Celebrating life at Barchester

Residents at Station Court Care Home have been making the most of the glorious sunshine this July, heading to their favourite places and exploring new ones around Northumberland aboard the care home's mini bus. 

Seaside visits to South Beach and Whitley Bay are a firm favourite in our home, especially when paired with delicious fish n’ chips! Whilst others enjoyed countryside visits, enjoying picnics and bird watching at Druridge Bay, singing and dancing at Plessey woods country park festival, and the homes walking club enjoyed a stroll to Europe’s largest land sculpture – Northumberlandia.    

Our summer outings programme provides so much more than a change of scenery. They promote wellbeing, evoke treasured memories and create new experiences for our residents to enjoy together. 

Team work really does makes the dream work! Our green fingered residents and staff at Station Court care home have been busy bees transforming the homes garden into a beautiful colourful and accessible area for everyone to enjoy this summer.    

From planting vibrant flowers in raised beds and hanging baskets to repainting furniture and planting a fresh herb garden the team has worked together to create a thriving outdoor space. 

As the saying goes many hands make light work and thanks to members of our gardening club our garden is now a welcoming place where residents, families and visitors can relax and enjoy the sunshine together.

There was no better way to celebrate National Ice Cream Day than with delicious ice cream sundaes. Our residents got stuck in creating their own sundaes with a wonderful selection of toppings to choose from. From sprinkles, to sauces and a few tasty extra’s, there was something for everyone.

A lovely afternoon filled with smiles, laughter and of course, ice cream!

A huge thank you to Matt O’Neil for another fantastic performance. As always, our residents thoroughly enjoyed every moment with plenty of singing, smiling and toe-tapping along to the music.           

We are already looking forward to your next visit.”

Our residents and several of our regular visitors enjoyed a picnic on the patio recently, although the hot weather has been lovely it has been rather uncomfortable at times so we have tailored activities to suit the conditions. 

The patio area is in the shade in the early afternoon so we made full use of the favourable conditions and cooled off whilst enjoying a fabulous picnic.     

We had a fabulous cooking activity recently where our residents used their pizza making skills to create their own particular favourite pizza which they enjoyed, fresh from the oven for lunch.

The weather was beautiful, so everybody enjoyed an alfresco lunch with a nice glass of wine, and we had the most fabulous afternoon. Word soon spread throughout the home and we had many visitors who really enjoyed a slice of pizza and spending time chatting with our residents in the garden.     

Residents Josie Grange and our Residents’ Ambassador Susan Tidy recently visited Lenton Leisure Centre to present a cheque for £2,500, generously donated by Barchester Healthcare, to the West Area Project, a fantastic service supporting adults with learning disabilities and/or autism.

The funding will help pay for swimming lessons, enabling even more people from the local community to enjoy the much-loved sessions. The swimming group is a huge success, bringing fun, friendship and exercise to everyone involved.

The donation will also help provide fresh fruit and vegetables for Active2, a Tuesday evening activity group that encourages people with learning disabilities and/or autism to stay active, healthy and socially connected.

During their visit, Josie and Susan met some of the people who benefited from the service and watched Rich David take on his incredible fundraising challenge. To mark Learning Disability Week, Rich completed a series of activities including walking, rowing, cycling, swimming and running to raise awareness of the fact that people with a learning disability and/or autism die, on average, 19.5 years younger than the general population.  

Josie and Susan were delighted to see first-hand the positive impact the project has on so many lives and were proud to present the cheque in support of its valuable work. 

Our residents thoroughly enjoyed gardening with a difference recently by using some China cups and saucers and turning them into plant pots.

The cups look really nice and a little bit different, but they are sure to add a little more character to everybody’s room or make a wonderful gift to a loved one.

Our resident ambassador, Bryan, said, “I’ve never seen anything like this before, my family will love them.”

Our residents enjoyed sampling a selection of refreshing iced teas, and we had some clear favourites! 
The most popular flavour was Hibiscus, Rose & Sweet Berries – a delicious hit with everyone!

Meanwhile, the Lemon, Turmeric & Ginger tea certainly got people talking… and judging by some of the funny faces, it wasn’t quite everyone’s cup of tea!

A wonderful afternoon filled with laughter, conversations, and plenty of taste-testing.