The Westbourne residents and staff have been enjoying their January theme of Scotland with some wonderful Scottish dancing together. With two steps forward, two steps back and then round in a circle there was lots of laughter. All finished off with a discussion on Scottish scenery and our favourite memories, it created a lovely vibrant atmosphere for all to take part in. Happy January everyone.

We know that music has many positives including better health through the enjoyment of listening, dancing and signing. We don't usually colour coordinate the musical instruments to our clothing though! 

Whilst we may not be able to go and see Barry Manilow in concert we can always shake our tail feathers and the maracas and sing our heart out to Copacabana. 

My name is Ashleigh and I am the new Manager of Alexandra Court. I have over 16 years’ experience working in residential care, which I have enjoyed every day of! I  feel privileged to be able to work with and support people to make a positive difference to their lives. I am very pleased at leading  the wonderful staff team here at Alexandra Court and ensuring the residents here achieve the best possible life in our home.

Monday 18th January was world snowman day, so to celebrate we decorated some biscuits, yo look like melted snowmen!

Here at Belvoir Vale we have a new staff member join us today! She saw how busy and hard working our staff are and wanted to help us out, so we got her one of our shirts and put on her PPE and off she went monitoring the floor, making sure the staff were doing all of their jobs. She joined us in a meeting and at the end of the day she came to the home manager and insisted on a pay rise for all the hard work she had done! It was a joy to have her join our team for the day and we look forward to her joining us again! 

One of our residents enjoys poetry so we went through all the books she has and chose ones that she can remember and recite. She likes in particular ones that she knows well and often recites them. This gives her a sense of achievement. 

Today it snowed so we thought we would take the opportunity and give the residents a feel of the great outdoors by bringing the snowballs inside to them. Thinking that it would bring back memories of wintry walks in the snow and childhood memories. It was met with mixed feelings but I think it was a great success as many had fond memories of their childhood antics in the snow. Many wanted to touch the snow, some enjoyed the experience and it gave them a chance to reminisce.  

We have been donated beautiful sensory hand knitted blankets for our residents and we would like to say a big thank you all at the Leyton village craft group. We very much appreciate your support and wish to say thank you for your kind donation our residents love them! 

Today at Troutbeck we have been celebrating the chocolatiers of York, Birmingham and Bristol.