The Knights Care Home

20/12/2025

Today we finalized our plans for Christmas 🎅, we're very much looking forward to the celebration! This morning, we enjoyed some poetry reading and writing 📜🪶, word games, quizzes and brain teasers 🔠🔤, and read the Christmas cards 💌👁👁✉️ we received. A resident who used to be a draughtsman spent some time poring over technical drawings 📐🔎 - as part of person-centred care it's important to maintain residents' hobbies and professionnal interests 🤓, to boost self-esteem. In the afternoon, we had some fun with different active and precision ball games 🎈⚽️🎴, including one I made using a torn portrait painting from our cellar 😆 - waste not, want not ♻️♻️♻️!

18/12/2025

A reminder- we hope to see you there!

Some residents, during our monthly meeting, expressed the desire to go to the carol Christmas service 🎄👼🌟🔔. We will be attending the service at the URC church near Knights (opposite Aldi), leaving around 10.15-10.30 on December 21st. If family members or friends would like to visit at that time, it would be lovely to go as a bigger group 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧👴👨‍👩‍👦👩‍👦👵👨‍👩‍👧🧓🏿👨‍👦👶🏽👬 and sing 🎶🎶 together.

16/12/2025

Today was one of those magical sunny 🌞 winter days we are lucky to receive in St Annes, so I took advantage of the rays to accompany some residents outdoors. In the morning: bird watching and feeding (robins! gulls! sparrows! ducks! coots! pigeons! an owl?!?) 🐦🦆🦉🪶, taking photos together 📷, then shopping for stocking fillers, wooly hats and gloves🧤. It was immensely fun interacting with all the stressed shoppers who were forced to slow down and enjoy the spirit of the season and a chat with our jolly, loud and excited Knights squad 🥳🤩😜!

In the afternoon, we went to the beach and enjoyed the amusements 🎠🪙🎮🥌🎰, sand dunes 🏖, ice cream 🍧🍦 (shared with sparkling starlings), petting dogs 🐩, feeding the swans 🦢 then a little shop for our brand new karaoke microphone 🎙and watercolour set! The resident pictured here is partially blind but loved the sensory madness of the arcade games, low winter sunlight and the swans' gleaming plumage ⚫️⚪️🟡🟠🔴🟣🔵🟢.

15/12/2025

This morning we experimented with some abstract and impressionist painting 🎨🖌🖼 techniques which evoked some reminiscence about butterflies and Spring gardens 🦋🌸. In the afternoon we enjoyed a movie matinée with the classic 🎬Planet of the Apes🎬 chosen by the residents, after a movie quizz ❓️🚨⁉️ which had 2 winners! They loved their prizes 💝🎁 and the film too - the ladies especially enjoyed seeing Charlton Heston 'with no clothes on' 😳😍!

12/12/2025

This afternoon some of our footie fans had a go with various active ball games 🥎🏐🏀⚾️ including our new quizz ❓️❔️⁉️ football, which offers prompts for conversation, reading and reminiscence as well as kicking and throwing 👟⚽️ 🥅 (our best player scored 2 goals!) We also spent some time reading a cookbook 📚 and discussing desserts we would enjoy for Christmas🥧🧁🍭🍧🎂🍡🍨🍩🍮🍪🍬.

12/12/2025

This morning we got to know our new realistic-looking pet toys, baptised Jimmy (🐶) and Archie (😺). Families interested in purchasing individual ones, for residents to keep in their bedrooms, will find them on the Alzheimer's Society shop website. There are many dog breeds and cat colours, and they breathe realistically. They are proven to soothe people living with dementia who miss their 🐈‍⬛️🐕. We also enjoyed discussing some of Beatrix Potter's creatures and made some wool cats with googly eyes (aye aye 👁👁 joked a resident!) I am waiting to hear back from the REAL therapy pets charity that will hopefully send a volunteer and trained dog to visit us soon 🦮🚶🏾‍♀️

10/12/2025

This is the cake, courtesy of our lovely chef Donna ✨️, that was submitted for the annual Christmas cake 🎂 competition! It looks both delightful and delicious, as well as nostalgic and wondrous 😋

10/12/2025

Today we had some relaxed fun making more Christmas ornaments🎄to give our loved ones (available in the entrance when you sign in! please take one home) 💌💝. It's always interesting to learn what approach different residents use - some love the chaos of artistic expression and go wild 🤟🏼✋🏻🤚🏻, others are very methodical 🤏🏾👌🏻, some love to work in a team and chat 🫱🏽‍🫲🏻, and others go into a flow state of bliss 🤲🏿✌🏼! We also reminisced with the brand new activities tablet 📱- discussing favourite animals 🦮🐕🐩🐕‍🦺, football ⚽️ memories and favourite classic Disney films.

10/12/2025

a little clip from yesterday's vinyl record party 🎤🕺🏾

09/12/2025

This morning we spent some time with our new scent 👃🏾🌬👃🏻🌬👃🏼 memory boxes inspired by the Boots foundation. I bought lots of traditional products like Pears, Wright and Imperial Leather soaps 🧼🫧🫧, Yardley perfumes, Tiger Balm etc. Some people living with dementia can really benefit from olfactory reminiscence because smells, like music and contact with nature, take us directly back to core emotional memories 💗. Others find strong smells irritating, and some have completely lost their sense of smell. The experiment worked well, with one resident waxing lyrical about roses 🌹🥀, another reminiscing about his mother and the cosmetics she used 💆‍♀️, and another suggesting surprising but apt references for smells like 'funeral', 'leading lady' and 'summer garden party' 🌞💐

In the afternoon we played some vinyl records 🎼, boogied and sang to our hearts' content 💃🏽🕺🏾!

09/12/2025

We're sorry to announce, for those of you who had it in your diaries, that our Christmas party scheduled on Sunday 14th had to be cancelled due to too many residents currently having the flu :(

Those who are willing and able will hopefully attend the Christmas choir service at the URC church on the 21st though 🙏🏻

07/12/2025

After some pampering 💅 this morning, we continued the cozy Sunday vibes with a wonderful adventure film 🎥 chosen by the residents, 🎬 Journey to the Centre of the Earth 🎬, a colourful classic Hollywood Cinemascope epic with romance, danger, comedy and amazing subterranean landscapes 💎⛏️🌍🌋🗺🐉💕🔥. It stars James Mason and was adapted from a Jules Verne tale. The residents were rapt with attention👁👁👁👁!