After an informative talk on estate planning, we enjoyed a tasty lunch 😋 Due to a road closure we will not be running the cafe next week but will be back to normal on the 24th. We wish our Greenbank students and staff a very happy half term break after all their hard work ❤️

The Greenbank school students served pea and ham soup followed by apple crumble and custard at the Keep Connected Cafe this week 🫛🍏 We rounded off the morning with a game of ‘Play your cards right’! ♥️♠️♦️♣️

Sadly this week saw our final Happy Mondays session at the Weaver Hall Museum. Thanks to all our enthusiastic service users who worked together so well & to our fantastic volunteers who have supported the group with kindness & gentle guidance 🙏 We spent the session making Valentine & Easter cards ❤️🐣

We had an action packed cafe yesterday including a request for one of Mandi’s jokes, a game of bingo and a collective effort to solve missing clues to complete 101 book titles linked to a jigsaw puzzle 🧩 The comfort food was befitting of the dreary weather and enjoyed by all ☔️

We exercised our brains with some riddles at the cafe today and came up with some very creative answers 💭 Lunch was homemade sausage rolls, wedges and salad followed by Bakewell muffins 🧁

After the snowy weather forced us to cancel our cafe last week, it was lovely to see everyone again today after the Christmas break. We were well fed by the Greenbank students who served sausage, mash and veg followed by sponge pudding and custard 😋

Our last cafe of 2025 was full of festive cheer with a wonderful Christmas lunch accompanied by prosecco and nosecco donated by some of our lovely volunteers 🥂We will be back at the Keep connected cafe on Tuesday 6th January ☕️ Best wishes to all for the festive season🎄

The wonderful children from Whitegate Primary school visited the cafe yesterday to share their excitement about Christmas & some songs from their Nativity play 🎶 It was a special Christmas treat & boosted everyone’s spirits🎄We also enjoyed a festive afternoon tea & a very competitive Xmas quiz 🎅

The festive preparations continued at the cafe this week where we made beautiful table decorations using a variety of greenery, berries and fruit 🍃🌿🍊With a little tlc, these centrepieces will remain fresh until and beyond Christmas Day 🕯️

Last week at the Keep Connected Cafe we had a visit from Citizen’s Advice to discuss a range of ways we could be winter ready ☃️ Our service users found the advice really useful and also enjoyed a delicious lunch, perfect for warming us all up on a chilly day ❄️

Who can believe we’re into December and Christmas is on its way🎅 Happy Mondays have made twig and wool Christmas decorations today along with cards for their nearest and dearest🎄

Thanks to a generous donation of lots of card making and crafting materials, we had a fun morning at the cafe die cutting, arranging, peeling and sticking to create a variety of unique Christmas cards for loved ones 🌲

The students from Greenbank served a lovely lunch at the cafe today - fish, chips, mushy peas, bread & butter followed by sponge & custard 😋 Card games & birthday chocs completed the session ♠️♥️♣️♦️We missed a few of our regulars who were feeling under the weather so we wish them a speedy recovery ❤️‍🩹

We wanted to thank Emma for her work on a wonderful intervention project while on OT placement with us. She encouraged each cafe service user to create their own page for a scrapbook, capturing memories and special times 📷 We will continue to share and add to this special memento in the future ❤️🎞️📔

To mark Bonfire Night we’ve been getting creative at Happy Mondays & the cafe, producing firework art & decorating biscuits💥We also said farewell to our OT students who have done some wonderful work with our service users & we wish them well for the rest of their training & their future careers 👏

Thanks to Sian from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service who visited the cafe today and shared some really useful advice on keeping safe and well at home 🏠 Several of our members also signed up for a home safety check in the near future🧯🚒

Our Happy Mondays group have been preparing for Halloween 🎃 Last week they made a broomstick and a black cat and have now added those to flower and berry arrangements 🐈‍⬛🧹Together they look very autumnal and a little bit spooky 👻 Well done everyone 👏

Another productive week at the cafe as we got to work on individual pages for our group scrap book, led by OT student Emma. This precious memento will include photos and other material representing each group member ❤️ In and amongst, a tasty afternoon tea was served by the Greenbank students 🥪🧁

There was so much to chat about at the cafe today prompted by a fabulous selection of historical material including magazines, books, craftwork, toys & sweets🪀🧵📚 🍬The reminiscence session was run by one of our OT students and will be developed further next week 😊

Our cafe goers enjoyed a pre-lunch workout from one of our OT students who ran a chair based exercise session with a Strictly Come Dancing theme 💃🪩🕺🩰 Butternut squash soup, warm crusty rolls, chocolate sponge and custard followed 😋

Our Happy Mondays group have made a fabulous flock of birds this week 🦅🦜🐦

Today at the cafe our placement students ran a really useful discussion session with our service users, finding out in which areas they might benefit from extra support and clarifying the role of an occupational therapist 📝

We had a busy morning at the cafe creating peacock feather paintings with watercolours 🦚 Our Occupational Therapy placement students also introduced themselves to the service users and discussed their possible plans for the coming weeks 😊

Happy Mondays have created some dramatic ‘shattered glass’ pictures on canvas and then used the canvas design to print on paper 👏 All with a blue green theme but all unique 🎨
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ℹ️ Cheshire and Warrington Carers Trust is holding an event for International Older People's Day, taking place at Northwich Memorial Court from 1pm to 3pm on Wednesday 1 October ⬇️

These fabulous stick people were created by our Happy Mondays group this week 😍 Some look as though they’re ready for a football match while others may be on their way to or from a party 😃 ⚽️ 🥳

Today our Keep Connected group met for lunch at The Coachman Hartford as an end of summer treat. We had the lovely conservatory area to ourselves and the food was delicious 😋
Next week we’re taking a break before returning to The Mews in Whitegate on 9th September.

The cafe was full of emotional surprises this week with a visit from one of our wonderful volunteers who we’ve missed so much while he’s been recovering from surgery and a presentation of gorgeous gifts from service users to thank Mandi (Ken accepted on her behalf) and Nicki for their hard work ❤️

Butterflies and woodland scenes created with painted leaves at Happy Mondays this week 🦋🌲

We are extremely grateful to Hope Farm Methodist Church in Ellesmere Port who have presented us with a generous donation having chosen us as the charity they wished to support this year 🙏 Donations are always appreciated and enable us to maintain and enhance the services we offer for older people.