subjects to act out was playing with a yo-yo. Well, that’s easy
enough - so I thought! “Are you flipping a pancake”? “Are you winding
something”? (Was my acting that bad?)! When everybody gave up trying to
work out that I was ‘walking the dog’ with my imaginary yo-yo, they all laughed
and remembered with fond memories one of the favourite toys of their (and
mine!) generation – the yo=yo!! Did you know that this month, on June 6th, there
will be hundreds of people getting their yo-yo’s ready to celebrate National Yo-Yo-Day by
entering yo-yo competitions etc.
There are many other special (and wacky!) days to celebrate this month,
such as ‘Hug Your Cat Day’ (June 4th), Sewing Machine Day (June 13th),
Eat Your Vegetables Day (June 17th), and wait for it – ‘Sunglasses Day’!!
(June 27th). My newsletter just isn’t long enough to list all the ‘National’
days that we could celebrate this month, so for a bit of fun, I am going to
put a list up in the lounge of these so-called National days and we will try and do something
each day that will correspond to that day, such as playing with a yo-yo on June 6th! Are you
all up for this challenge?
Looking Back
Unfortunately last month, we didn’t get to listen to the lovable Bernard Tagliavini with his
stories, jokes and songs, as he phoned us to say that he was feeling unwell, but all was not lost
when the next day we had a fabulous afternoon of entertainment with Robert Jerome. He
has got such an awesome voice for a 24 year old, and we were all so fascinated watching him
playing his ‘imaginary’ instruments as he sang our favourite and memorable songs made
famous by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, etc.. All the carers and even our manager came
down to the lounge wondering who had this wonderful voice. Robert will be returning next
month, on 30th July, and he has said that if the weather is lovely and sunny, that he would
entertain us outside in the garden. Isn’t that great?
Our green-fingered residents
Our residents Barbara, Dorrie, Sheila, June, Pixie and Katherine were
busy last month planting sunflower seeds in pots with the help of our
volunteer Margaret. Within days, the seeds began to sprout and they will
be planted outside along the tall wall opposite the conservatory very soon.
Pets As Therapy pleasure
It is lovely to see ‘Pets As Therapy’ dog Lily and her owner Anne again after a
break. The pleasure that this wonderful dog gives us each week is second to
none, so much so that Lily always gets spoilt by our residents and staff with
hugs and biscuits – no wonder Anne gets pulled across the car park when they
arrive!! Anne has said that she will ask her fellow dog-handlers if they would like to come
along here to St. Dominics to give us a demonstration of what these wonderful dogs had been
trained to do (apart from giving us all a lot of pleasure).
Our very own Bird Watch
Our assistant administrator Gill said to me that she was sitting outside in our grounds last
week, when she noticed a blue tit coming out of the tree that stands near the pond. Gill said
she wondered whether mother blue tit had built a nest inside the hollow trunk and asked me
if any of our residents had also noticed this activity. I said to
Gill “Let’s take a quick look” and sure enough, there is a hole
in the side of the trunk that mother blue tit had found and had
decided to build a nest inside. Gill and I could even hear the
little ‘squeeks’ coming from the tree trunk. Gill even sat
outside with our camera to get a shot of this wonderful bird
flying back to her nest. This photograph is absolutely
awesome. Well done Gill. There are also babies in the bird
box up in the tree opposite our conservatory. We also have
two mallard ducks which are a familiar site by our pond, and
they even wanted to come into our quiet room when training was going on! I do think nature
is absolutely marvellous.
Talking of birds, our volunteer Margaret has written this little bit for you:
Sitting in bed last Sunday morning, enjoying my first cup of tea of the day, I heard the cuckoo
calling. It always excites me hearing the first cuckoo of Spring, with it comes the promise of long
hazy summer days ahead.
I sat there saying out loud to myself the rhyme we recited as children about the cuckoo. (Sad I
know! I should get out more!!) It also inspired me to get up and instead of starting the
housework, to look up some facts about the cuckoo. Did you know:
The earliest ever reliable record of a cuckoo in England was at Farnham in Surrey as late
as 1953.
It is a tradition to write to ‘The Times’ when you hear the first cuckoo of Spring. (I won’t
be doing that!)
