We were excited to welcome our first visitors back to Abingdon Court on 6th July.

We decorated our lovely garden to ensure residents and families enjoyed their visits and we also decorated the reception area so families and friends could see see how much we have missed them.

We are lucky to be able to continue to welcome visits from friends and families who have been so understanding of the different rules now in place.

Residents and staff were celebrating after Buckingham House Care Home was named Care Home of the Year 2020 at the recent Maria Mallaband Care Group and Countrywide Care Homes Annual Care Awards. 

Residents and staff of Windmill Court Care Home were celebrating after their colleague Jemma Hartley won the award for the “Most Innovative Activities Programme” at the recent Maria Mallaband Care Group and Countrywide Care Homes Annual Care Awards.  It was a double celebration as Mark Langridge was also a finalist in “Maintenance Person of the Year”

Ashmead Care Home paid its very own special tribute to Dame Vera Lynn who sadly passed away at the age of 103 recently. During the day the home was filled with the voices of special personal memories of VE day, along with the sounds of music and laughter as everyone remembered the lady who became a symbol of hope during the war for so many people.

Episodes of Dads Army and music from Dame Vera played in all of our lounges and dining rooms throughout the day and everyone living in the home enjoyed a traditional themed buffet to add to the celebrations.

We love creating our own gifts here at Belmont Care Home and thought it would be a lovely idea to make bracelets for birthday gifts in Park Suite.  We had a few different boxes with beads, glass balls and colourful stones and started to create our own designs.

Here is Robert, in the process of creating his own design.  We hope the birthday girl likes it.

Kents Hill Care Home welcomed ambulance crew staff, post office workers, district nurses and physiotherapists for there 'Take a break with us' week.  They received many thanks, gratitude and comments of bringing together the local MDT's in the recent hot weather; the cake and drinks went down well (particularly the cold drinks)   

We were so grateful to receive a wonderful donation of afternoon tea from Lakes & Dales Co-operative.

A huge donation, of everything anyone could need for a wonderful afternoon celebration. Sandwiches, scones, cakes, and non-alcoholic fizz to make it a wonderful celebration.

We had a party in all of the dining areas, with bunting, music and a great atmosphere. 

A wonderful afternoon, had by all. 

We wanted to decorate our activities lounge and when we found some old vinyl records which were really scratched and not fit for playing anymore so we decided to get a little bit creative.  

This was a great activity, a bit messy but lots of fun was had by all, and the path outside got a great clean once we were done. 

We are so happy with the end result of this, and our residents love this and comment on the colours. 

We have enjoyed looking at different activities in August and have done some local reminiscence.  We started with research on the history of the local area and used this as a talking point which gets everyone sharing their own stories and opinions.  

So far we have had chats on The Lambton Worm, The Empire Theatre, Hylton Castle and St Peters Church. We even decided to draw the Lambton Worm in arts and crafts for us to remember the story and hang up in the activity room.