Activities at Kingfisher Lodge Care Home

What better way to spend an afternoon than with a little creativity, a splash of colour … and a glass of wine!

This month at Kingfisher Lodge we are celebrating delivering meaningful life enrichment. This Sip and Paint was enjoyed by many residents but was created with two wonderful residents, Mary and Lizzie, in mind. Both ladies are natural artists with a real passion for painting, so this Van Gogh-inspired Sip & Paint session was right up their street!   

Watching them become completely absorbed in their artwork was truly lovely. Creative activities like painting can offer so much more than simply making something beautiful — they provide a sense of purpose, achievement and self-expression, while encouraging concentration, stimulating memories and giving residents the opportunity to express themselves in their own unique way.      

August is our month of music and we are celebrating by having a variety of different bands and singers. We were joined by the fantastic Bristol East and Kingswood brass band who played in our garden.

Everyone enjoyed the relaxation of the beautiful music and drinks were flowing but it was also a very special performance for one of our lovely residents, Joyce, whose son-in-law plays in the band!  Another one of our residents was also celebrating her birthday with all her family, and it just so happened it was her favourite music as well, so we really did have a wonderful afternoon!

For our Get Barchester Moving week we have been doing lots of extra exercise classes for residents of all abilities, staff challenges, one to one workout sessions, even a relay garden walk that included 26 residents doing laps of the garden.

Our exercise bike and cross trainer in reception has been used by our General Manager Claudia, Regional Director Isabela and Operations Trainer Feona as well as countless staff from all departments around our home.

Everyone has been up for the challenge and we can’t wait to see where we made it on the Barchester leader board when all the minutes are registered from the week.

Our culinary-minded residents made a couple of batches of fairy cakes for the whole home to enjoy. Everything smelled delicious. With hundreds and thousands flying everywhere and a slight mist of icing sugar filling the air, we had a lovely time.
We stopped for a cuppa while they were in the oven to talk about our memories of baking. 

One resident and his wife told us of a story where they remember their son putting his fingers in all the jam while making jam buns and another resident posed the question “how many cakes must we have made throughout our lives?” to which most people answered “hundreds."    

We had a beautiful start to our day yesterday with the amazing Shannon treating us to some classic wartime morale-boosting songs, and she really looked the part in uniform.

Residents sang along, waving their union flags, and with Shannon sparking conversations about VE Day memories with pictures of Vera Lyn, old ration books and wartime fashions, it made it more than just a concert. It was a real celebration of the times.         

One of our male residents recalled a memory of a street party where he received a random kiss from a beautiful blonde stranger who, as a young man at the time, stayed with him all these years. His smile while telling his story was truly a special moment to be a part of.   

Afterwards, residents shared a VE Day Great British lunch of traditional fish and chips, with newspaper front pages from 1945 on the table to remind everyone how the country celebrated this amazing day.

We were so amazed at all the wonderful doggies that came along to compete for the coveted Kingfisher lodge dog show 2026 “best in show” trophy!

Dogs can bring comfort, companionship, and joy, supporting residents’ emotional well-being and reducing feelings of loneliness.

And at Kingfisher Lodge we pride ourselves on being an inclusive environment, so when little Reggie the whippet showed up, we were over the moon. One resident was so impressed by his wheelchair she also wanted the sides of her wheelchair to be in camouflage!

But the star of the show and the dog that won all our hearts was golden retriever Hartley. With two first places already under his belt, the judges also awarded him best in show!  

We would like to say a big hello and welcome to Nick, our new and very talented potter! Nick will be teaching small workshops monthly and supporting residents to make some very special pieces of pottery for keepsakes or to gift their loved ones.
We started our new pottery club by making some very beautiful name plates using a coil and pea method, as well as encouraging a person’s creativity, this activity is also very good for promoting hand-eye coordination and the results are stunning.

Nick will now take these pieces away fire and glaze them for us and bring them back with him next month.At the end Nick gave us a masterclass showing how to make a clay rose, something that we will be attempting in a future session.

During Pride month we threw a fantastic party celebrating love in all its wonderful forms!

With the colours of the rainbow all over the garden, beautiful love songs performed by the fantastic singer Johnny Smyth and delicious cream teas and cakes, what more could we need!

We also celebrated a very special birthday for one gentleman who had all his family gather for the occasion.

We don’t know how we could have celebrated love better.

We celebrated England’s first win of the World Cup while getting together and having some match snacks and beverages to watch the beautiful game.

Our amazing night staff not only served up this lovely evening feast but also joined our residents to cheer on our national team.

Claudia our general manager had this message for our night team “while most of us are asleep, you are here caring for our residents, keeping them safe, comfortable, and reassured throughout the night, your efforts do not go unnoticed, please know that your contribution is valued and appreciated every single day.”

A huge thank you was given to all of our amazing nurses for the care, compassion and dedication they show every single day to our residents and their families. They truly make a difference.

Our residents enjoyed making special thank you cards for all of our nurses, and we also treated them to some chocolates as a small token of our appreciation. We were also delighted to host a breakfast morning for our nurses and local community nurses, giving everyone the chance to enjoy a lovely breakfast and a drink before starting their busy day.      

To commemorate the anniversary of the passing of Elvis Presley, we decided to have our very own little Graceland party. Our residents love Elvis, and we often use his music for various activities and what an absolute ball we had.

With blow-up guitars, microphones and Elvis masks, we thought we were ready, but then the legend himself, Elvis, entered the building and blew us all away. We kept it all very American by dining on hot dogs and chips. 

All that’s left to say in true Elvis style is: “Thank you, thank you very much."  

We took a little trip to the allotment where earlier in the year some of our residents planted vegetables. With spades and forks our residents dug up the veggie patches and harvested some potatoes, brown and red onions and garlic. In the green house there were lots of cucumbers ready to pick and we also noticed the rhubarb was looking good so we took some of that home too! We had a lovely coffee and a biscuit in the sunshine before making our way back to Kingfisher Lodge for lunch. 

We have big plans with the allotment in the next 12 months including using it to cultivate new plants, harvest cuttings and re-home established plants to create a smaller but totally inclusive version in our own garden so that more residents can access the veggie patch.

Before this spell of very hot weather hit, we went for a lovely day trip out to the seaside in our Minibus.
Weston-Super-Mare is known for many things but mainly seaside chips, tasty ice creams, The Grand Pier and donkeys. We absolutely took advantage of all those things and were very grateful that the friendly donkey keeper brought over Minnie the donkey to the seawall to say hello!      

But we had another meet and greet and that was with a velociraptor! Indeed, we all said hello and one of our brave residents patted it on the nose!

Fun was had by everyone and we even had a few family members join us to make some very happy and special memories of the day.

Some of our residents enjoyed a wonderful day out at Bristol Zoo Project. Everyone enjoyed the sunshine, seeing the wonderful animals, and spending quality time together making special memories. 

There were plenty of smiles and laughter all around. The bears were a great sighting in the new habitat that they have at this wildlife centre. We got to see them up close while we made our way along the tree-top accessible pathway.      

We took advantage of the fine weather by going for a little walk to our local café in the morning with a few of our residents and then in the same afternoon we went along to the local monthly coffee afternoon at Saltford hall.

There’s nothing better than enjoying a delicious cup of coffee and a piece of cake in good company, especially when the sun is shining!

We enjoy going out on day trips in a minibus, but we also know how lucky we are situated here at Saltford and how we can access our community so easily. It’s important to feel a sense of belonging where you live and being able to use our local facilities and join community groups helps our residents feel this too.