At Ashby House we had the first reunion visits between residents and their families this week - the first of many visits. Joyce was so happy to be visited by Michelle and Martin, and vice versa. Residents have been looking forward to seeing their loved ones for three months now and some were overwhelmed with happiness when the time came - tears of joy were shed. Everyone was pleased to catch up on news and see that their loved ones are well and happy. Relatives marked the occasion with gifts such as flowers, chocolates, magazines and lots of snacks for later. The weather was kind too and gave us the hottest day of the year so far. We’d like to  thank everyone for cooperating with our hygiene and social distancing guidelines which helped to make it a very successful day. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Ashby House is holding a competition for school children to choose a name for our newly refurbished residential community which we are now welcoming new residents to. Full details of the competition are in the image. Please encourage any young people you know to enter and tell their friends about it.

Our gentlemen residents had a lovely day enjoying treats provided by Ashby House and lots of cards, sweets and other gifts delivered by families throughout the day. There were many happy faces and our kitchen team prepared some homemade cookies and lovely cakes to enjoy at tea time.

Many of our gentlemen chatted about how much they loved their children and grandchildren, and how proud they are of them. Calls from families were being received all day by many happy Dads and the day was rounded off with a game of bingo - a favourite here. All in all it was a lovely, happy, relaxing day at Ashby House!

June 18th was National Picnic Day and to join in with the celebrations we held a Teddy Bears' Picnic. The weather did let us down but that didn’t stop us – we had a wonderful afternoon inside instead. The kitchen team made some delicious picnic food including sausage rolls, pork pies, mini quiches, jugs of punch and much more. Everyone had a great time chatting to each other, listening to music and enjoying the food, in the company of lots of teddy bears! Not even the British Weather can spoil our fun here at Ashby House. Have you spotted all our teddies?

We all like to have interesting things to occupy our minds and hands, and it is so important that we offer enjoyable activities for residents on our Memory Lane community. We regularly have sensory activities and this week we had our 'active minds at home' scents and CD, as well as our own scent cards with herbs and spices, to help reminisce about cooking, cleaning and life at home. Many of our residents loved this - especially the memories prompted by the smell of the baby powder. We also have a pram with a therapy doll that residents can pick up and cuddle whenever they wish - lots of our ladies love to push the pram around and cuddle the baby.

These lovely flowers were a kind donation from a relative of a resident at Ashby House. Rather than simply putting them in a vase the Activities Team saw an opportunity to hold a flower arranging activity, providing an opportunity for residents' creativity to shine through, and for people to enjoy the sensory experience of smelling the flowers.