Our stories

Peace of mind

Moving into a care home made easy

Our care team are here to make sure that making the move is as easy as possible for you and your loved one. If you still need reassurance, here are some stories from our residents, their families and our care team.

Many of the people who live at Abingdon Court are green fingered and have very fond memories of tending to their gardens and allotments back at their homes. With the weather looking less bleak we decided it was time to put on our garden gloves, grab our trowels, and get planting!

Horticultural Heaven!

The people who live at Abingdon Court all have different physical abilities but we always find common ground through exercise. From the choice of music, to the simplicity of the moves, to how we deliver the classes - we really want to make sure our exercise sessions provide satisfaction for all.

Armchair Aerobics

Work has begun on the herb and vegetable patch for Princess Lodge. It's still early days but there is plenty of potting and planting happening. Tomatoes, courgettes, and cucumber are the first selection of vegetables to be planted with more to come.

Spring Planting

This week we had a go at making muffins! To make it a little easier we used these 'ready to go' mixes in a bottle and just added the butter, egg and milk. Our lovely chef then baked them for us. Unfortunately the end results didn't last long enough to get pictures of...

The residents enjoyed their Easter eggs and all their table decorations, over the weekend they had entertainment on the TV from our lovely singer Kerry.

Easter Celebrations

Residents and staff are ready for tomorrow's Grand National. They've picked their horses and are eager to discover who will be the winner of the last remaining Easter Egg. And they're off...

We had a big Easter Egg hunt around the garden, it was a beautiful day and it held out which we were thrilled about. All the eggs were found and enjoyed in the sun, it was a successful hunt.

The smiles we saw this day were amazing to see and the joy really did spread throughout the house which made it a lovely environment to be in.

Easter Egg Hunt

Staff dressed up to bring some joy and games to the house, this really did boost morale. Lots of laughs all round.

A fun game of football broke out in the garden which residents would join in keeping them active. We had lots of fun.

Football In The Garden

Easter celebrations with an Easter bonnet competition, residents enjoyed making the Easter hats. They decorated the table and all residents enjoyed their Easter eggs.

Easter Celebrations

Gardening day at Clarendon, today we have planted sunflower seeds in pots, we will then plant them in the garden when they have taken. A very productive day.

Sunflower Planting

Music and games in the garden. It was a beautiful day, the sun shining bright and a very enjoyable game of card bingo! Kate, Terry and Mary laughed the whole afternoon. Harry in the meantime had a little visitor come to see him whilst he was reading his daily newspaper. This made us all smile.

A Day In The Garden

Good hand eye coordination is a skill not everyone is blessed with, but at Parkview there are plenty of people who do. Very impressive ladies.

Hand Eye Coordination

Over the last year, our local Morrisons supermarket has been extremely supportive of Parkview House. This was a chance for us to give a little love back in the form of an Easter basket for the staff. Andre Hebron - Morrisons Community Champion received the basket on behalf of his colleagues.

Thank You To Morrisons

Easter at Kents Hill Care Home was celebrated by a visit from the Easter Bunny and of course chocolate for all!

Easter bunny visits Kents Hill

We had a lovely afternoon in Granby this week playing a variety of board games!

It encourages socialisation between staff and residents, as well as between residents who may not know each other very well.

This week we finished off our personality tree that is now being displayed in the memory Cafe in Rutland! Residents and staff worked together to create this bright and colourful display!

Personality Tree

Bowerfield House enjoyed a lovely coffee morning supporting Dementia UK time for a Cuppa fundraiser. We enjoyed eating yummy cakes and raised £6.53. A great day supporting something close to our hearts, well done to everyone at Bowerfield House.

Bowerfield House Fundraising

Our residents spent time making their own Easter Bonnets. It was great to see so much creativity and everyone smiling and enjoying themselves.

We had a great time making vintage cookies and choosing our toppings this morning, here at The Hawthorns. We also had a look at our Mary Berry cookbooks and some of her great creations. This afternoon we ate our cookies with everyone satisfied with their efforts.

Vintage Cookies

We have great plans for our garden this spring at The Moors! The residents had great fun creating this dream board of what we would like in our garden and then getting stuck in! We've been clearing and re-potting, planting and weeding.

The Moors Garden

The Moors was overrun by Leprechauns this St Patrick's Day! The residents had great fun dressing up and Leprechaun hunting in the garden - as well as having a laugh at our staff members all dressed up and doing special St Patrick's Day word searches and crosswords.

St Patrick's Day at The Moors

With some many incredible mums here at The Moors, Mothers Day was filled with fun, laughter and lots of presents of course! The kitchen made a beautiful mothers day lunch and the staff made sure that all the ladies, be they mothers, aunties or mother figures all had a fantastic day.

