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.

We have started a new Daily Exercise Class at The Hawthorns. The residents did an amazing job following the exercises using their arms and legs. They paused when they needed to and encouraged each other throughout. A massive round of applause was given by everyone after!

Daily Exercise Class

Love is sharing the simple things in life, helping one another with the smallest of tasks can often be the greatest of gestures. Cecil and Myra shared a lovely valentines day lunch. I loved listening to them reminisce about their roller skating days together.

Valentine's Day Lunch and Memories

Mollie planted some cress earlier in the month and left some little pots growing on the window sills, she was pleasantly surprised to see just how much it had grown in such a short space of time.

It was National Carrot Cake Day earlier this month and Doreen and I attempted our own home baked carrot cake. We had a look at a few recipes and finally settled with Paul Hollywood's carrot cake.

National Carrot Cake Day

At Hope Green some of our male residents requested we formed a Mens Group where men could meet to chat about topics they were interested in and look at choosing some games that they would enjoy playing together.

Mens Group at Hope Green

We had a lovely morning making apple and cinnamon scones. Joan mixed all the ingredients together whilst Jane made the oat crunch to go on top. Once everything was ready we sent them to our kitchen to bake. We enjoyed this with a lovely cup of tea for our afternoon tea.

Apple and Cinnamon Scones

For National Umbrella Day the residents had fun designing their own umbrellas in wonderful bright colours and patterns, very appropriate for the showers we were getting between the beautiful sunshine. They loved seeing their designs come to life as they folded together and a handle added.

National Umbrella Day

All the staff and residents came up for a birthday surprise for our very own Home Manager, Delma Dela Cruz. We made beautiful paper flowers that show her name and decorated the room with lots of balloons. We kept this as a secret to her and surprised her on her very special day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DELMA!

Bowerfield House had a fur friend called Nigel visit. Our lovely Admin was kind enough to bring in her dog to visit us here at Bowerfield House. All the residents loved Nigel and we had lots of smiles and laughter, it brightened our day.

Fur Friend in Bowerfield House

At River View we did things in duplicate today as its certainly a day to remember - 22.2.22 and its Twosday!

2 colleagues, 2 napkins, 2 pens, 2 wishes and 2 prayers.

Make a wish and mark this day!

22.2.22 - A Day To Remember

A fantastic afternoon of music from the King and dancing from some our talented residents was enjoyed by all.

Elvis lives on at Buckingham House

Flower arranging at Buckingham House

Flower arranging at Buckingham House

Since qualifying as Oomph Exercise instructors in October, our Lifestyle team have been busy delivering two sessions a week for those who live here to take part in and keep active.

Abingdon's "Oomph Diaries"

Since we received our OMI Vista Mobii at the beginning of December, we have spent a lot of time investigating and exploring the different capabilities and activities on offer.

Residents at Manorhey took part in their very own Come Dine With Me. The menu for the day had been chosen by residents and then cooked and served by our Chef Manager, Pete Irlam. Feedback from residents was that they thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the come dine with me experience.

Come Dine With Me Experience

Manorhey residents enjoyed a couples valentine lunch. David and Elsie both celebrated valentines day together at the cafe hey.

Couples Valentine's Lunch

The residents at Carmel Lodge have been spending time during the wet weather creating a seasonal collage. They have included themselves as the people in the pictures, some are hand drawn due to data protection, but they know who they are.

Seasonal Collage

Bowerfield House often enjoys a fresh homemade loaf of bread. We are lucky to have a bread maker and the smell while its baking is great for a sensory day.

Kris from Tropical Discovery came to visit us recently and the reaction from everyone here was amazing and completely overwhelming.

Each resident had the opportunity to hold each of the animals as you can see in the attached photos, as Kris gave an interesting talk about each species.

Tropical Discovery at Brunel House

We encourage everyone living with us who is able, to engage in regular physical activity through group activity sessions.

As well as the physical health benefits, we really do have a lot of fun!

Celebrating love at Buckingham House with cookies, advice and singing.

Celebrating Love at Buckingham House

Walking club has become an all time favourite at Buckingham House Care Home, enjoying the scenery in and around Gerrards Cross.

Bowerfield House had a fantastic day celebrating Valentines day, we had a singer Sam come into the home, every one enjoyed themselves and sang a long to the love songs.

We had a Valentines raffle and our lovely nurse, Albinah, won the beautiful valentines basket raffle full of goodies!

Valentine's Day at Bowerfield House

To celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Day we had a lovely session painting kind words and images that meant something to the residents onto pebbles. A lovely time had by all with wonderful conversation of residents sharing memories and thoughtful words.

Random Acts of Kindness Painting

Virtual coffee chats with loved ones and lots of cake baked by our fabulous team. Our star baker today was Lauren for her wonderful white and milk chocolate cake.

