Celebrating life at Barchester

The whole home was filled with flowers, cards and sweets in celebration of Valentine’s Day.   
Staff and residents celebrated the day of love by listening to Gary Roman singing and enjoying some homemade heart-shaped red velvet cake prepared by head chef Raf. 

In the morning, residents got to decorate cookies, getting them ready for the afternoon.

Love was in the air when Magnolia Court hosted a Valentine's Party for our residents and their loved ones. With live music, dancing and fresh cake, everyone had a great time.

Sometimes you just can't beat getting out and about in the fresh air, especially on those chilly Winter mornings! A few of our residents got out and about this week, making sure they bundled up to battle the chill and go for a wander around our gardens.

There were lots of chats & giggles as we went, and we were even able to take a look at our raised flower beds and make some plans for Spring and Summer. What flowers would you plant in our beds and gardens? Let us know!

Live entertainment made a welcome return to Melbourn Springs this week courtesy of the excellent Graham and John. 

The residents were singing along and foot-tapping throughout the afternoon to a brilliant mixture of old-time classics mixed with some more modern day music. Graham and John certainly know what our residents want to hear and do absolutely everything to ensure that nobody is left disappointed.

We cannot wait to welcome them back to the home again very soon.

It was another wonderful morning for our residents taking part in the Dementia Choir, they had a good sing along with the children from the Winchester House School, Brackley, Northamptonshire, the first one since half term. The morning was finished off with tasty refreshments and a good old chinwag amongst themselves!

Please join us in congratulating Housekeeper; Ebinezar Solomon on receiving Employee of the month for January 2025.

Ebinezar was nominated by his colleagues, residents and their friends and family for his dedication to the home, hard work and the constant smile, along with his willingness to help anyone in the home. 

We're all very proud of his achievement and hope he enjoys spending his special 'thank you' £25 voucher. Shaju Paul, General Manager said: “Ebinezar is a valued member of the team here at Chacombe Park, I’m delighted his hard work has been recognised, he consistently goes above and beyond for which we are all grateful."

We’ve linked up with all Barchester care homes and hospitals across the country for Barchester’s Bingo Bonanza.

Our residents were treated to some exciting virtual games of Bingo as part of Barchester’ very own game show series. Well done to all the winners.

We all had a fantastic time and enjoyed some friendly competition. There was even some dancing during the interval.

Let’s congratulate our Danielle on being employee of the month. Danielle is our Community Lead and Senior Carer.

Danielle goes above and beyond every single day for our residents and staff members. Danielle is always smiling and her happy nature lifts the whole home. It is with absolute pleasure that we can congratulate Danielle as she receives this recognition.

Congratulations Danielle!

Pet therapy is hugely popular here at Pinetree.  The calming nature of animals and the affection they offer the resident is good for the soul. 

When our residents heard we had the animals visiting they all wanted a little cuddle with the bunnies or Archie the Cockapoo. Everyone was interested to find out more about the reptiles and the more adventurous even held them!  

We are very grateful to Linda from Party Pets and her incredible friends.  

When it’s international Pizza day, what do we do? Yes, we make pizza!

Our residents chose their individual favourite toppings and created their own masterpieces from scratch. Happily chatting about all things italy our residents were thrilled to be hands on, and part of international pizza day. 

Eaing their delicious creations for tea was simply benissimo!

We are so proud to have reached the very special score of 10 on carehome.co.uk!

Carehome.co.uk is often the first place loved ones will look for support in their search for care, so reviews like we have received at Pinetree mean the world to us but are also so important to those still searching and navigating that incredibly hard process. 

Thank you so much. We will continue to be as amazing as our reviews. 

When it’s international Lego Day what better way to celebrate than to invite in Legoclub Rayleigh. Jenny and two of her incredible Lego creators brought in this week’s makes, and the theme was space!

Nathanial gave a wonderful description of each of the models to our residents who were then invited to judge the models. 

Everyone found this to be very tough and ALL of the models were worthy of any prize. 
Pinetree will be creating their own LEGO masterpieces and we will be asking the children at their club to choose their favourites. 

Stay tuned!

