Love is in the care

Posted on 16 February 2023 by Nicky Macfarlane

The origins of Valentine’s Day

As with many traditions, there are several theories about the origin of Valentine’s Day. One version claims that Saint Valentine restored the sight of his jailer’s blind daughter and gave her a letter signed ‘Your Valentine’.

Care with hope and love

The team at the Huntington & Langham Estate may not be able to restore people’s eyesight, but they regularly give similar gifts of independence, hope and love to people who need support in various aspects of their lives.

Giving people the freedom of feeling independent is a key part of the Butterfly approach to caring for people living with dementia in Langham Court where care works both ways. Care is not something that should be done to people, but rather an act of kindness that gives everyone a sense of purpose.

Crafting cards and arranging flowers to give as gifts is more than just a fun activity for Valentine’s Day, but an act of kindness that enables people living at Langham Court to care for others even when they need care themselves.

From Care Home Resident to Managing Director

Posted on 18 January 2023 by Nicky Macfarlane

Growing up on The Huntington and Langham Estate, where his mother Marylin created our two specialist care homes in Surrey, gave Charlie a unique upbringing. Charlie now runs the family business and describes how his special upbringing has shaped his career.

As MD of Huntington House which offers Residential Nursing Care and Langham Court a Specialist Dementia Care Home, Charlie shares his journey from being a young care home resident to Managing Director and why he is so passionate about the holistic care they offer residents of both homes.

Located in Hindhead these family focused care homes are accredited Dragonfly and Butterfly homes and rated Good by the Quality Care Commission.

A Musical Christmas

Posted on 23 December 2022 by Nicky Macfarlane

We have had a wonderful build up to the festive season with our resident musicians coming into Huntington House to entertain all our residents.

Tracey gave a great rendition of Rudolph the red nose reindeer which can been seen via this link – Christmas Music At Huntington House

Whilst Kevin took to the Piano in the restaurant and surrounded by all the wonderful decorations played Have a Merry Little Christmas, also available to watch here – Christmas Music At Huntington House2

Yuri our tenor completed the afternoon with festive carols, delighting the residents.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Posted on 25 November 2022 by Nicky Macfarlane

Preparations are underway for decorating the homes ready for Christmas. With a number of visits to the local garden centre’s and potteries this month.

Bill and Alex went on a recce trip to scout out the lights and tinsel options, as well as a little gift shopping.

Mrs Lumley, Miss Wilmott, Veronica and Alex then took a trip to Grayshott Pottery to stock up with more new decorations and of course made time for some tea and cake!

A visit to the Forest Lodge Garden Centre by Elizabeth, June, Veronica and Alex, means we now have a bumper selection of ideas and decorations ready to get the homes into the festive spirit.

Watch this space for pictures of how our wonderful homemakers transform the homes into the festive spirit.

Children in Need 2022

Posted on 25 November 2022 by Nicky Macfarlane

For BBC Children in Need this year, the team at Langham Court had a fabulous day in fancy dress costumes of their favourite characters, with delicious biscuits baked by our lovely homemaker Niki.

Everyone made a huge effort and we were all amazed at the transformation into character, with the lovely Natasha and Amanda as Alice in Wonderland characters, Elaine as a buzzy Bee, Paula as Mary Poppins and Bente as a Nun.

Wendy brightened the day as a cheery Pineapple, whilst Abbey was showing off her flexibility in her Spiderman suite – all great fun!

From the lovely Natasha and Amanda as Alice in Wonderland characters, Elaine as a buzzy Bee, Paula as Mary Poppins. When Charlie arrived on The Firebolt, from wizarding world the resemblance to harry potter was uncanny!

Raising money for Children in Need was just the icing on the biscuit for the team who entertained the residents throughout the day.

Remembrance Sunday

Posted on 13 November 2022 by Nicky Macfarlane

Lest we forget

At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month – we remembered them.

In preparation for remembrance Maggie created a beautiful poppy field on the lawn in front of Huntington House, with more poppies added each day in the run up to Sundays service.

The residents decorated the window in the main lounge looking out onto the grounds with their stunning autumnal colours. The staff created some beautiful knitted poppies from the red Huntington House wool, which were on display at reception to welcome visitors, with new smart plaques on the front door too.

Walk like an Egyptian!

Posted on 14 October 2022 by Nicky Macfarlane

A big thank you to Haslemere Educational Museum for visiting us again at Huntington House. This time we had a fascinating session all about mummies and Egyptian artefacts.

It’s always a wonderful day when we have a visit from the museum as the residents have so much to talk about afterwards, especially reminiscing about travelling to Egypt and discovering the Pyramids and wonderful history in person.

The legacy of the Blue Cedar at Huntington House

Posted on 12 October 2022 by Nicky Macfarlane

As the air turns crisp and autumn afternoon sun casts a warming glow across the estate, our team are turning their attention to getting ready for winter, preparing the gardens and grounds of The Huntington & Langham Estate.

Each year we take this opportunity to survey the trees which overlook Langham Court and Huntington House as well as along the woodland walkways, enjoyed by many of our care home residents.

We generally anticipate a number of the trees to require some remedial surgery or indeed felling completely. However, this year we were particularly concerned about the large blue cedar that has dominated the view from Huntington House since it was built in 1898. During Storm Eunice it lost a large bough and has been dropping its needles ever since. Sadly, our concerns were confirmed by the tree inspector, who has reluctantly recommended for it to be felled.

After being such a dominant feature of the estate for so many years, we were keen to continue its legacy and are delighted that, it has produced cones. We plan to harvest these before it is cut down and some of our green-fingered residents of Huntington House have kindly volunteered to germinate the seeds from the cones in an attempt to replace the once magnificent tree with its own offspring, so that its legacy can live on.

We will be posting about our attempts on our Facebook page for anyone interested in following our progress and look forward to planting our new saplings in the coming months.

A day trip to RHS Garden Wisley

Posted on 7 October 2022 by Nicky Macfarlane

One of the benefits of our base in Hindhead is the easy access to some wonderful places for day visits. RHS Garden Wisley is a firm favourite for residents Christine, Jennifer and Elizabeth, who enjoyed an early September trip accompanied by our Homemakers and Rich.

We were delighted to see despite the hot dry summer that the mixed borders were as stunning as ever and following the recommended wheelchair route made our way around the grounds to the restaurant for a well deserved cup of tea and cake!

Reminiscing with Haslemere Museum

Posted on 7 October 2022 by Nicky Macfarlane

The residents had a wonderful morning learning and reminiscing about old household items brought along by Haslemere Museum.

Founded in 1888 by Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, the aim of the museum was to encourage learning through the handling of objects. To this day that ethos remains and we are fortunate to have the team bring along artefacts for the residents to explore on a regular basis.

These reminiscence sessions are always thoroughly enjoyed by the residents of both Langham Court and Huntington House, sharing their knowledge and memories of the items being passed around.