The end of the month saw us hold our annual 'Halloween Hoolie' but there are heaps of highlights to share with you before we take you there...

We launched the month with something new - 'The Feel Good' Club, which is aimed at making exercise more enticing.  All of our exercise sessions are now 'Feel Good Club' branded with great new posters and it's certainly seeming to have reignited interest amongst the residents. 

Regular events in our 'Feel Good' calendar are the fortnightly Yoga sessions which are led in person by Andriani, a professional yoga teacher who specialises in yoga for positive mental health and relaxation. Andriani's seated yoga sessions encourage residents to explore their own range of movement through gentle exercises and focused breathwork.  Staff often join residents in their practice, something which our 'workplace wellbeing' initiative encourages.

We have just joined the growing band of Scottish Care Homes who subscribe to Burns Gym, a family run, Glasgow based gym which livestreams interactive, Personal Trainer led exercise sessions.  We join the brothers from Burns Gym every Tuesday afternoon for a worthwhile, chair-based workout with lots of chat and banter from the Burns boys!  The class is proving to be a real hit with residents and it's something we look forward to each week.

In amongst all this, we run our own 'Feel Good' Club sessions which can cover any kind of movement from outdoor rambles to indoor bowling, seated zumba sessions to playing pool, anything which encourages gentle exertion is considered for the 'Feel Good' Club and we try to fit in at least two planned exercises sessions every week.

With autumn upon us and the darker nights drawing in, it feels right to focus on food and the 'Cookery Club' have been busy making healthy homemade meals.  The ethos of this Club is to make and bake from scratch and this can involve researching recipes and shopping for ingredients before making the chosen meal.  Residents are encouraged to share the meals they've made with friends, which often involves laying tables in the cafe for a fine dining 'bistro' feel.

We've had some fantastic afternoons of making and baking with the Activity Co-ordinators in our Hub kitchen. We began with authentic Italian pizza, following a step-by-step demonstration from Margherita who is herself Italian and a genius pizza maker!  Amy led a foraging expedition to the Walled Garden where residents picked their own apples in preparation for Kate's 'Deep Dish Apple Pies', let me tell you the aroma from those slow baking apple pies was sensational! The month's cookery sessions were rounded off with residents making the most delicious, homemade Halloween gingerbread biscuits under Amy's excellent tuition.

Cookery Club sessions are held in the Activity Hub room which is fitted out with a small kitchenette and a large communal table to encourage group working. The delicious smells which waft from this room during cooking often stop residents, staff and visitors in their tracks encouraging them to pop in and see what's going on which in turn, encourages the Club to grow.  We are always on the lookout for new recipes, so if you have a favourite, simple to prepare recipe you'd like to share please contact [email protected] and you may see your recipe featuring in future news posts!

We've tested the water with another new venture as residents tried their hand at photography.  An outdoor extravaganza had been planned but unfortunately the weather put paid to that, so we had an alternative indoor shoot instead.  This was a pilot session, aimed at assessing interest and looking at the logistics of running a regular Photography Club and I'm pleased to say that the New Year will see this become a regular feature in our monthly calendars! Until then, lets enjoy some of the residents' own work undertaking during this very first trial session:

The month has been packed with all sorts of things, including ladies and gents grooming days, karaoke sessions, vinyl days and a visit from Odie the beautiful bouncy Boxer dog!

October sees the return of our Saturday Night Social Club evenings and we got the season off to a roaring start with an '80's Disco Nite' thanks to the spectacular DJ Pedro and his super assistant Sam, who kept the hits coming right throughout the night! In true Night Club style the room was alive with neon, the dance floor was jumping and at times the music was almost drowned out by the singing! It was an absolutely amazing night and when the last track was played, the crowd called out for more so what could DJ Pedro do but provide an encore! In the words of that famous song...'Oh What A Night!'

This month's Saturday Night Social's have involved Race Nights, Film Nights and Folk Nights as we welcomed fantastic folk singers Rob Griffith and Pam Wallace.  There were plenty of the well-known, old favourites for residents to sing along with and there were some hauntingly atmospheric songs which Rob had written himself.  You can get a taste of the music residents enjoyed here: Rob Griffith, Songwriter.  This generous duo also took time out for a private, bedroom-based performance for a folk-music fan who was unable to make it along to the main event, which fair made his day!  At the risk of repeating myself...'Oh What a Night!'

And finally, we make it to the week of our Halloween Hoolie.  It was a week of creepy crafts, frighteningly good films and a visit from some atmospheric wee beasties as The Creature Teacher visited with some magnificent, massive millepedes! How very fitting for Halloween Week!

When Halloween Day dawned in the Home the costumes came out! We love any opportunity to dress up and this October festival is certainly a favourite amongst residents and staff alike! After a morning of make up and costumes, we danced the afternoon away with the most perfect performance from the devilishly good Dean Alexander, before residents retired for an evening of chilling in their flats...many looking forward to an evening of chilling films to finish off their Halloween Night!

Click to sneak a peek at what went on in our Halloween Home!