Only the male calls cuckoo, and their favourite diet is hairy catapillars!
Each season the female will lay between 12-22 eggs, all in different nests, around 20% of
eggs being rejected and never hatch.
The common cuckoo spends nine months of the year in Africa, to where the adults return
as soon as the breeding season is over, often around the beginning of July. The young
follows a few weeks later! Hence the rhyme, which I am sure most of you will remember;
The cuckoo comes in April
She sings her song in May
In June she changes her tune
In July she prepares to fly
In August away she must
Gemma’s Farm
What a fantastic afternoon we all had when Gemma’s farm came along. The sunshine came
out for us and the animals really brought a lot of smiles and laughter to everybody, especially
the rabbit who so enjoyed lying upside down on our Betty’s lap having its’ tummy tickled! It
was lovely to see lots of families and children sharing the fun with our residents and of course,
to see families who had come back to see us so soon after their loved one passed away. I have
now printed out some photographs of the afternoon and have put them on my activity board.
‘Camping Out’
When St. Dominics suffered a power cut early evening recently along with many other homes
in Kelvedon, the obvious thought was: ‘The power will be back on soon’. Well,
it didn’t actually come back on until almost 12 HOURS later!! Our lift was
out of order but that didn’t stop our wonderful carers getting ‘mucked in’
together, making up spare beds downstairs for some of our residents, etc. “It’s
a bit like going camping!!” said one of our residents to me. Our management
would like to thank our staff and, of course, our residents for their patience and laughter
during this power cut.
Enjoying our fun
St Dominics Residential Home welcomes students to work alongside us to gain caring
knowledge and it is always nice when these students tell us that they have
enjoyed their time with our residents and staff here. Last month, we
had a student named Olivia and obviously at first, she was a little shy,
but she soon got ‘stuck’ in with our activities such as Art and Crafts,
Quizzes, Games, etc., that she was so sad to leave us at the end of her
two-week work experience here and has said that she will return very
soon to meet us all again. We now welcome another student – Katie,
who is also finding it fun to work alongside us, and is enjoying chatting to our residents.
Singing Our Praises
Our monthly ‘Hymns around our piano’ with our friends Pauline and Alberto is proving
more popular than ever. We get to choose our favourite hymns to sing, and Alberto gives us a
short bible reading and a prayer then we finish off with yet another favourite hymn. Please
come along and join us around our piano on Tuesday 16th June.
Thank you so much
Our management and staff would like to say a very big thank you to Lillian Craig’s family for
their kind gesture by buying every staff member a bottle of wine. Lillian passed away a few
weeks ago and her family had bought the wine for our staff ‘to celebrate Lillian’s life’. What
a lovely thought! Thank you so much.
Another big thank you
What can I say, but a big thank you to everybody for bringing in items for our
summer fete which is being held on Saturday 8th August. We do, of course, need
a lot more, especially new items for our tombola which raises the most money. I
am also appealing for volunteer helpers on the day please, such as helping set up
the stalls in the morning or helping man a stall for an hour or two during the fete.
Please speak to Kelly or myself if you can help us. We really do have a lot of
laughs and fun together.
More for our funds!
When Jeff Clothes Party came in last month, it was great to see our residents
treating themselves to the latest spring/summer wear. We also get commission on
what Jeff sells to go into our amenities fund which is fantastic.
Life Stories – this month, let’s meet our resident Barbara
Barbara was born in Birmingham on 1st May 1928 to Sidney and Vera Bennett, and
grew up surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. She has one sister
who now lives in Cornwall.
Barbara attended Warwick High School but unfortunately because of the war, she was
evacuated to a farm in Herefordshire and had to leave. She enjoyed her time on the
farm and kept in touch with the family until a few years ago. After the war Barbara
moved back to her family and on finishing school she worked as a secretary for various
firms in the Midlands.
She met her husband Trevor on holiday at the Constitutional holiday camp at Hoptonon-Sea. He lived in Ilford so after some long distance courting, they married on July
17th 1954 and after honeymooning in Devon, Barbara moved to Ilford, where Trevor
worked for Ilford Limited, to start married life. Barbara had three children – Sandy,
Graham and Hilary and was a stay at home mum for many years. Eventually, she
went back to work on a part time basis until her youngest daughter was independent
and she then took a full time job as a secretary for one of the directors at Plessey
Limited. She worked there until Trevor retired and she decided to retire as well so
they could spend some quality time together. They enjoyed holidaying abroad and
they belonged to the Plessey social club where they made a large circle of friends. They
celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 2004 but sadly a couple of years later
Trevor passed away.