Mother's Day at The Moors

The residents enjoyed making Easter Bonnets to celebrate this special time of the year.

The residents and the staff at The Westbourne had a lot of fun on Easter Sunday. They enjoyed a visit from 4 lively chickens! Everyone sang along hymns, Amazing Grace being a favourite, they listened to a Bible reading and joined in saying the Lords prayer.

Easter Sunday Activities

Here at Hope Green we had an amazing day full of events to take part in, including a bonnet competition, an Easter Egg hunt, and buffet lunch. It was great to see staff members dressed up and enjoying lots of fun and laughter in the garden on such a sunny spring day.

Who doesn't enjoy a good foot spa and as it was National Foot Spa Day we set back and let the spa commence, we had a nice foot rub from the activity girls, what a lovely relaxing morning for us.

National Foot Spa Day

Hope Green has pen pals! A local prep school sent in a lovely letter to our residents along with Easter cards and paintings which they made for us. It was wonderful to see so many smiles! We will definitely be writing back to them. We have so much to tell them about ourselves.

Marianne showed residents how to decoupage terracotta pots, using paper napkins. It was a delicate operation to separate the layers of napkins, then stick to the pots with PVA glue, finished off with a varnish.

Decoupage Terracotta Pots

We are getting ready for St Georges Day by making placemats for the tables, decorations and bunting are next on our agenda and we're discussing what menu to have on the day, so far fish and chips have been the favourite.

St George's Day Preparations and Joyce's 80th Birthday

David, Hospitality Manager, at Ashmead Care Centre, was given a most wonderful surprise by residents and staff alike on his birthday recently. All sang happy birthday whilst the Head Chef and his team presented a spectacular homemade cake to highlight the surprise.

Staff Birthday!

On a weekly basis some off our residents enjoy making cake cookies and getting creative with cake decoration. This week we decided to make a chocolate chip cookie for our afternoon tea.

Happy Easter from Highfield!

Easter Celebrations!

All residents and staff thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the chicks who have now headed back to their farm in Yorkshire. The chicks definitely enjoyed their time here with us too! Happy Easter to everyone from all at Bowerfield Court.

A long awaited opportunity to bask in the sunshine, on a warm March afternoon, as the ladies enjoyed listening to the birds, talking about the flowers, and getting well needed vitamin D. June relayed enchanting stories about her holidays to Wales, whilst we all listened enraptured.

Warm March Afternoon

We had an amazing Easter filled with fun games, chocolates, Simnel cake and hot cross buns.

The residents enjoyed baking Chocolate Easter Eggs. Also, they tested their good sight in the garden during Easter Egg Hunting.

Easter Egg Hunt

We celebrated the birthday of one of our residents. The members of staff came into her room and sang together Happy Birthday to her with a cake that the kitchen staff baked specially for her. She read birthday cards and reminisced with us about her family and friends.

A Residents Birthday

The residents enjoyed making Easter Eggs and flower arranging that were displayed all around the home to celebrate this special time of the year.

We have been exploring some disposable cameras today. The residents have taken it in turns to turn the cog, aim the camera in the direction they choose and press the button to take the shot.

Today the residents used their problem solving skills by completing word wheels. They searched for as many words as they could find in a 9 letter grid and wrote down or communicated their answers.

Do you like our colourful photobooth frame which we have made during our arts and crafts morning? We had fun taking selfies with one another which we shared with some of our relatives.

Kicking off Easter weekend we here at Manorhey have enjoyed our homemade Hot Cross buns toasted with butter.

Much Easter love and thanks to Walthamstow Stadium Area Residents/Community Association for all these wonderful Easter eggs, a gift for each resident. Such a kind and heartfelt gesture.

Easter Donations

We have received lovely Easter handmade cards from Hall Croft Infants and St Swithun’s Primary School. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved. Our residents thought they were lovely and said how kind of you all to take the time to make them.

Easter Decorations

We had a donation of Easter eggs, donuts, hot cross buns and handmade Easter cards from St Swithun's and Hall Croft Infant School. We are very appreciative for the lovely gift and the time and effort made by Morrisons.

In preparation for Easter, we spent an afternoon making Easter bonnets. Everyone chose what they wanted on their hats and created beautiful Easter bonnet, which they can wear on Easter Sunday.

Easter Preparations!

Today we enjoyed the glorious weather, the sun was shining and so it was a great excuse to bring out our ice cream van. The residents enjoyed the ice cream van with traditional ice cream van music. We all enjoyed different flavoured ice cream including the 99.

Rodger the Rabbit and his friends paid Ashmead Care Centre a visit during the Easter Weekend. In addition to creating joy and laughter, they also treated the residents to gifts of Spring flowers and individual Easter Eggs.

Easter Celebrations!