Activities at Beeston View Memory Lane Community

This week we have been celebrating Carers Week and our Residents were very keen to acknowledge the wonderful care our dedicated and hard-working Carers give to them.

They worked hard making and decorating delicious cakes and individual rose posies and were thrilled to be able to present them to each Carer as a thank-you for all they do.

All the teams also received homemade cakes and boxes full of treats from chocolates, sweets, biscuits and all the naughty things in life!

The residents also made hand drawn thank you cards and arranged flower posies. Again a massive thank you to all our fabulous care team for all they do, each and every day for our residents.

We were lucky enough to be an official stop on Day 3 of the Tour de Barchester cycle challenge and Residents and Staff were delighted to welcome the cycling team to a much-needed pit-stop at our home.

The riders were thrilled to receive a motorcycle escort down our driveway ridden by our Head Chef, John assisted by his pillion passenger, Tracy our Admin Assistant. They were welcomed by flag-waving, cheering Residents and Staff and celebrated on our winner’s podium which had been made by our Maintenance Manager, John.

The cycling team then enjoyed a delicious lunch provided by the homes talented hospitality team and a beautiful carrot cake and Tour de Barchester branded cookies made by our General Manager, Kirsty. The aim of this challenge was to raise money for the many charities the Barchester Foundation support and our home are proud to have raised £200 by riding the equivalent 250 miles of the tour on an exercise bike!

This was truly a team effort where our Residents and all of the departments at our home have been involved and an event which everyone enjoyed and has made us proud!

We celebrated 10 years of service to Sarah Pearce!

Well done Sarah on such a huge milestone! Sarah previously worked within the care team, but has since moved to the hospitality team.

John, Head Chef presented Sarah with her award, gold pin and flowers.

Thank you for your dedication to your residents and colleagues Sarah and a massive thank you.

Enjoy! Love Kirsty and the whole team x

This week our Residents were delighted to welcome two new and unusual woolly friends into their home.

Teddy and Carlos are two large but extremely well-behaved alpacas who came all the way from Knightley Alpaca Trekking in Stafford with their humans to spend an afternoon with us. And our Residents (and staff!) just loved them!

Teddy and Carlos visited all three of our communities at Iddenshall Hall & Beeston View, even meeting some of our Residents in their own rooms. They are such intuitive animals who seemed to sense when they needed to be especially calm and gentle. Their visit was so successful and fun and we cannot wait to welcome them back soon!

With the wonderful weather we're having, we celebrated World Cocktail Day in our gardens!

We started preparing the cocktails, adding fresh fruit like oranges and strawberries. In the other, we added cucumber and mint, we also used lemonade and ice, plus grenadine & Pimms.

The residents joined in, and everyone was happy, enjoying the flavour of their drinks and a pleasant conversation. It was a lovely afternoon and we've all now found the taste for what we'd like next time the sun is out!

February 6th was New Zealand's National Day, which is also known as Waitangi Day. On this day in 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between many, but not all, the Maori tribes and the British Crown, and it has since become a national holiday in New Zealand.

To celebrate this day, the residents enjoyed tasting kiwi fruit and also learnt the Haka, a traditional Maori dance.

We had a fantastic time painting our faces with traditional Maori designs, striking Haka poses and watching the All Blacks rugby team perform their famous Haka dance. What an afternoon we had! Full of fun and laughter!

This week, we got to celebrate our Carer Mandy Hughes' 20th year of service to Iddenshall Hall and Beeston View!

Wow, what a totally impressive length in your post Mandy! You are loved so much by the residents, families and your colleagues!

We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU, not only for your dedication, commitment and drive, but above all for being the shining star that you are! The homes would be lost without you, your personality shines through.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and here's to many more years :) Love from your family at Iddenshall Hall and Beeston View!

Our Residents at Iddenshall Hall & Beeston View really look forward to and benefit from the regular visits of Tosca and his owner Liz. Tosca is not only a beautiful golden retriever and a wonderful pet but he is also a Pet's as Therapy (PAT) dog too!

To become a therapy dog, dogs must have an incredible temperament, be able to calmly and safely navigate a huge variety of strange environments, be sociable and affectionate but also calm in greeting new people and be generally quite unflappable. Tosca, is all of this and more! He gives the best cuddles and our Residents just love him!

Our residents were very creative this week painting the Autumn and everyone really admired their magnificent creations. Each resident was free to choose colours and use the fresh autumn leaves to stimulate their vision, they also listened to music to complement the atmosphere and concentration. The result was great as we can see on our display board.

Our residents love to see this time of year, as they get to watch the leaves change colour and fall from the trees all around our beautiful grounds, just by looking out the window. We're very lucky to have the scenery we do at our home, and it makes crafts like this even more special as we have wonderful views to look out on and gardens to draw.