Activities at Cherry Trees Care Home

Staff and residents here at Cherry Trees are treated weekly to a visit from our beautiful Pet Therapy dog, Fingal and his wonderful owner, Adrian. 

Fingal, aged 3 and a half absolutely loves his visits here to Cherry Trees. He is an Australian Sheep Dog and is fed regularly on salmon oil which helps to keep his coat soft and silky, which our residents love to pet. Due to Fingal’s kind and soft temperament, his owner, Adrian decided to train with Fingal to become a Pet Therapy Dog volunteer joining an amazing organisation called Therapy Dogs Nationwide. With over 2000 volunteers this wonderful national charity supports volunteers to take their dogs into establishments to provide comfort, distraction, and stimulation. 

The benefits of Pet Therapy range from improvement in general health and wellbeing, increased confidence levels, improved and controlled movement to improved communication skills. Pet therapy helps to provide our residents with companionship, which also helps to reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation. It’s so lovely to see just how much these regular visits improve our resident’s communication evoking memories and stimulating conversation. A big thank you to Adrian, Fingal and to Therapy Dogs Nationwide, our resident’s are already looking forward to your next visit!

Residents at Cherry Trees Care Home in Alcester had a surprise trip out to visit The Good Day Farm, a touring farm organised with the help of Alcester’s Health and Wellbeing Coordinator, Wendy Sherwood. Sheep, goats, pigs and more excitedly welcomed us as many residents got a chance to hold some animals including chickens’ rabbits, guinea pigs and a tortoise. It was made even more enjoyable seeing the children from St Nicholas Church of England Primary School there too.  

The Good Day Farm on Tour is a local company which brings their farm into communities in a bid to boost education and wellbeing. It was started by three friends who shared a love of the outdoors, the environment and animals. They recognised that many people are unable to visit farms themselves so set out to bringing the farm to them. Resident Susan was very excited and touched by the wonderful animals, she even wanted to bring the chickens back home to Cherry Trees. Another resident, Vera said: “As a child I used to love all the animals on the nearby farm and seeing the school children enjoy these animals too brings back lovely memories.’ 

We knew that visiting a smaller, more local farm would be a bit of fun for all our residents, especially as some find it difficult to travel far in our minibus. We are always looking for new activities for our residents and today we have seen the enjoyment and the therapeutic influence animals can have on people. What a wonderful day enjoyed by all.

On the 16th October resident’s here at Cherry Trees celebrated World Food Day where our resident’s very much enjoyed a multicultural food tasting afternoon with home cooked, traditional dishes from all around the world! 

Our wonderful team of chefs cooked dishes from 8 different countries including Bulgaria, India, France, Denmark, England, Italy, Kenya and Russia. Our residents especially enjoyed learning and watching our Sous Chef Ayshat make a delicious, traditional dish from Russia called Piroski; a homemade pasty filled with shredded carrot and cabbage with a black pepper filling. 

Food has a remarkable ability to bring people together and to create a sense of connection and community. Whilst immersing ourselves into these different cultures our residents welcomed the opportunity to learn and broaden their understanding of the world. By exploring these diverse cuisines it was lovely being able to gain further insights into various societies’, history and traditions. 

Our resident Shirley said, ‘It’s fascinating seeing all the different types of foods other cultures get to enjoy’. Brenda loved the Kenyan, sweet dessert called Madazi, and said ‘I could eat these all day’. Our Indian platter was definitely a favourite amongst staff, loaded with Onion Bhaji’s and Samosa’s. Simply delicious!

Cherry Trees in Alcester recently had the privilege of presenting a well known, local Garage Art Group with a cheque for £1,224 to help fund vital resource including a new sewing machine, drying rack and lino printing equipment for their amazing new space and studios based in Evesham in Worcestershire. 

The Garage Art Group provides therapeutic art sessions in Evesham for a wide variety of individuals in the community who have physical disabilities, learning disabilities and/or mental health issues. Promoting Art for health and wellbeing, they provide an inclusive, open door and non-judgmental community where people can go to be creative providing a place where vulnerable people can re-connect with others without fear of rejection for who they are.  For many of their members, these art sessions are a crucial element of stability, and a place that they can rely on to remain connected with other people.

The grant has been awarded by Barchester’s Charitable Foundation, a charity that helps older people and adults with a disability or mental health problems across England, Scotland and Wales by offering grants to help people connect or re-connect with others in their local community.

General Manager, Debbie Osborne at Cherry Trees said: “We are always so keen to show as much support as we can to local charities and giving people the opportunity to begin to rebuild their self-esteem, confidence and social support network is remarkable. Thank you again to all the wonderful staff for making us feel so welcome, we look forward to visiting and seeing you all again very soon. 

SAFETY was at the top of the agenda when Alcester Fire Station paid us a visit on Monday 16th September,  our residents welcomed the team who offered tips and advice on how to maintain safety within our home as part of the fire service’s community engagement programme. 

Resident Marjorie said: “I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with the team at Alcester Fire Brigade, the talk was both fun and informative.

Cakes, coffees and Bacon butties were enjoyed all round and staff even got to have a go in the fire engine as well as try on the safety gear! Thank you Alcester firefighters for all you do and we very much look forward to inviting you back for more cakes and coffee! 

On Thursday 12th September we are Celebrated 65 years of love and commitment for our residents Bill and Sheila's wedding anniversary.

Bill and Sheila celebrated their special day by enjoying a romantic meal for two, we set up a nice little quite area in our cherry blossom lounge, decorated the room with some bunting and brought Bill a beautiful bunch of red roses for him to give to Sheila on their special Day. The happy couple enjoyed each other's company over a glass of wine and enjoyed a tasty three course meal made especially for them from the kitchen staff, as well as a delicious chocolate cake in the shape of a heart for the special day. 

Their  journey together is an inspiration to us all. 

We wish you both continued happiness, health, and many more beautiful moments together!!