Linking Hearts told us:

“Allow me to introduce Linking Hearts Therapy Horses:

Mr Kelloggs is a 29” tall miniature horse who is fully trained to visit people who may not normally have the opportunity to interact with a horse.

Our mission is to bring joy to those who most need it. To help enhance, nurture and heal the spirit of those who face extraordinary challenges every day. Interacting with miniature horses provides physical, mental and emotional wellbeing as they offer a source of joy and unconditional love for all that encounter them.”

We agree and can’t wait to welcome this adorable little horse back to our services very soon. — Jane Montrose, Managing Director.

Photographs have been shared with kind permission of all shown.

David is delighted to share with you his final nature garden instalment:

The Journey Ends.

Ten months after work commenced, the nature garden has been finished. The last few months have seen the commencement and completion of several tasks that have truly transformed the garden. These include laying a gravel path, creation of ‘Gnome mountain,’ and the reimagining and renovation of the sensory garden. The nature garden, like the rest of the world, was impacted by the spread of Covid – in this case the long-planned creation of a BBQ area made way for the home’s Covid visitor pod. However, this is not a bad thing for once the pandemic has passed it will make a great wildlife-watching hut (and another area has been earmarked by the team for the BBQ area, ssshhhh don’t tell the bosses!)  

First picture: Gnome garden (there are many additions planned to this community).

Second picture: The reimagined sensory garden (which looks wonderful at night when all the lights come into effect).

Third picture: The gravel path leading to our visitor pod (or, as we refer to it, our future wildlife-watching hut). 

As we conclude the journey that was the creation of the nature garden, we hope you have enjoyed the journey as much as we have.

Until we start our next project

Take care

David Dellow, Redcroft Deputy Manager, and the Redcroft garden team.

Washing clothes, using scissors and sweeping floors are some of the easier omens to sidestep.  According to Chinese superstition, doing any of these on Feb 12 – the day Chinese New Year falls in 2021 – will lead to bad luck for the entire coming year. But it isn’t all doom and gloom: 2021 is the Year of the Ox, an animal that  symbolises strength and determination. — The Telegraph, 9th February 2021.

At Redcroft care home in Bournemouth, Chinese New Year has been celebrated by residents and our team via an industrious and creative whole-wall work of art. Mandy Sinnick, assistant home manager, said, ‘Creative workshops have been planned through Redcroft’s own Learning Hub and house meetings. It has been great fun holding such meetings and we’ve seen great skill, creativity and input by everyone.

‘Nora Grant, support worker, took full use of this opportunity to showcase her formidable artistry skills to help create standalone pieces. With a little creativity and encouragement, everyone has found their own niche and rolled with it. With her calm and supportive approach, Nora’s help and guidance has been fabulous! It has been demonstrated that everyone, through their own artwork pieces, really does have an inner arty-crafty side. Well done, everyone, for an awesome Chinese New Year display…Let the planning begin for the next one!’ — Mandy Sinnick, Redcroft.

The Mad Hatters Tea Party!

So, it was that after a conversation involving three very creative minds that the idea of the Mad Hatters Tea Party was born. Amanda Sinnick (Deputy Manager) put her considerable organisation skills to use and grabbed the event by the scruff of the neck and formed a Tea Party committee.

Amanda over saw the creation of the many wonderful decorations that would create the fabulous party vibe that was present on the day, as well as the one of a kind advertisement board.

Nora Grant (support worker) took full use of this opportunity to show off her formidable artistry skills to help create standalone pieces that were present on the day, as well as assisting individuals to make one-of-a-kind hats and outfits for the party.

Rebecca Blackmore (senior support worker) demonstrated her outstanding baking/culinary skills to create the wonderful themed buffet as well as a magnificent centrepiece cake.  

Amanda, in the role of Chairperson, oversaw the day itself and ensured that it went smoothly and was a great success. Judging by all the beaming smiles on faces it certainly was!

After the event had finished Amanda announced that she had already started the initial planning for “The Carnival Extravaganza” planned for the end of August 2020

So watch this space…” David Dellow, Senior Support Worker/Team Leader, Redcroft.

Session 13:

“Todays session saw the team commence the task of clearing all the old cement off the recovered patio slabs. This was found to be very hard work but ultimately will allow the team to partially patio the quiet area.

