The Knights Care Home

11/02/2026

Yesterday we had fun making love chimes 🪈🩷🪢💚🪈💛🪢❤️🪈 to complete the decorations of our home ahead of Valentine's Day 😍🥰. They are beautiful visual and musical objects!

In the afternoon we explored Ashton Gardens to find the burgeoning late Winter-early Spring flowers 🌿🌸🌷⚘️🌱 and residents took the pictures below using our tablet 👁👁👉🏻📸. We also collected some blossoms broken by the rain. It was a cozy and hopeful day.

11/02/2026

Music makes the world go round 🌎🌏🌍

11/02/2026

Last week I was on leave but our residents were kept busy with music and movement from Sonia, a guitar singalong with Beverley, and a keyboard concert from Jonathan. Here are a few snaps. Many thanks to our lovely ❤️visitors❤️ and to our ♥️staff♥️ who support the sessions and help residents to engage with activities 🥰 !

Families and friends will find our first 2026 💌newsletter💌 in the entrance of The Knights Care Home, it has also been sent to loved ones.

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 🥋🥊🪵👊🏻🫱🏾🫸🏻.