Activities at Bluebell Park Care Home

Today at Bluebell Park, we hosted our own craft’s-style dog show! 

Relatives and staff brought in their beloved pets, and we enjoyed watching them take on multiple challenges, such as our agility course and “find the treat”. 

We sat in the garden that afternoon and our residents loved seeing the different dogs and giving them all of a fuss. Our resident judges picked out some very deserving winners, and we ended the day with lots of cuddles with the dogs and some nice refreshments in the beautiful sunshine. 

Today our residents have ventured out on our mini-bus to Attenborough Nature Reserve.

During our walk we discovered many painted rocks, wildflower meadows and information about the area and the wildlife. Did you know blue-tits and house sparrows can fly 17mph? The weather was glorious. We spotted dragonflies, butterflies and bees. We then found the perfect spot to have our picnic lunch prepared by our kitchen team. 

Surrounded by nature and wildlife, we enjoyed our lunch and a cold beverage. We spotted many different birds and enjoyed listening to a variety of birdsong. Our residents visited the gift shop and were very impressed with the wall of animal paintings for sale. As we left, one resident saw a beautiful swan nearby who was nesting with her babies.

The residents enjoyed this moment and were happy with how beautiful the day had been. As we got back in our minibus, the residents enjoyed chatting about all the different things they had seen and one resident said "I've had the best time".

Today we welcomed back Kevin & Marie for their special D-Day show!

Our residents had a wonderful morning watching Kevin and Marie put on a great show of dressing up in funny and beautiful outfits, telling jokes, impersonations and singing along to songs from the wartime. 

They laughed, sang, danced, remembered and made even more memories during the celebrations.

Here at Bluebell Park we have a lovely outdoor space within the gardens. It is full of lovely colourful flowers and tall trees. Our residents love to use the garden in the warmer months. At the back we have a canal path with huge trees and a lot of nesting birds. 

The residents and activities team came up with an idea to make a nature area within the garden to feed and look after the surrounding wildlife. We brought extra bird feeders, bug hotels and a member of the community made us a hedgehog house. We placed them in a small area of the garden. The birds come every day, and we have even seen squirrels getting the nuts from the feeders. The best part is, our residents can watch over this new area from one of our quiet lounges. 

They can spot new wildlife and have started naming some of the birds coming through. This has been really beneficial to the residents, to know they are making a difference to the local wildlife, and they really enjoy learning about the animals that visit the garden. Residents have spent some lovely afternoons with friends and family watching from the lounge and on warmer days getting outside to have a closer look.

Our life enrichment programme allows all residents to have access to a choice of activities, and to continue aspects of their home life if they wish to do so. Residents at Bluebell Park love to be helpful. Many of our residents still enjoy doing all the daily tasks they do while at home.

This afternoon, a few of our ladies helped with folding laundry, dusting and setting the tables. These activities are always enjoyable, and we’re always happy for them to help out.

Other residents get emotional and physical comfort from holding empathy dolls. The experience takes them back to when they were parents and the positive feeling of comforting someone else.

Starting off our VE Day celebrations at Bluebell Park, today we had a reminiscing morning. We gathered some old wartime photos along with memorabilia packs from WW2. The residents had some lovely stories to share about their experience. This was emotional for some, but most remember the happiness of the day and the street parties and music. 

That afternoon, we headed to our local church for a coffee afternoon. We saw they had been decorated with poppies and flags and couldn't resist the opportunity to take some photos of their amazing display. One resident in particular, who was a Lance Corporal, felt pride in wearing his medals and sharing his stories with the local community at the church coffee afternoon. 

Today we welcomed Shades of Grey to Bluebell Park for world theatre day. They performed some songs for us as well as some old-school comedy which went down a treat with our residents and staff! 

The afternoon was a great success with all laughing and some were up dancing during the songs. Overall, we had a fantastic afternoon and can’t wait to have them back again for another fun performance!

This afternoon, we had a wonderful visit from some children from a local primary school. The children have been learning all about the community and acts of kindness and have decided they would like to bring a smile to our residents by bringing them some sunflowers they had been growing. The children spoke to our residents about how they had grown them and our residents loved chatting to them. 

We were very grateful to receive these plants and have begun potting them outside some of the bedrooms so the residents can watch them grow over the next weeks. Others have been put in our greenhouse ready to be potted by our residents this week. We are looking forward to watching our sunflowers grow and can’t wait to see how big they get!

Today we ventured out on our minibus to the local garden centre. Residents enjoyed looking at all the spring flowers and trees while walking around the centre, smelling and learning the names of some plants they hadn't seen before. 

We also spotted some of the local schools had a sculpture competition within the garden centre and residents were really impressed with some of the designs. 

As it was the Easter holidays, the garden centre was filled with families and young children and the residents thought this was lovely to see while on our trip. 

After walking around, we headed to the garden centre restaurant for a well-deserved cup of tea and coffee. We sat outside as the weather was beautiful. Residents were talking about what a lovely morning they have had and how nice it was to get out and about in the sunshine.