After undertaking this task the team decided to take a break from the nature garden and tackle another area of the garden near the house. The team displayed a real sense of team spirit and cleared an area of the garden which will see an expansion of the present memorial garden for their friends who are sadly no longer with us.

Session 14:

Todays session saw the team commence the task of clearing all the remaining foliage and small offshoots of the holly bush. The completion of this task will enable the staff to lay down the patio for the quiet area. The staff also set about removing dead crawlers off the fence and the arduous task of removing the large mound of soil that had been collected over many years.

The area at the start of the session and at the end of the session, clear of all excess foliage.”

— David Dellow, Senior Support Worker, Redcroft.

Creating a Nature Garden, Tenth Session:

“Todays session saw a big leap in the development of the garden. We decided to challenge the almost mythical pile beside the wall. This area has been provisional earmarked as BBQ/Quiet area, so the idea was to simply shift through the pile:

However as the saying goes ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ as this pile turned into a gold mine (not literally sadly) for material to use in the garden.

Firstly we found enough clean paving slab pieces for the following, to create a little patio area for the bird bath and also the start of our path:

We also found enough slabs with excess cement on them to cover a large area of the quiet area (once we have removed the excess cement). In addition we found a large amount of small bricks and debris, there was such a large amount that we used them to create a border between the path to the quiet area and the nature garden:

Amongst the pile we also found interesting items such as a base for a basketball pole and a 5 foot slide! Suffice to say that the pile of mystery is now greatly reduced!

Session Eleven:

Today was a day of great progress. First we widened the path at certain junctions to ensure they were easier to navigate. Then the team set about finishing clearing away the pile from yesterday and then decided to turn their attention to the 4ft pile of wood. The clearing of these two piles would open the space and allow for planning of the quiet area/BBQ area to begin. The intention was just to start clearing the pile well this happened: 

The team managed to clear a massive 90% of the area. The clearing of the piles produced the following, wood for chipping:

As well as slabs and bricks for paving and footpaths. Treasure!

Session Twelve:

Today was a continuation of the work of clearing the quiet area of the remaining foliage/wood. The team again worked hard and by the end of the session had managed to clear around 90% of the area!

Don’t forget to check back soon for our next update on our nature garden.” –David Dellow, Redcroft.

Here is S and David’s nature garden diary, kindly shared with the kind permission of both.

“Nature Garden Creation, First Session:

Today we started on the Nature Garden, our first task is to clear all the loose vegetation on the floor and all the loose branches on the ground.

We are disposing of all the loose vegetation and branches into our large compost heap, this way we are recycling all the organic debris, which eventually we will distribute around our new garden.

All the other objects that have been collected over the years will also be recycled/upcycled for use in the garden. We will have a garden that is not only inviting and encouraging to wildlife but also environmentally friendly. 

Our aim is to create a garden that is appealing to a wide range of wildlife as well as creating a space where we can go and relax when we desire some relaxation.  If we are successful in encouraging wildlife we are planning to set up cameras and capture pictures of our wildlife visitors and even possibly create a calendar of our wildlife friends.                        

The work is very physical and is on a grand scale, so we are planning on completing the work over the period of several months. But we fully intend to have the work completed in time for BBQ season!

We are disposing of all the loose vegetation and branches into our large compost heap, this way we are recycling all the organic debris, which eventually we will distribute around our new garden.

All the other objects that have been collected over the years will also be recycled/upcycled for use in the garden. We will have a garden that is not only inviting and encouraging to wildlife but also environmentally friendly. 

Our aim is to create a garden that is appealing to a wide range of wildlife as well as creating a space where we can go and relax when we desire some relaxation.  If we are successful in encouraging wildlife we are planning to set up cameras and capture pictures of our wildlife visitors and even possibly create a calendar of our wildlife friends.                                                                                                   The work is very physical and is on a grand scale, so we are planning on completing the work over the period of several months. But we fully intend to have the work completed in time for BBQ season.

Second Session:

Our second session saw us continuing with the clearing of the excessive debris from our proposed nature garden site. It was a hard task but we were aware that once completed we would be able to make progress on the garden easier.

We completed the session with a trip to a local garden tools supplier to collect some heavy-duty tools to help us with the next stage of our work.

Third Session:

Session three saw us starting to cut out a footpath to allow easy access around the nature garden for everyone. Eventually the path will be created by turning all the discarded branches we have uncovered into wood chip.

