Spring in the hills of Crapaud PEI

 The hills are a smoky cerulean blue and the trees are a warm raw umber brown. It's April and the spring bulbs are coming up and the snow is  only in patches on the red clay fields. Yes the birch tree woodland surrounding the South Shore  Villa is sheltering snow drifts but that is typical for our Maritime spring.We kept well at the Villa with very little sickness this long winter. Winter passed quickly with plenty of entertainment and activities. We continue to play ball everyday and are making progress with our rythmn band.

 We got a little silly around St. Patricks Day. We are lucky enough to have several large hand puppets. The residents get a big kick out of these muppet style puppets. Several are child- like and are the favourites and then there is an older man in a cap and an old lady with a bun. We used them at the St Patty's Day party as  pretend  visitors from Ireland who told jokes and stories for us. And then on March 18 we set them up on display as if they were suffering the after effects of too much Irish beer.We thought we were very amusing.

Coming up is the royal wedding at the end of the month. We don't have royal wedding  fever yet but we are working on  building up some excitement on  the big day. Since we aren't on the official invitation list we will have to make our own event. We will have a nice English tea party on April 29th with scones and cream and a fancy cake and hot tea served in a tea cup. We will need to decorate some hats too. A tea hat is an important fashion statement. Then of course, we will bring in a wedding dress to help set the scene with bouquets of flowers. And then we will watch the wedding on our big screen TV. So it should be a nice afternoon. We wish the young couple well. If you are reading this consider it an invitation to join us on April 29,2011 at 2pm at the South Shore Villa in Crapaud, PEI. and what better time to celebrate the long marriages of our three resident married couples Garth and Alma Birt, Ralph and Phyllis Josey and Eddie and Linda Robbins.
Julia
Activites Director

May at last

May 2011

Well, here it is finally Spring and we are so glad. The grass is green and the white birch woodland out front is no longer sheltering pockets of snow. It was a long winter with lots of snow ----just like the old days. The flower beds out front are bravely challenging the cool weather. The pearly grey bark of the shrubs, make a nice color complement to the yellow daffodils and the cobalt blue, cream and pale pink hyacinths. Their perfume is the fragrance of spring.

We spent some nice weeks preparing for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate. Of course we needed tea hats to dress up in. So the summer straw hats were decorated with head bands and silk flowers. And the ladies were very pleased with their head gear. Of course they wore hats all the time in the old days and enjoyed having an excuse to wear a hat again.  I finally found a use for the upholstery fabric sample book I had sitting in a closet taking up space. It was a book of shiny satins perfect for the hand bands.  With a seam or two on a sewing machine and the hot glue gun we were in business.

 Of course we needed decorations. We had a gorgeous full length satin brocade wedding dress displayed on a dress dummy with a long veil. We had a nice framed portrait of the young couple on display also.  Then we had our party.  We drank hot tea poured from our new to us silver tea pot and out of fine china tea cups. We served slices of a jam layer cake with marzipan frosting the looked as good, as it tasted.

So the ball game continues to be very popular. The residents all have fun with our toss and throw game. We call it boomerang- fumble ball. Because it always seems to come back to the thrower and the fumbles are spectacular and lots of fun. Recently we acquired 18 additional balls .We are  learning a series of isometric exercises and a ball each makes it more pleasurable. Of course no one can resist the fun a new bouncy ball and a healthy chaos ensued the first time we brought the balls out. We look forward to a Chi Te demonstration in the new future. The sky is the limit.

With the fine weather here we can get outside for walks as often as we wish. We have such a nice setting here and always praise the forethought that kept the natural woodland in place here for all to enjoy.

Keep checking in on us. We never run out of ideas to share and like to hear from all of you.

Julia

Activities Director