13 April, 2026
It’s that time of year when everything starts to feel a little bit lighter, a touch warmer, and there’s a sense of new possibilities in the air.
Tessa Dunkley at Holder House sent in some wonderful pictures of a couple of spring-related activities held recently (see pics right and below).
The first was drawing a face on a pot showing present feelings or emotion and planting cress seeds so that within a week their pot will show character
Activity 2 was writing wishes or positive things on a label of an unopened daffodil head. These are all in a vase in the dining room and will no doubt have bloomed by now.
David Mitchell – Re Create
Thanks to Tessa Dunkley for sending these pictures of a horticulture project being run at Holder House – local residents and businesses donate plants that are dying, damaged or unwell, they go into Holder House’s ‘plant rehab’ and 90% of the time they blossom and thrive until they are strong enough to move onto a permanent place in the garden. Residents find this rewarding and therapeutic and understand that with care attention and time they are also able to heal and feel positive about the future.
Staff at Holder House have put their goofy childhood pics into our own version of ‘Guess Who?’ and residents are having a blast trying to work out who these pictures are now!
From the monthly creative writing competitions at Holder House – some wonderful writing here, click on each image to read it in full!
“During our recent community meeting at Holder House we created individual vision boards. We discussed how the saying ‘ seeing is believing ‘ makes sense because with daily reminders and prompts that are there as soon as we awake, it triggers thoughts of things we want to aim for and achieve without us even realizing. This can only be a positive thing as life events can often get in the way of the visions we have for ourselves.
“The types of visions we had for ourselves were: learning to drive, addressing negative habits, exercising more, meeting someone special, organising paperwork, taking a course, finding a job, rebuilding family relationships, organising finances.
“It also helped the residents to realise that they are all individuals with completely different vision boards but also do have a lot of wishes in common. ” Tessa Dunkley, Holder House.