The last 2 months of 2023 were very busy for our group. We had our usual Music for the Mind sessions on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month and as there were 5 Thursdays in November we ran an extra session on the 30th November and played boccia instead of singing.
November day trip to Cadbury’s Garden Centre
We had one of our daytrips on 16th November when we took just over 20 of our friends and volunteers to Cadbury’s Garden Centre. We had a good time there last year and this year’s visit was just as successful. The staff at Cadbury’s gave us a quiet area where we could all sit and they served us cake and a drink when we arrived and then lunch. There was time to see all the Christmas decorations including the singing reindeer before returning home. Thanks once again to Keynsham Dial-a-Ride for providing the minibus.
Christmas Music for the Mind session
We only had one Music for the Mind session in December on the 14th. This was a special Christmas session with some singing but we also gave our friends and volunteers the opportunity to show off their talents. We had a fantastic Christmas cake that was baked for us by the chef at the Meryton Place care home and this was cut up and shared between the 60-70 attendees. The acts included Julie and Christine doing a song and dance routine to Mary Poppin’s Supercalifragilisticexpailidocious, Brian read a couple of his poems, Rick played his clarinet, Peter sang Mary’s Boy Child with everyone joining in the chorus, Judith treated us to a couple of her jokes, and Mike Greenside gave us an exhibition of his earlier rock and roll days by dancing to Rock around the Clock accompanied by Kelly. The final act showed us the true versatility of some of our volunteers. Liz, June, Mike, Trish and Christine did a 5 minute budget performance of Cinderella which nearly brought the house down. Yours truly played the part of the Christmas fairy and I got some admiring looks from some of the men in the audience. All the acts were well received and I’m sure we’ll do another Keynsham Talent Contest in the future. Tony Hall, who runs the Bristol DAA, came along to the meeting as a guest and handed over a Recognition Award to Merrial and Mike for the work that they do with the K&SDAA which we do with the help of all our wonderful volunteers. Well done everyone.
Keynsham Christmas Tree Festival
St John’s Church in Keynsham held their usual Christmas Tree Festival over the Dec 8th to 10th weekend. There were 50 local entries and our dementia group dressed up a tree as part of the festival. Several of our friends went to see all the trees over the weekend including residents from the nearby St Phillips and St James care home.
Making Keynsham and Saltford dementia friendly 