The week of the MMCG and Countrywide Care awards has arrived and here at Willowdene Care Home in Sedgefield we have much to celebrate with 4 nominations for categories.

We have Ruth Pearson who has been nominated for Housekeeping Highflyer at Willowdene.  Ruth is responsible for making sure our home always looks clean and tidy for our residents.

Here at Willowdene we are loving this gorgeous sunny weather we are having and our relative garden visits at the home. Our residents really enjoy seeing family and we are so fortunate to have such wonderful gardens.

Thank you to all of the families for supporting our garden visits and also for visiting in the rain and sitting under the shelter.  We couldn't have gotten through this without you.

We were delighted to have a visit from two horses this week at Willowdene who came in to meet our residents at the home.  Our residents used to love the miniature ponies visits so we thought we'd have the horse's come to visit. The residents came out one at a time to see the horses and it really brightened our day.  

We are proud of our heritage at Ashfield Court and were delighted to celebrate Yorkshire Day on 1st August at the home.

We enjoyed some Yorkshire tea and Yorkshire treats and all had a very lovely day.

For this month's baking club the residents decided that they would like to make some fudge. We sourced recipes and decided to make milk chocolate fudge and white chocolate fudge with KitKats in. 

We tasted the fudge the next day and the residents thought that both fudges tasted delicious. Although it was very sweet and sticky. 

Excitement came to Oaklands Care Home today! 

The kind generosity by our Regional Director, Paul Brookfield who arranged for a visit from an ice cream van and all residents and staff could have an ice cream of their choice. 

Brymor Ice Cream is very local to our home and they have an ice cream parlour not too far away. Brymor ice cream is a true 'Yorkshire Delicacy'. 

When the ice cream van arrived residents went out to choose an ice cream. 

On the 1st of August everyone at Clumber Court Care Home enjoyed a beach day in the garden. It was an amazing day and we had a BBQ, games, bubble wands, a sand pit and lots of fun and laughter. 

Today was a sad day at Yohden Care Complex on Hesleden Road in Blackhall,  Ivy Barker, our lovely 102 year old resident said goodbye to us all as she made her final journey to Durham Crematorium.

Ivy moved into Yohden Care Complex back in 2006 and was an important part of the family at Field View and will be such a huge miss.  We couldn't let Ivy leave without the farewell she deserved and the staff lined the road outside of the home and launched pink balloons as she drove past the home as she stopped for us all to pay our final goodbyes to Ivy.

Some of our residents at Manor Park Care Home enjoyed making pom pom garlands in rainbow colours to liven up their rooms, while others opted for something a little more abstract in the form of acrylic paint tipping onto canvases. The results were a surprise every time!

Here at Manor Park we celebrated a resident's 100th Birthday due to lockdown family was unable to visit but we made a special effort to make sure Daisy had a fabulous day. She had a window visit from her daughter who brought her and the staff a wonderful cake and cheesecake from her local farm shop. Daisy received an abundance of cards and is particularly proud of her card from the queen.