Macmillan Coffee Afternoon

We enjoyed such a lovely Valentines Day at Ashfield Court with lots of lovely snacks and treats throughout the day. Our Chef, Douglas made us a gorgeous dinner and we relaxed in the afternoon with treats and a cup of tea.

We hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day.

Valentines Day at Ashfield Court

Today we had a virtual tour of Paris, taking in the sights from the Eiffel Tower to the Moulin Rouge. We listened to music from Edith Piaf whilst sampling French Cheese and Wine.

Virtual Tour To Paris

We spent one of our mornings this week making hearts for our Valentines party. Arts and crafts brings so much fun to our days, it increases self esteem, eliminates boredom, makes us feel relaxed and encourages socializing with other.

Valentine's Arts and Crafts at Troutbeck

It was an extra-ROAR-dinary Chinese New Year celebration for everyone here in Amber Court. Residents and staff enjoyed the yummy Chinese foods tasting. Also, we made some Chinese lanterns to decorate the home with the help of our very talented residents and staff. Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year at Amber Court

Since it is National Pizza Day, we all gathered and ate different flavours of pizzas. We really enjoyed the day, we shared stories of our favourite pizza flavours and memories we got about pizza. We had a good laugh whilst socializing with each other.

National Pizza Day

February is a season of love, especially on 14th of February. We celebrated this day by having a lovely full course dinner prepared by our kitchen chef and also a nice table setup made by our staff and residents.

Valentine's Celebrations at Amber Court

We celebrated Valentines Day with a delicious selection of cakes for afternoon tea, served in our best China Cups here at Troutbeck.

Troutbeck's Valentine's Celebrations

Here at Troutbeck our residents and staff participated in writing some words of advice for Valentine's Day along with some messages for those within the home.

Words Of Advice

Yesterday we potted a scented rose bush, our residents are really excited to see this grow.

Scented Rose Bush

Here at The Hawthorns our residents made valentines cards, this activity was thoroughly enjoyed by those who took part.

Valentine's Cards

Staff at Windmill Court were overwhelmed by a special Staff Appreciate Day organised by the people living with us here in St Minver. Each staff member was presented with a card which had a packet of sweet peas attached, along with a lovely thank you note .

Staff Appreciation Day

For Chinese New staff and residents made their own Chinese zodiac badges to celebrate the year of the Tiger. We laughed and had fun discussing the different traits and if they suited any of our personalities.

Chinese New Year at Birch Heath

Our residents had a great time at yesterdays Valentines bash! We had Rich from Britain's Got Talent here to sing us some big band love songs. A great time was had by all.

Carmel Lodge's Valentine's Bash

We are sharing the Valentines Day love here at Carmel Lodge, even our work men have been included in our treats.

Spreading The Love

Valentines Day at Hope Green was a lovely celebration with residents and staff gathering together to decorate the home with flowers, balloons, hearts and ribbons.

Valentines Day at Hope Green

There is a magnificent yew tree between Carmel Lodge and Hope Green care homes.

You may know that yew trees are traditionally grown in church yards. This is not symbolic, but practical in times gone by.

We have been busy baking heart shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day. Vera has also been preparing some sweet treats as a Valentines Day surprise for her friends and the staff.

Valentine's Day Treats

What a fantastic day we had at Bowerfield House, one of our residents Jenny and her family love Christmas but sadly they were not able to celebrate it due to lockdown and her family having covid.

Christmas In February

After being closed for such a long period our residents this week enjoyed a concert by one of our regular performers Sam Jones. Sam sang favourite jams requested from residents as they boogied along. We can surely say the residents have thoroughly enjoyed this magical musical moment.

Music Performance

Love was in the air at Manorhey as residents made beautiful cards for their loved ones for Valentines Day. We all got very creative as everyone made their own cards personalised.

Personalised Valentines Day Cards

We've had quite a few birthdays to celebrate already this month which means lots of cake, singing, dancing and fun to be had by all. We all love a good excuse for a party and the atmosphere is loved by everyone.

Birthday Celebrations

We were finally able to welcome in the wonderful Tickled Pink Productions to perform their version of Cinderella. It was an absolute hoot, keeping all who were watching engaged.

Tickled Pink Presents: Cinderella

Australia Day was celebrated with one of our most favourable activities - armchair travel.

Australia Day Celebrations

A selection of wine and cheese from around the world, what more could you want? Over 25 of the people living with us joined the party and gave their critiques. It was a most enjoyable time and all are very much looking forward to the next soiree.

Cheese & Wine Travels

We celebrated burns night with haggis, neeps and tatties and washed down with a glass of whiskey. We listened to traditional bagpipes after remembering the life of Robert Burns, The peoples poet.

Burns Night at Brunel House