Glastonbury Newsletter

Winter 2016/17

Inside this issue:

Manager update Pumpkins Christmas celebrations Local news

Manager Update.…

Welcome to our winter newsletter! Hope that everyone had a nice Christmas and a wonderful new year with new resolutions. As you may or may not be aware Merin has now left Glastonbury. Her last day was on Thursday 9th February and we are currently in the process of recruiting a new Manager to replace her. Together with Stuart Wright, independent Dementia Care Consultant, we are working towards achieving a Dementia Care Standard by looking at the ‘lived experience’ and the quality of clinical care. We are introducing a new care plan and it is currently rolling out across the home as part of our revised care standard.

We have also been carrying out a successful recruitment drive! Our new faces in care are:  Maxine Hares  Alison Thorne  Mathew Austin  Tanya Kenneth  Janelle Banks

We extend a warm welcome to them all and hope that they are very happy working with us. We have sadly lost Janet Moorland, June Robinson, Nancy Holland, Muriel Stringer and Kathleen Brown from Tadham House and Cyril Brailey, Kenneth Biddlecombe, Eileen White, Ivy Byrne and Josephine Delves from Sharpham House. We have also lost Alfred Andrews from Tealham House and Gordon Bennett from Westhay House. Our hearty condolence to their friends and family members.

As always, please feel free to come and speak to any of us when you need some help. We maintain our open door policy at all times and are keen to see the home moving forward to be the best in the area.

Best wishes, the Glastonbury Team

THE BIGGEST PUMPKIN EVER…?

I am sure that many of you saw the ginormous pumpkin in Reception during October! It was grown by Hen Coles who kindly donated it to our Care Home. So, we decided to have a “guess the weight of the pumpkin” competition with a bottle of wine for the winner. After weighing the pumpkin, the weight was written down and stored in a sealed envelope in the safe!

Several people entered the competition, but it was Janet Overd who had the winning guess of 29kilos - the pumpkin’s actual weight was 28.3 kilos!

Great guess Janet, hope you enjoyed the wine!

So what to do with it next…..

Carly, one of our hairdressers was holding a Children’s Fancy Dress Halloween party in Meare in aid of the Motor Neurone Association. She took the pumpkin, carved a huge lantern to put outside the hall which went on to raise a huge £477 for Motor Neurone Association.

The impressive carved pumpkin!

Even scarier when lit at night!

Glastonbury Christmas Variety Show

On Christmas Eve some of our staff and residents put on a variety performance for the rest of the residents.

There were the “Tadham Tinsel Twirlers” line dancing and Muriel (Pam Standing in) and Enid did a poetry recital of “Up-hill” by Christina Rosetti.

Next to take to the microphone was Hannah who recited “A Visit from St.

Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore. Muriel (Rachel Standing in) and Enid also known as Georgie & Liza performed a “Hole in my Bucket!” Muriel and Fred then did a very funny Park Bench Sketch inspired by the two Ronnie’s and written by our very own Fred.

Unfortunately Muriel was suffering from Laryngitis so Pam and Rachel volunteered to step-in and cover some of her various roles. Hope you are feeling much better now Muriel.

Elisabeth recited her own poem entitled “The Christmas Tree”, telling the story behind the huge Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square which is donated to Britain by Norway every year. The entire cast and audience sang Rudolf the Red Nose

Reindeer and then Pam recited a poem she had composed herself entitled “Christmas Day”.

As a grand finale, the Tadham Tinsel Twirlers performed again! Much fun was had by all the residents, staff and families alike. Tea and cakes followed and all in all it was an amazing performance, well worth the weeks of secret rehearsals.

Well done everyone!

Some pictures of our Christmas festivities!

More Christmas festivities!

th On Thursday 8 December, the Avalonian Free State Choir came to sing festive songs from round the world. They sing without accompaniment, and are a bit alternative….but fantastic!

On Monday 12th December, St. Dunston’s School choir came to sing Christmas songs and got us all in the Christmas spirit with their Santa hats! Mary’s granddaughter was in the audience as was Mary,

and her great granddaughter was singing!

On Tuesday 13th December, St.

John’s School came in to perform their musical nativity play. The highlights were the donkey in dark glasses and the camel!

“Wassail”

The wassailing, or blessing of the fruit trees, is an ancient custom still practiced in Somerset and involves drinking and singing to the health of the trees in the hope that they will provide a bountiful harvest in the autumn. The celebrations vary from region to region, but generally involve a wassail King and Queen (in our case Enid from Tadham and Ruby) and downstairs (Geoff and Cynthia from Sharpham) leading the assembled group of revellers or “the residents” in a noisy procession from one orchard to the next. In each orchard the wassailers would gather round the biggest and best tree and say a blessing:

Here’s to thee, old apple-tree, Whence thou may’st bud, and whence thou may’st blow, And whence thou may’st bear apples enow Hats full! Caps full! Bushel-bushel-sacks full, And my pockets full, too, huzza!

