Autumn has arrived

Hi dear readers,

Well I see that it's ages in blog time since I made a post. I was keeping things up to date until I fell off the blog path. Last time I wrote, was in July. Well I am happy to say we had a nice number of family make visits at the Villa over the summer. We could use more though. There is no subsitute for family or old friends coming in to visit. We do have a few regulars and it is much appreciated by all.

 Above you see one of the two  wonderful old cars  that the PEI Antique Car Society brought  up for us to view and admire. It was a first meeting of the Old Boys Club, which we hope to get going. This was a fun afternoon an  enjoyed by all.

 Above is Elma Birt which two of her seven  brothers. One is Ollie Birt who lives down in the US and hadn't seem Elma for ten years. Welcome home Ollie.

That's all for now. We are still having lots of wonderful entertainment and try to keep busy and make the most of each day.

Regards,
Julia

July entertainment

Well we did have a spectacular month of entertainment. We had our own version of "So You Think You Can Dance"  www.fox.com/dance/ except ours would be called " So You Love To Dance".

We had Scottish Country Dancers from Charlottetown

and then we had a Belly Dancing Troupe from Summerside and then

the following week we had the Dancing Sweethearts from Charlottetown. It was wonderful and much enjoyed by all. Thankyou so much to everyone who came out here to share their talents.

JMP

A good night's rest

Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together." We are following the person- centered care approach  at the South Shore Villa and  if a resident is sound asleep at the usual wake up time, we now have the option of leaving them sleeping. Later in the morning, when their natural circadian rhythm cycle causes them to wake up and want their breakfast, staff will prepare them for the day and feed them their breakfast if needed.

The toast of the Villa and Person Centred Care

The Villa is moving forward with our version of person centred care and it is demonstrated in all sorts of ways.The girls on the floor decided that fresh toast in the mornings would be popular with the residents. So every morning the Villa wafts with the scent of fresh toast. In a new four slice toaster, the staff go through two loaves of bread!!!Hot toast, freshly buttered is one of lifes' great comfort foods. The little things add up to  make a big difference.

Regards,
Julia

Royal Watchers at the South Shore Villa

We put on a longish but enjoyable day watching the young royals visiting PEI between all of the usual activities. It would have been grand if we could have gone to see the action in person but that wasn't really feasible. We all agreed we saw more and in comfort by watching TV than if we had been there. What a great day it was inspite of the rain and wonderful exposure for our beloved PEI. Priscilla Myers hosted the viewing in her handsome sitting room.
Regards,
Julia

Fun and laughter and Seniors

 South Shore Villa, Crapaud, June 2011

 

Well some days, we have hint of summer weather and we get outside for walks  to enjoy the beautiful setting of the Villa. The residents never take it for granted and enjoy our nature walks and the ease with which we can get out among the trees and birds sounds of summer.  And then we have rain and cold and we stay inside.  We are still having a grand time with our ball games. We call it Boomerang Ball. We have graduated from tossing one ball back and forth to having three balls in play and today we had at least six balls flying around. It looks like fun and it is fun, even the staff come in to join us and get in the action

 

Once a month we have arts and crafts on the calendar. This mostly involves paint and paper and an idea. We are fortunate to have some nice brushes which we acquired when we had a LEAP grant  here a few years back. This week we did a simple tree study with reflections. It is accomplished by folding the paper in half length wise, painting an image in the top section and then while the paint is still wet folding it over to make a mono print on the lower part of the fold. And voila you have a nice suggestion of the trees reflected on water. Last month we painted mandalas. I down loaded a mandala from the internet and printed them off onto heavy paper using our photocopier. The residents found it relaxing and enjoyed the colourful product. That photocopier is a wonderful tool for facilitating art projects. It’s amazing what the seniors can do in spite of their self doubt.

 We have continued on with our rhythm band project. Originally I thought we would acquire some drums but now we are playing around with spoons. It’s an instrument the residents are familiar with and I think they can do it. It’s just a question of breaking it down into simple steps.  Enjoying rhythm must be a fundamental pleasure like laughter and sunlight. We did the ground work over the winter by learning a few simple paradiddles and we can now incorporate them into playing the spoons.  Wish us luck

.

Regards

 

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