Celebrating life at Barchester

Wilton Place residents celebrated the beginning of the year of the Horse with a delicious Chinese - themed meal, specially prepared by our in-house chef. Accompanied by delicious wine, the conversation also flowed, and we learnt what the future holds through the medium of fortune cookies.

Our Resident Ambassador, Joan, celebrated her 97th Birthday with a surprise afternoon tea.

For many years, Joan and her dear friend Ruth shared a birthday tradition, celebrating their birthdays together with afternoon tea. They would always find time to treat each other to an afternoon of sandwiches, sweet treats and plenty of laughter!

So with a little secret planning, we decided it was time to bring that tradition back! On Joan’s birthday, Ruth surprised her with an invitation for afternoon tea at The Parlour Teabarn. The look on Joan’s face said it all, pure joy and happiness!

The Parlour Teabarn was a perfect setting, quaint, cosy and full of charm. Joan and Ruth settled in to enjoy a delicious afternoon tea together. The warm scones with jam and cream and the choice of yummy cakes added to the afternoon shared by good friends. They chatted, laughed and reminisced, whilst making very special new memories.

Moments like these are what make Ashcombe so special, celebrating birthdays, memories and meaningful connections.                    

Shirley and Margaret enjoyed a fun-filled and unforgettable morning when they visited Planet Ice for a wheelchair ice skating experience. Wrapped up warm, they took to the ice in their wheelchairs, laughing as they whizzed round the ice rink.

Margaret was a talented ice skater in her younger years and was thrilled to be back on the ice. She said: “Being out on the ice again felt wonderful. It brought back so many happy memories from my younger days and reminded me just how much I loved skating.”

Shirley also thoroughly enjoyed the morning and said “I never imagined I would be able to go ice skating again, but it was so much fun. I felt like we were in training for the Winter Olympics!”

With all the excitement around the Winter Olympics, it felt like the perfect time to take to the ice! Margaret and Shirley thoroughly enjoyed the experience.     

Sports students from our local college, QMC, came along to support our Health and Wellbeing event with a seated exercise class to music.  

We have been enjoying seated exercise sessions with the students in this team as part of their college course. The exercise session was followed by a selection of homemade smoothies, strawberries and banana, Tropical Fruit and Berry Blast, along with some healthy snacks, including smoked salmon and cream cheese pinrolls. Our very talented chef, Jules, wowed us all with a beautiful peacock carved out of fruit and vegetables. 

Our resident Ambassador, Joan, said: “I really enjoyed the students visiting to take the exercise sessions. The smoothies were really tasty, especially the Tropical Fruit!  The fruit peacock was utterly amazing, Jules is so talented.”

Last week we had a wonderful Art Class with Rose, one of our amazing family members. Rose spent the afternoon talking to us about using water colours, looking at forms and shadows to create her beautiful pictures! The pictures she creates are just amazing! 

Some residents were not aware of the great skills they had! Have a look at the amazing pictures they created! 

Thank you so much Rose, we can’t wait for the next class!          

This week, we welcomed the wonderful Eye Care team to our home for residents’ eye checks. 

They carried out dementia-friendly eye assessments, ensuring our residents receive the best possible care in a calm and reassuring way. Regular eye checks are so important for maintaining comfort, confidence, and wellbeing — and our residents were all smiles during their appointments! 

Our residents were delighted to have this service provided in the comfort of their home, avoiding the need to travel elsewhere.    

We celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early this year, and it was a truly lovely afternoon! 

Our residents enjoyed delicious treats, warm conversations, and wonderful company. It was especially nice to welcome some of our friends from the community who joined us and helped make the day even more special.  
 

Maple Leaf had a full day of celebrations for Valentine's Day! Throughout the day, residents throughout the home sang their hearts out to classic love songs. During the afternoon, loved ones were invited into the home for an afternoon tea prepared by our Chef, Conner. 

The room was decorated with hints of love everywhere you looked, and our couples expressed how much of a lovely afternoon they had had.  

We had a delicious time celebrating National Pizza Day! Staff got into the spirit by dressing up as a giant pizza, which brought lots of smiles and laughter all around. 

Residents enjoyed delicious pizzas from the takeaway with a variety of different flavours, margarita, ham and pineapple, chicken and sweetcorn and pepperoni. Resident Joan shared that she had never had a pizza from a takeaway and when she took a bite of margarita she described it as heaven!