Barbara was always a regular member of her local church and enjoyed outings and
functions that they held, she also belonged to several clubs including whist clubs and
she and her friends always got together on Saturdays to play whist for a few pennies
and even now she still loves playing cards. This group of friends also holidayed
together, sometimes four or five times a year, travelling by coach. One of her favourite
resorts was Mundesley in Norfolk. Over time her children married and between them
they have given her eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren so Barbara also
enjoys spending time with her family and you will often see them visiting them.
Eventually, Barbara decided to move to St. Dominics after her daughter brought her to
visit, and she liked the look of the place. Barbara moved in last November and she
particularly likes the companionship and the entertainment and activities, as it is ‘like
a permanent holiday’!
Goodbyeeeeee, Goodbyeeeeee
Kelvedon and Feering villages had been very privileged to have entertainments and shows put
on at Kelvedon Institute organised by singer Penny Gilman with The Feering Singers for
many years and St. Domniics had been honoured to have Penny and the singers
entertain our residents in our lounge over the past couple of years. Penny and
her mother also came in to join our residents when we had our Poetry sessions
and Penny would read her mother’s own compositions as well as making us laugh
with Pam Ayers poems. They also enjoyed being on the ‘other side’ of the
entertainment by being entertained themselves when we had Martyn Allen
singing. This month, Penny and the Feering Singers will be coming in to sing to us for the last
time as she will be moving to be nearer her family in Maidenhead. It will be sad to see Penny
go, and I know that everybody in the village will miss her as much as St. Dominics. I hope
you will join me in wishing Penny all the best for the future.
Welcome to our Home
Our residents and staff would like to welcome Mrs. Jean Quidley to our home.
We hope she enjoys her stay here and make lots of new friends here.
What’s coming up this month?
We have a trip to Hylands Park for a picnic this month. Please let Kelly or myself know as
soon as possible if you would like to come along. We will need wheel-chair pushers, so if any
family member wishes to come along with their loved one, they will be very welcome to do so.
Wimbledon starts this month! We have a large screen TV in the quiet room as well as in the
lounge so if any of our residents would like to watch Wimbledon in the quiet room, they are
very welcome to do so if the room is free from training and meetings.
Dates for your diary
Thursday 4th June
Tuesday 16th June
Wednesday 17th June
Thursday 18th June
Thursday 25th June
Birthdays in June:
Monday 1st June June C
Monday 8th June Kelly T
2.30 – 3.15
10.45 – 11.30
2.00 – 3.00
2.30 – 3.30
11.30 onwards
Holy Communion with Father Simon
Hymns around our piano
The Feering Singers Entertains
Shirley Anne Entertains
Outing to Hyland Park for picnic
Tuesday 9th June
Wednesday 10th June
Doris (DC)
June (Volunteer)
Finally;
When you get frustrated every now and then and say “Gordon Bennett” or “What the
Dickens....”, or even said ‘Touch Wood’ for luck, have you ever wondered how these phrases
come about? Here is a few of well-know phrases and their origins:
Gordon Bennett!
James Gordon Bennett, a newspaper baron, liked to announce his arrival in a restaurant by
yanking the tablecloths from all the tables he passed. He would then hand the manager a wad
of cash with which to compensate his victims for their lost meals and spattered attire. Though
long forgotten in his native land, Bennett and his exploits were once world famous, and indeed
his name lives on in England in the cry, "Gordon Bennett!"
What the Dickens!
This old saying does not come from the writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870). It is much older
than him! It has been around since at least the 16th century. Originally 'Dickens' was another
name for the Devil.
Made As A Hatter!
This phrase comes from the fact that in the 18th and 19th centuries hat makers
treated hats with mercury. Inhaling mercury vapor could cause mental illness.
Touch Wood!
In Celtic time’s people believed that benevolent spirits lived in trees. When in trouble people
knocked on the tree and asked the spirits for help.