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. We learnt a few lessons from this bake off today, one being our icing which unfortunately didn't turn out like we hoped it would, we used a shop brand cream cheese instead of Philadelphia which didn't create a smooth cream cheese frosting like it would normally do. Other than this hiccup our cake turned out rather tasty and we will be revisiting this recipe again for The Belvedere Baking Club.

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. Our Lifestyle team really care about requests made by our residents, their interests and their ideas so organised the first session with a short walk in the garden, books to browse and a game of dominoes with drinks and snacks too. What a success! We were most surprised by how competitive and animated our men were! We're looking forward to the next one soon.

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.

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.

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. Staff, residents and relatives of our residents are all thankful for all the things she is doing to everyone and the leadership she is up for Amber Court. She deserves all the best and happiness in life. Again, Happy Birthday Delma! Have a wonderful day ahead! Love, your Amber Court Family.

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.

Animal assisted interventions can often improve self-esteem and confidence in people with dementia, it can also promote quality of life and encourage independence, there are many positives using animal therapy and we hope Nigel visits us again here at 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!

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

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. Covering a variety of different themes, there’s a lot to cover, but we are desperate to share and celebrate the enthusiasm of those who live here, so we thought we’d introduce our “Oomph Diaries”. In these segments, we will share some of the highlights from the sessions, the different themes, and some testimonials from those who live here and take part.