Category: PCH Memory Boxes

National Bird Feeding Month

National Bird Feeding Month

February is National Bird Feeding Month. It is a time to welcome back the birdsong and the early signs of Spring. As the February and March weather can be quite unpredictable, our homes have started to make simple bird feeders to hang in the gardens for our little friends. See our recipe for Bird cake below:

Make a speedy bird cake

Make this quick and easy cake to keep the birds happy!

You will need:

  • Good quality bird seed
  • Raisins
  • Peanuts
  • Grated cheese
  • Suet or lard
  • Yoghurt pots
  • String
  • Mixing bowl
  • Scissors

Important notes

Not suitable for people with nut allergies. Note that bird seed, including peanuts bought for birds, is not suitable for human consumption.

Step-by-step guide

  1. Carefully make a small hole in the bottom of a yoghurt pot. Thread string through the hole and tie a knot on the inside. Leave enough string so that you can tie the pot to a tree or your bird table.
  2. Allow the lard to warm up to room temperature, but don’t melt it. Then cut it up into small pieces and put it in the mixing bowl.
  3. Add the other ingredients to the bowl and mix them together with your finger tips. Keep adding the seed/raisin/cheese mixture and squidging it until the fat holds it all together.
  4. Fill your yoghurt pots with bird cake mixture and put them in the fridge to set for an hour or so.

Hang your speedy bird cakes from trees or your bird table. Watch for greenfinches, tits and possibly even great spotted woodpeckers.

Have fun bird watching!

The benefits of photo frames & memory boxes

The benefits of photo frames & memory boxes

In a number of our homes if you walk along the corridor you’ll find a profile outside a bedroom door. These profiles incorporating photographs and reminiscence information have two main roles. The first is to aid residents with dementia in finding their room and ensuring there is something familiar. The second is to provide a brief history of the residents life to inspire conversation between resident and staff.

It is possible for families to provide memory boxes to wall mount outside a bedroom. These boxes can be filled with favourite photos and familiar objects linked to half term memory that act as great conversation starters, as well as aiding residents make sense of their environment.

If you would like a memory tree profile, please speak to your Home Manager who will organise one for you or your loved one.

Coppelia House take a trip down memory lane

Coppelia House take a trip down memory lane

Our homes are taking part in a new reminiscence activity with Marks & Spencer’s “Marks in Time Memory Boxes.”   The boxes have been designed to be used as reminiscence therapy and include ‘What We Ate’, ‘Days & Nights Out’, ‘What We Wore’ and ‘Childhood’.

Each box has replica packages from the 1950s to the 1980s, photos and adverts of Marks & Spencer throughout the years.

Coppelia House were the first to try out a “Marks In Time” memory box and there was great excitement when their ‘What We Ate’ box arrived.  Residents smiled and laughed sharing memories of their favourite biscuit packaging and food stories. Even though the box has been returned memories are still be shared. Our other homes are looking forward to receiving their themed boxes and we look forward to hearing their feedback.

Peninsula Care Homes have also created their own themed memory boxes.  These are available to each home to share and currently including wedding celebrations, memories of babies, seaside and a gentleman’s box.

On Thursday 26th Oct 2017 Coppelia House hosted a wedding reminiscing activity inspired from the Wedding themed memory box. On display were two wedding dresses from staff, a display cake and bouquets. Staff and residents shared photos of their own wedding days.

coppelia-house-pch-memory-box

Residents also shared their fondest memories of their special day, leading up to it and the honeymoon. Discussions about styles, prices, licence venues were shared over a small sherry and some wonderful cakes made by Coppelia’s chef.

Later wedding themed poems included in the Peninsula wedding box were read out and the quiz was great fun. All in all a great activity and all the residents and staff thoroughly enjoyed it.