The Knights Care Home

01/02/2026

Yesterday we enjoyed our regularly scheduled games morning. Board games, pub games and card games are wonderful for socializing, self-esteem and fun, but also maintaining skills like numeracy, mobility, balance, coordination, fine motor and creativity 💡👁🧠🫳🏻💪🏾🦶🏼💡! We invented a new game, as our pool cues went temporarily missing, called Connect 4 x Snooker 😀 Next week I will be on leave but I have scheduled exciting visits from Jonathan Baddiel and Beverley Houlihan who will bring music 🎙🎹 🎶 🎵 to our home, and from Sonia Ashworth with a music and movement session 🏀🏋‍♀️🕺🏾🤸🏼‍♀️📻.

01/02/2026

This week we began decorating our home for St Valentine's Day 💗! We reminisced about romances past 💌 and also discussed the concept of love 💛🧡🩷❤️💜💙💚 during our monthly residents' meeting. Residents expressed feeling loved by their families and by staff at The Knights Care Home, and feeling love for various aspects of life here: the care, food, activities, local environment and ability to maintain independence 🥰. The conversation went from discussing tender moments of family harmony 🤗 to love as an expansive force throughout the universe 💞🪐💞🌍💞. We look forward to a dance party 💃🏼🕺🏼💃🏼 and cupcake decoration contest 🧁 on February 14th - watch this space!

30/01/2026

Today we continued our winter storytelling 🗣🗣🦻🏼👂🏾 project, illustrating the story that we previously wrote as a group 📃✒️. We enjoyed using winter shades, sparkling whites and silvers to convey the mood and emotion of the story 🌨❄️🧊 The book will be available in the entrance / conservatory for you to read!

30/01/2026

On Tuesday we enjoyed a trip to the pub and local shops. 🚶🏼‍♂️👩🏿‍🦯👨🏼‍🦼👩🏼‍🦽 Although we occasionally have pub-themed parties at Knights, nothing beats the real thing! One of our residents who is registered blind especially enjoys the sensory immersion of these experiences 🦻🏼👃🏾👄 - the particular and familiar tastes, smells and sounds of a pub. We reminisced 💭💬 about what the various businesses in the Square used to be and enjoyed some lager and brandy. Cheers! 🍺🥃

28/01/2026

26/01/2026

Music makes the world go round 🌎🌏🌍

Burns night 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙🤍

26/01/2026

Yesterday we had fun inventing new rhymes for numbers and being a little competitive 😺😼😸 with a game of bingo 🔢📝👁👁🎁. Mary was very happy to win and receive a prize! Then, to celebrate Burns Night 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, we watched a film set in the heavenly Scottish isles of Mull and Iona 🌊⛵️🏰🥃💃🏼❤️🕺🏼: 'I know where I am going' by genius filmmakers Powell and Pressburger (we will soon watch their classic Red Shoes). Chef Donna prepared some fancy tea 🫖 and scones 🍥🍥 for the residents to enjoy on this cozy winter Sunday 😋

26/01/2026

On Friday we celebrated resident Phyllis' 🎂 birthday and she loved us fussing over her! She enjoyed her card, flowers and chocolate cake 🎊🥳🎉.

Later we tested a new activity: sensory immersion. This is based on the dementia care best practice philosophy of Namaste care 🙏🏽 which encourages spending time in a space stimulating all senses 🤲🏿🦻🏼👁👁👃🏻👅: I used a lavender diffuser, ceiling projector showing planetarium imagery 🌌🪐 and different devices for touch and vision, with a soundtrack by Enya 🎼. Many people living with dementia have sensory impairments and some experts consider dementia to be a form of neurodiversity so 'stimming' is enjoyable and releases tension 😌☺️.

We continued releasing tension in the afternoon with some Qigong stretches, karate chops and boxing, then chilled with some kung-fu films 🥋🥊🪵👊🏻🫱🏾🫸🏻.

23/01/2026

Yesterday was a 🩷❤️💗 frilly and romantic day full of warm fuzzies 💗❤️🩷 as we spent the morning making Valentine Cards 💌 and reminiscing about romances past 💭, and the afternoon enjoying makeup, hair styling, hand massages and perfume testing 💄🪞💈💆‍♂️. Both men and women enjoyed getting into a pink and rose-scented mood 🌹

21/01/2026

Music makes the world go round 🌎🌏🌍

21/01/2026

This morning I spent some time doing one-to-one activities with residents who prefer to stay in their rooms: this included some manicure and pamper time 💅💆‍♀️, reminiscence 🌥🌤, as well as discussing and planning resources 💿📀🔍📟📚🗞 to be requested from the local libraries and Royal National Institute of Blind People for our residents who are sight impaired and blind.

This afternoon we enjoyed some silly chaotic dancing, joking, singing, DJing and chatting about our favourite singing divas 👩🏿‍🎤🪕🎺🎹🥁🪇🎙🎛🕺🏼. Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Dean Martin are always favourites at the Knights 🎼.