Green-fingered pensioners at an Edinburgh care home are being treated to a summer full of activities designed to get them interacting with nature.

As an antidote to the cold weather and darkness of lockdown, the city’s finest care home, ’s Head of Maintenance, Billy Early, built new accessible planters, alongside a programme of events.

Sessions are planned for residents to plant bulbs, and create signage and labels for the garden which residents can enjoy during their independent and supported walks around the grounds.

The Lifestyle Team makes use of plants from the verdant gardens where possible, which are maintained all year round. During the pandemic, restrictions have at times limited the ability for residents to fully enjoy the outdoor space.

Christian Daraio, one of the dedicated team at the 74-room modern care home in Edinburgh, said: “There is a real sense of optimism growing here as lockdown continues to ease and it is perfect timing to focus more on our lovely gardens and expand our horizons again.

“We have many green thumbed gardening enthusiasts at Cramond Residence. Thanks to our new easily accessible planters, all residents with a keen interest in gardening have been able to get involved.

“The home has also been able to welcome family and friends back into the grounds so I’m sure our residents will take great pride in being able to help add a touch of colour to the home too.

“Gardening is a hugely beneficial way to keep our elderly residents mobile and active whilst doing something they enjoy in the fresh air.”

The care home is made up of nine small bubble group living facilities with up to eight bedrooms, a private lounge, dining and snug facilities. When necessary, residents can be cared for in small groups using the self-contained facilities.

Cramond Residence offers high quality care for up to 74 residents offering a small-group living concept in nine houses, with all residents enjoying an exceptional range of amenities and activities, delicious food and bespoke care from our highly-trained team.

27 Meallmore teams from across Scotland came together to compete in the Meallmore Olympics 2021.

The games were opened to three categories of teams within the Meallmore Group. These were:

• Staff teams
• Residents from specialist homes
• Residents from care of the elderly homes.

The teams had to design and decorate their own flags, create and sing their own personal national anthem for their team, decide on a resident captain and agree on a suitable team name.

All the teams then participated in four Olympic events over four days. These events consisted of:

• Come fly with me – paper aeroplane design and flying competition.
• Basketball challenge – throwing ping pong balls into a basket, the person with the most balls into the basket in the shortest time was the winner.
• Laundry triathlon  – folding clothes, the person who folded a cross section of clothes in the shortest period of time was the winner
• Synchronised hoovering

The event concluded on Sunday with a celebration and special meal in all of the care homes. Winners were also awarded for all the categories above.

The team winning the most categories and thus attaining the most points was awarded Meallmore Champions 2021.

This year the Meallmore Care of the Elderly Olympic Champions are Belleaire House in Greenock and the Meallmore Specialist Care Home Olympic Champions are Daviot Care Home in the Highlands (the Drumboe Unit).

Please find the links below to the Meallmore Olympics 2021 opening and closing ceremony:

Meallmore Olympics 2021 – Opening Ceremony

Meallmore Olympics 2021 – Closing Ceremony 

This is the second year running that Meallmore has run this event within all their homes. On both occasion this has been a huge success for all of the residents and staff.

Huge thanks to Meallmore for sharing this story, looks like a lot of fun!

Residents at a care home in Melrose enjoyed the sunshine with their loved ones with an old fashioned picnic weekend.  

The 1940s and 50s inspired picnic was organised by staff members at  St John’s care home who wanted to go the extra mile to ensure its residents were making the most of the long summer days. 

 Staff members invited residents’ family and friends for an afternoon of food, drinks and live entertainment. 

Alison Grant, 54, Care Home Manager at St John’s, said: 

“The weather has been beautiful so we decided to organise a traditional picnic with gingham table cloths, as well as all the scones and small sandwiches that they would’ve had in those days. 

 “Along with their tasty sandwiches our residents and visitors enjoyed strawberries and cream, champagne, wine and drinks. 

 “Everyone really enjoyed themselves. We even had an entertainer who performed all the old classics from the era, recreating the feeling of that time.”  

Each year Mansfield Care organises a garden party for each of the care homes, but due to lockdown restrictions, invitations could not be distributed as far and wide as usual. 

Despite a number of challenges, staff at St John’s took the initiative to organise the perfect summer picnic for its residents and family members.  

Alison added: “Usually we send out invitations to the Care Inspectorate, social workers and local residents of our community who are often around in the homes, but due to the restrictions it had to be a bit smaller this year, so we decided to have a picnic day instead.  

“We just wanted to do something special this summer for our residents, and their family and friends.” 

Alison joined St John’s as a care manager in April this year, bringing her vision and fresh ideas to the care home, supporting both residents and their family members.  

Audrey Graham, a resident at St John’s, said: “It was just a marvellous day.”  

Operating 11 care homes across Edinburgh Borders and west of Scotland, Mansfield care is designed to provide bespoke care to an exceptional standard with state-of-the-art facilities.  

Specialising in unique small, friendly residential / nursing care homes, staff work under an ethos that is inspired by the kind of care we would wish for ourselves in later life – supportive, friendly, bright, positive, empathetic, respectful and homely.  

The highly trained staff ensure a commitment and continuity of care to each resident with a dedicated home manager and wellbeing coordinator to plan activities according to resident’s wishes.