There is something for everyone at Astley. Often what is one resident’s favourite pastime, grows in popularity to become a shared hobby. Floristry is a great example. One of our gentlemen residents now leads classes, sharing his enormous wealth of experience. He helps others to produce table centres, Christmas wreaths and seasonal displays, with all the flowers and foliage from our garden. It gives an enormous sense of self-worth and purpose for him and achievement for everyone else.
Examples of shared hobby craft
This month residents rediscovered their love of poetry. They selected a picture that they all found beautiful, and talked about what that image represented to them. They then worked together with the rhyme and wording to create a poem called Snow Covered Mountains.
The Snow covered mountains Brighten up the sky. The lake gently glistens, While the clouds rolling by. The sunflowers grow tall, As they watch the blue sky. A forest of pines, green, Standing strong, Standing by.
Inspired by the selection of landscape pictures from our poetry session, some of our residents recreated them on canvas, to beautiful effect. With such artistic flare, we are now having a weekly art club. They are enjoying this shared hobby and creative time together.
Spring time spruce-ups!
With the warm weather we have enjoyed afternoon tea on our patio and blown away the cobwebs with some lovely walks. A potter to see the nearby horses is a favourite. Our keen gardeners have also been potting up flowers and keeping the birds well fed with homemade seed balls. Our “Ladies Do Lunch” group are keen to eat outside on warmer days. They are looking forward to swopping scarfs and knee blankets for hats and bonnets.
We have been having a spruce up in more ways that one. Sorting out our lovely summerhouse and dusting off the outside furniture. Thank you to all our lovely families and friends who have helped us get the garden ready for the summertime.
Residents have also been booking into our in-home salon. Our fantastic staff have turned their hand to hairdressing, manicures and beauty treatments through lockdown. We are also now offering reiki therapies and massage. Our new dedicated salon gives that pampering experience, so everyone comes away feeling their best selves.