Just imagine every week enjoying a day of pampering without having to worry about the weather or getting your new hairdo wet !
With our very own Beauty salon, there's plenty of time for catching up with all the celebrity gossip in your favourite magazine or just relax and listen to the ambient music whilst your locks get the 5* treatment . Then to complete the make-over it's off to the nail bar for a luxury manicure where the only thing you need to think about is what colour polish to choose !

It's the little moments in life that have the biggest impact. One of our residents Stella was recently reunited with her long lost close friend, Betty. 
Betty and Stella were good friends in their younger years, alongside Stella's sister and other local ladies they would holiday together around the UK. 
Betty and Stella lost contact when they both moved into local care homes. 
Yesterday our activities coordinator Megan arranged a reunion. We travelled to Betty's care home and had an afternoon of tea and cake. 
The two women shared stories of holidays they shared, the laughter was heartwarming. They were overjoyed to see each other after all these years.
Both ladies would like to see each other again so we have arranged monthly visits to Betty's care home. 

A big thank you to Co-op Battle High Street who kindly donated some of their beautiful flowers to our residents. We thoroughly enjoyed an afternoon of flower arranging and creating gorgeous centre pieces on display around our home.

Residents at Bushey House had a taste of spring by enjoying an art class painting some flowers. Each resident chose their own paints to work with and created some lovely spring art for their rooms.

Love was in the air as residents and members of the community celebrated Valentine's Day with live music and exquisite cakes made by our regional head chef, Avni, and his team. We hold Community Afternoon Teas every month including live music. 

Residents requested an art class to be added to the planner on a recent resident survey. So we commenced our watercolor master class, this time we focused on still life, we really enjoyed ourselves painting a vase of flowers. 
As this is an ongoing art club we can't wait to get out and about to have a go at some landscapes. 
 

Countdown has become a beloved activity for our residents. We've discovered some fantastic words with up to six characters and have now moved on to the mathematical mind puzzles. Everyone thoroughly enjoys themselves whenever Countdown is on the weekly planner.

Regular outings are just one aspect of our life enrichment program and all the trips we take are at the request of the residents. Our monthly activities calendar boasts a range of outings and entertainment.

Our Residents enjoyed a trip to the The South Asia Collection in Norwich to enjoy viewing artifacts fro Asia. The collection has over 5000 pieces.

They enjoyed the sensory experience as it was very colourful and the Team at The South Asia Collection were very enthusiastic and helpful with our Residents.

At Ashfields we support and encourage our residents to continue doing the things they love whilst also making new friends and exploring new adventures. 

At Ashfields Care Home we know that being able to continue lifelong hobbies or interests is a key part of our resident's identities, and we make every effort to encourage and support each resident to be able to do so.

Residents worked alongside Matthew from Creative Mojo Norwich and really enjoyed creating a "sweet as pie" collage.

Art creates an outlet for self-expression and communication. Many people with Alzheimer's or dementia lose the ability to communicate verbally and creating activities can give patients a new avenue of expression.

Connecting Croydon held their monthly networking meeting here at our home . Another fabulous event bringing local businesses and charities together and viewing our outstanding home and engaging with the staff and residents .

One of the cornerstones of our life enrichment program is live musical entertainment. Resident involvement in choosing genres along with feedback after each performance means that we are able to constantly improve our activities calendar.

At the request of our Residents we invited the Ukuladies to return to Hethersett Hall as our Residents love a sing a long to some of their old time favourites and the ladies definitely brought a smile to our Residents and a massive thumbs up.

At Hethersett Hall we celebrate birthdays not just as a mark of ageing another year but as a celebration of life, achievements, and personal growth. It's a time for reflection, gratitude, and looking forward to future possibilities. Birthdays provide a special opportunity for us to help residents to gather with loved ones and create lasting memories.

It was one of our Residents Shirley's 90th birthday and we made the visit extra special for her family with a Birthday display in the Reception and cake and sparkles.

Birthday Celebrations for our Residents our treasured at Hethersett Hall and we always like to do as much as we can to make every celebration special.

Supporting residents to enjoy outings, shopping, meals out and other trips is a key aspect of the weekly activities calendar. 

We enjoyed a trip to a Local Garden Centre as we had heard their lunches were sumptuous. Our Residents certainly agreed and there were smiles all round as the bangers and mash arrived and topped with a Yorkshire pudding.

Regular trips and outings are the cornerstone of our activity programme and we always take regular feedback from our Residents as to where they would love to visit.