Then as a gift to the tree spirits, the Queen (Ruby and Cynthia) places a piece of wassail soaked toast into its branches, accompanied by a second blessing:

Stand fast, root! Bear well, top! Pray God send us a good howling crop Every twig, apples big; Every bough apples enow!

The wassailers would then move on to the next orchard; singing, shouting, banging pots and pans, and even firing shotguns, generally making as much noise as possible in order to both waken the sleeping tree spirits, and also to frighten off any evil demons that may be lurking in the branches. Traditionally there would also be a bonfire, as you would watch the fire you would think of the things you like to do this year, and look forward to the clean slate that the New Year provides.

Eight interesting facts about winter

It’s the time of year when the earth's axis is most tilted away from the sun. This gives us the coldest season of the year, when the UK weather becomes characterised by unsettled and windy weather.

Winter is a fascinating time of year and we've got eight interesting facts to share with you about the season.

1. Winter is coming - there are two different dates when winter could be said to begin, depending on whether we are referring to the meteorological or astronomical winter. Winter defined by the Earth's orbit around the sun, begins on the Equinox and Solstice which falls on either the 21st or 22nd December. However, when recording and comparing climate data, it is important to have set dates that can be compared and so for this reason a fixed date of the 1 December is used to mark the start of the meteorological winter.

2. Earth is closest to the sun in winter. You might be surprised to know that in the northern hemisphere the earth is closest to the sun during winter. On 2nd January 2017 the Earth reached perihelion (peri meaning 'near' and helion meaning 'sun'). The earth was 3.1 million miles closer to the sun than at aphelion (around July 5 when the earth is furthest from the sun). The earth's distance from the sun is not what causes the seasons (it is the Equinox and Solstice), but it does affect the length of them. Around perihelion the earth is moving around 1 kilometre/second faster than at aphelion, resulting in winter being 5 days shorter than summer.

3. The coldest temperature ever recorded during a UK winter was -27.2°C which was recorded in the village of Braemar in the Scottish Highlands. The same temperature has been recorded twice, first on 11th February 1895 and again on 10th January 1982.

4. The winter of 1963 is one of the coldest on record since 1740. Temperatures consistently reached lower than -20°C with blizzards, snow drifts and even the sea freezing around the coast. The severe cold began just before Christmas in 1962 as a high pressure system sat to the north east of the UK for much of the winter dragging cold polar winds over the UK. On 29th and 30th December, a blizzard struck the UK with snowdrifts up to 6 metres deep. Snow continued to fall frequently and until early March 1963, much of the UK remained covered in snow.

5. The roots of winter - the word ‘winter’ comes from the Germanic wintar which in-turn is derived from the root wed meaning 'wet' or water' and so signifying a wet season. In Anglo-Saxon cultures, years were counted by the winters, so a person calf could be said to be '2 winters old'. The first day of winter was also of symbolic importance named Vetrardag and falling comparatively early in the year between 10th and 16th October.

6. Wet snow vs. dry snow - Ever wondered why sometimes snow sticks together and sometimes is powdery and loose? The reason for this lies in the snowflakes journey as it falls through the atmosphere. Snowflakes that fall through a dry, cool atmosphere will be small and powdery and won't stick together. We call this dry snow – it’s ideal for snowflakes, but not for building a snowman. The snowflakes that form wet snow will have fallen through temperatures slightly warmer than 0°C. As they fall, the snowflakes melt slightly around the edges and stick together to form large, heavy flakes. This sticks together easily and is the best for a snowball fight and making snow men.

7. Reindeer vision - Some Reindeer living above the Arctic Circle live in complete darkness for several weeks of the year. To adapt to this, a small area of tissue behind the retina called the tapetum lucidum changes colour from a gold colour in the summer months to blue in the winter. This allows the reindeer’s eye's to detect ultraviolet light and to see in the dark.

8. How much water is there in snow? The exact amount of water contained in snow can vary quite significantly depending on how the snow formed, but as a general average, every 12 cm of snow would provide 1cm of water.

Local News!

After all the banks closed in

Glastonbury nationwide has announced it will be opening a bank in the spring. Care Assistants (7)

Hours: Full Time (days & nights)

Based/Covering: Glastonbury Salary: £7.27 - £9.37 Recycling and bin collection will Contact: move to every three weeks in late Maria Hole 2017 01458 836 800 [email protected]

Registered Nurse (2)

Hours: Full Time (days & nights) Upcoming events at Based/Covering: Glastonbury Care Home Glastonbury Salary:  25th February - ‘Ghost’ at £13.32 – 18.83 strode theatre Contact:  7th March - Milfield Prep Maria Hole school visiting th 01458 836 800  11 March - ‘Oliver’ strode [email protected] theatre th  29 March - Dance show at Milfield  March (date TBC) – St. Johns reading group to visit