Residents busy creating beautiful bug hotels at The Manor House care home

Residents at The Manor House care home in North Walsham have been busy creating bug hotels which have proved popular among their relatives and visitors.

So popular in fact that they have opened up an order book and will be making the hotels, and other craft items, to sell at a fair at the Norfolk home later this year.

Residents Beryl Sadler and Michael Giblin love to be outside and The Manor House provides plenty of opportunity for outdoor activities being set in 18 acres of gardens and woodland.

Home Manager Paula Pawsey said, “It was Michael who first saw something online about building bug hotels and after talking with Beryl and Zoe, our gardener, they agreed to try and build one.

“The project has grown from there and with the help our maintenance man, John, the first bug hotel was made. It looks great and is entirely made from things found in our grounds and a few extras – we have had so many requests for more that we have decided to make them a real feature at our craft show later in the year.”

Paula added that many of the residents at The Manor House love to spend time in the grounds and Beryl and Michael both share a love for the outdoors.

“Beryl loves to help Zoe all through the year. She helps water the flowers, prune the bushes, and attend to the vegetable patch. Beryl loves the sun as well so sits in our courtyard a lot. When Michael came to the home earlier this year, she formed a love of being outside with him.

“Michael is on 24/7 oxygen, and it helps him to sit outside in the fresh county air,” added Paula.

Creating a bug hotel provides hidey-holes for creatures galore and having a bug hotel in your garden can provide a safe hideaway for wildlife and help make use of garden waste. A well-built hotel can shelter anything from hedgehogs to toads, solitary bees to bumblebees, and ladybirds to woodlice.

Benefits of bug hotels (according to the RSPB) include –

• Increasing the natural balance of insects in the garden
• Attracting beneficial insects that help pollinate plants and control pests
• Providing a safe and sheltered habitat for insects that are losing their natural habitats
• Teaching people about insects and their role in the environment
• Being decorative, low cost, biodegradable, and using recycled materials

The Manor House is an elegant residential care home set in beautiful grounds and surrounded by North Walsham Wood. It provides a real home-from-home atmosphere for residents and is part of the Healthcare Homes family of 48 homes and 11 homecare branches.

Healthcare Homes has been named as one of the Top 20 care home providers in the UK by independent review website carehome.co.uk The Top 20 features the companies who are the most highly rated by the people receiving care, their friends and families. The Manor House has a carehome.co.uk score of 9.6 out of 10 and is rated Good by the Care Quality Commission.

Pip Rich