Activities at Alice Grange Care Home

The Alice Grange Gardening Club has been hard at work ensuring our gardens look lovely in the summer sun. Our talented green-fingered residents take a lot of pride in our gardens and greenhouse and enjoy using them for everything from morning coffees to garden concerts to quiet Afternoon Tea.

Alice Grange was full of animal mischief on Monday when a group of miniature donkeys came to visit the home.

Residents at Alice Grange were pleasantly surprised to see their new furry friends roaming around their garden and home as the Miniature Donkeys for Wellbeing (Mini-Donks) organisation paid a visit as part of a beach day celebration. The donkeys met lots of residents and even had a wander inside the home to meet residents in their rooms!

General Manager Andrea Crowley said: “Our residents have really enjoyed their unusual visitors today. We knew that having the donkeys here would be a bit of fun for all our residents, especially as some find it difficult to go on many outings in our minibus. We are always looking for new activities for the residents and today we have seen the seen the enjoyment and the therapeutic influence animals can have on people. Alongside the beach games, seaside themed food and visit from the ice-cream van, it was a great day.”

Resident Audrey was very excited by the Mini-Donk’s animals: “We’ve had a great day in the sunshine, with games and ice-cream and it was lovely to meet the little donkeys.”

To mark National Carers Week at Alice Grange thank you cards were presented by our General Manager Andrea on behalf of our CEO Dr Pete Calverley and Director of Nursing Julia Atherton. All of our team also received a box of delicious Lindt Chocolates too which went down a storm as you can imagine!

Andrea says, "We are so proud of our wonderful care team for the outstanding care that they provide every single day to our residents at Alice Grange - thank you so much for everything that you do and happy National Carers week!"

Yesterday was National Beer Day and the residents at Alice Grange enjoyed a delicious beer tasting party in the garden. We have also been brushing up on our beer knowledge.

Did you know that National Beer Day has been an annual tradition since 2015? The date was chosen because 15 June is also the date that the Magna Carta was sealed in 1215 and ale is mentioned in clause 35 of Magna Carta, which states:

"Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale and a single measure for corn, namely 'the London quarter'."

We were fortunate to have been donated a wide range of beers from our friends at The Farmhouse Pub, Kesgrave.

As we are Suffolk proud, it has to be Adnams!

We were honoured with a visit by the Chairman of the East Suffolk Council, Councillor Keith Robinson who joined us for a tour of the home and a wonderful Afternoon Tea. 

The Councillor was impressed with all the activity taking place at Alice Grange with entertainers, the hairdresser and the various resident clubs. 

We have opened our new Rainbow Remembrance Garden after weeks of planning, designing and hard work. 

At the request of our residents we have created a new beautiful, quiet garden to act as a space for residents, staff and visitors to use to reflect on the those who are no longer with us. 

Our residents had a heavy hand in the design of the garden and the features reflect their ideas. From the dedicated rose garden, to the raised flower beds, to the sensory herbs and plants, the whole area has been created to be as peaceful as possible. We are very proud of our beautiful creation and we know that it will be enjoyed by everyone at Alice Grange.