Celebrating life at Barchester

We had a wonderful personalised arts and crafts session at Hyacinth House with the fantastic Lewis-Manning Hospice Care. Our residents truly enjoyed getting creative, expressing themselves, and taking part in meaningful activities.

Residents had the opportunity to meet new faces, share their life stories, and build new friendships in a warm and welcoming environment.

Moments like these remind us how powerful creativity and connection can be.  

Our residents enjoyed a delicious and refreshing fruit session, featuring pineapple, kiwi, and pomegranate, alongside our usual favourites,  melon, strawberries, grapes, and more.

Our Chefs  made healthy smoothies, including banana & strawberry, and the firm favourite.... forest fruits.

We talked about the importance of hydration, good nutrition and sharing practical ways to support health and wellbeing.   

Another lovely visit to the Mixed Blessings lively club at The Lantern Church Merley.

There’s always time for making new friends, catching up, and getting to know one another better, plus joining in fun activities and special celebrations. 

Take a look at what we explored this week.

Celebrations have been in full swing as one of our residents reaches 107.

Ethel was joined by staff, relatives, and other residents as she received a telegram from the King in recognition of her landmark birthday. A champagne reception was held at the home and guests enjoyed a special birthday cake made by the home’s chef Radovan and decorated by one of the homes nurses, Simona.

Ethel received just under 300 cards to celebrate her big day from kind people all across the country. 
 

We had a great time at our quiz game at Hyacinth House.

Lovely to see the community, families and our residents come together, enjoy each other’s company, and have lots of fun. Thank you to everyone who joined us.      

Our Gwen and Matt took part in a pancake flipping race at Wimborne Minster and we’re delighted to say they won second prize.
Not a surprise to us at all, as they both gave it their all and had great fun along the way. 

Well done, Gwen and Mat, we’re very proud of you.  

1946, there was a "Bedford Parade". It was a significant Victory Parade on February 14th in Bedford, where 600 Women's Land Army (WLA) "Land Girls" marched, marking Princess Elizabeth's (later Queen Elizabeth II) first solo public engagement, a patriotic event celebrating the end of World War II. Our lovely resident Gwen was there, as she herself was a land girl during the war.

To celebrate, we held a party for Gwen, who was thrilled with the high tea we put on for her, her family, and friends at Hyacinth House.

We had the amazing Land Girls come and sing for us. Their rendition, with harmonies, of a Vera Lyn song brought a tear to Gwen’s eye.

Gwen loved that the staff made an effort and dressed appropriately for the party.     

We celebrated this special day in the wonderful company of our friends at Hyacinth House.

And a huge thank you to Nick Seller for the lovely music that made the day even more magical.

Our residents really dove into the fun, tackling everything from Scrabble to jigsaw puzzles, with BINGO stealing the show, as requested by all to be as our ending game.

It was a delightful mix of competition and brain exercising activities.