There’s been a lot of tartan on show across our services to mark this year’s Burns Day.
Regulars at the Alan Shearer Centre’s Live and Learn skills sessions for adults with learning disabilities, created Scottish themed decorations for the day with pictures of pipers and flags – while recreation assistant, Jan Rootham, spurred them on with a few Burns poems, which she read in her best Scots accent.
Meanwhile adults with learning disabilities attending our Parkhead Resource Centre in Ashington, (which, after all, is only a stone’s throw from Scotland) enjoyed Scotch Broth with crusty bread, followed by haggis and rounded off their meal with some traditional shortbread, washed down with Irn Bru.
They also made themselves some Scottish tablet, which is rather like fudge but more crumbly, and had their photos taken wearing Tam o’ Shanters.
The prize for celebrating in style though, must go to the residents of our St Catherine’s nursing home in Newcastle.
After the traditional address to the haggis and the Selkirk Grace, they enjoyed haggis, neeps and tatties followed by shortbread with a wee nip of Scots whisky and rounded it off with a rendition of Auld Lang Syne.