We finished the session by placing the discarded wheelbarrow in position at the end of the path. We are looking for unwanted/old paving slabs to create a firm base, as the wheelbarrow is going to be turned into a bird bath.

Stay tuned for our next progress report!” — David Dellow, Redcroft.

What is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch event?

‘Did you know that the Big Garden Birdwatch started out as an event for children? Back in 1979, the RSPB joined forces with BBC’s Blue Peter and called on children to let us know what birds they saw in their garden. Hundreds took up the call, and in those pre-digital days, dutifully posted in their findings. The early signs of success were there, with the RSPB team faced with an impressive 34 mail bags full of post to sort.’ — RSPB website.

This is the world’s largest wildlife survey!

The popularity of the Birdwatch has grown year-on-year and now over 40 years later it is the world’s largest wildlife survey, with around half a million people regularly taking part. It is one of the biggest citizen science events around, as borne out by the stats.

• Nearly 9 million hours have been spent watching garden birds since the Big Garden Birdwatch began in 1979
• The total number of birds counted as part of the Big Garden Birdwatch since 1979, is around 137 million

We are proud to be a tiny part of this!

Redcroft’s registered manager and team created an entire cookery book in Braille, as featured here on our blog. Working with an individual for whom cookery is a loved pastime, all of her favourite recipes are now fully accessible to her in her own Braille cook books!

The Daily Echo said of the awards, “Now in their third year, The Daily Echo Proud to Care Awards are an amazing opportunity for our readers to tell us about all those locally that are doing a fantastic job in care, both paid and unpaid. The judges were very moved by the stories they read in the hundreds of nominations received and found it very difficult to choose who to shortlist and the final winners.”

Sharron Eyears, registered manager at Redcroft, told us “I collected the Proud To Care Award For Innovation on behalf of Redcroft.” She added, “I am so proud to be the leader of such an outstanding, dedicated and caring staff team who go the extra mile without thinking about it.”

Also a finalist in the awards for the ‘Carer Award’ was Dawn Salmon of Apple House care home. Dawn’s nominees, family members of people she supports, submitted wonderful commendations about Dawn including: “Dawn gives 200% to the service her colleagues and the people she supports and is so deserving of this wonderful recognition as an award finalist.”

What is a Champion?

Our Champions encourage team members and residents to develop their knowledge and practical skills in a variety of key areas.  By being a learning ‘bridge’ between research, best practice, and knowledge, and others at Redcroft, Champions do the hard work and source the information to share.

 They make learning fun.  They challenge poor and habitual ways of doing things and offer an alternative and often fun means of carrying out the task or offer something entirely new to try.

A Champion is inclusive and supportive in how they share ideas and practice.

Our Champions are the individuals who live at Redcroft as well as our own team members.

Sharron Eyears, registered manager, says: “At the meeting we were excited to be extending this [Champion role] to include any individual who wanted to be involved, encouraging them to do research, to maybe design and make a game to make the learning fun and to support educational presentations at house meetings. This has gone down a storm, promotes ownership of the individuals’ home and how it is run, along with generating a lot of laughter!

With team members and residents sharing Champion roles, there is real inclusion and this is evidenced via the feedback sheets we have produced which identify what has been understood, what is popular, plus ideas for further learning opportunities.

The topics the individuals are involved with are : Nutrition, Equality and Diversity, Oral Health, Health and Safety and Safeguarding.”

Mandy Sinnick, deputy manager, tells us about her Champion role with R and the work that went into their latest presentation: “R and I have been planning our Champion’s talk on oral hygiene. We have been researching online around the subject of oral health including how to brush teeth, cheeks and gums along with the reason why this is important.

Our information has been gained from the following sources: NICE guidelines, CQC’s Smiling Matters and information from our local dental practice. We will be supporting our talk with an easy read version for individuals who require it. 

R and I then sat down with all of our resources and planned how to get the message across in a fun way. Following our planning meeting we have made a giant mouth, dressed ourselves with a sandwich board and tooth hat which he helped to make, and using two sets of teeth we covered them in red plaque dye and encouraged everyone to try and brush this dye off. We used our local dental practice’s teeth-cleaning guide.

We ended our talk with an an oral health assessment tool showing individuals how and why we complete these monthly assessments. Informing everyone that the information used is in a oral health file in the office.”