February 2020

Hello February! You are one of my most favorite months! February is the last real wintery month, then comes March which brings us spring. J February is an uplifting month; it brings love to everyday life. Yes, I am a romantic at heart, but I really do love this month and this month’s activities calendar!!

We kick off the month welcoming a new member to the Activities team, Betsy! We will enjoy an ice cream social so everyone can have a chance to meet her! Who doesn’t love ice cream? (See…bringing in the love!)

Who remembers playing concentration with a deck of cards where you had to find the matches? Well we’ve brought that old classic back, Bartlett Woods style. We will be adding a new large cork board to our media room, this will enable us to play this game as well as “Wheel of Fortune” on a large scale for all to see and play! There will be prizes to pick from for the winners too. We are also adding “Volleyball”, again Bartlett Woods style. No need to be jumping around, this game will be played right in your chair. These games should bring some fun to help us pass the time until spring arrives!

Midcoast School of Technology right here in Rockland is a great little vocational school. They have a culinary program that puts on a café from January through April. This is open to the public and the meals are really quite good. Our residents love going, so we will be making a few trips this month as well as the next couple of months.

I am very excited to welcome “Red Cloak Tours” to Bartlett Woods. I’m sure you have seen the advertisements for the “haunted walk” through any one of the little towns here in the Midcoast. Luckily, they also give talks and Sally from Red Cloak Tours will be joining us on February 10th to talk about ‘80+ years of Prohibition in Maine’. This is sure to be a very interesting talk.

We are lucky to have the very talented wildlife photographer, Carla Skinder, join us on February 12th and share her photos of the wildlife, birds and landscapes of the Arctic. Whenever we are able to bring in someone who has traveled to such incredible places, we leave feeling like we have travelled right along with them. It is always very enjoyable.

Pope Memorial Humane Society is bringing in some love for us on Valentine’s Day. They will be here with some of their residents looking for a little love. It’s always nice to have the puppies and kittens here, our residents really enjoy playing with them and just loving on them, I think the animals love it even more.

We will also be enjoying a little Valentine’s Day party for our residents complete with little treats for all.

We have lots of music this month as well, RT 17 Ramblers, Simons & Goodwin, Kathleen Christie and the Extension Chords. It’s going to be a great month of music!

We have been very fortunate to have local churches that are willing to come here and provide a church service for our residents every month.   We have Pastor Seth Jones who provides an interfaith service and Lakeview Presbyterian Church. This month we welcome the First Universalist Church as well. It’s great for our residents to have these services right here at home. Thank you!

As you can see, we have a busy month. Along with all of this going on we still have daily exercise classes, knitting groups, discussion groups, cocktail parties, games, Bible studies, movies, shopping trips, scenic rides, dining out and even the Super Bowl on the big screen! It’s going to be a LOVEly month and we’ve saved a seat for you!

 

Karen Tooley

Activities Director

January 2020

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here we go with a brand new year! We are going to make sure this year is packed with creative fun, intellectual speakers, beautiful trips, delicious meals and some good quality time with our friends.

January is a renewal for all, a fresh start. January is also typically a snowy month, so that limits our travel plans a little, so we bring in some extra fun to be had right here!

Randy Fein is a local clay sculptor who has taught classes here before, however, now she will be a regular on our calendar throughout the year. She will be here twice this month with a clay sculpting class. It’s always fun to get your hands into the clay and see what comes of it. With her guidance and suggestions we are sure to make some beautiful art.

One of our local historians, Renny Stackpole will be back with a talk and slide show all about Nantucket. He is a crowd favorite here; his talks are always filled with great pictures and lots of history.

This month we are excited to welcome Moody’s Diner to Bartlett Woods. Dan from Moody’s will be coming here to share the history of Moody’s Diner and I hear he is bringing some of their famous pies!

We’ve added a new weekly event to our calendar. Every Friday morning we have a resident led Bible Study and prayer group that meets in our library.

We are very excited to welcome retired Maine State Game Warden Roger Guay. He has written a book “A Good Man with a Dog” and will be here on Saturday January 25th @ 2:30 for an author talk.   We welcome everyone to join us for this great event.

I’m always excited when Kevin Johnson from the Penobscot Marine Museum visits us, because you just know it’s going to be a very interesting hour. Kevin is the photo archivist for the museum so he has access to so many historical slides AND he has the history to go along with them. Kevin will be here on Monday, January 20th at 10:30, please come and join us.

This month we also celebrate some unique “holidays” such as National Hat Day on January 15th, National Kazoo Day on January 28th and National Puzzle Day on January 29th. We will be having the first ever Bartlett Woods ‘Puzzle Palooza” on the 29th. Puzzles of every sort will be played on this day, it’s sure to be loads of fun. On January 31st it is “Inspire your heart with art” day…we will have different art stations set up for everyone to feel inspired and create whatever their heart desires.

As always we have our regular shopping trips, exercise classes, discussion groups, games, dining out, scenic rides, cocktail hours, church services and more. There is always something happening here at Bartlett Woods…we’ll save a seat for you.

Karen Tooley, Activities Director