Activities at Milford House Care Home

Milford residents certainly enjoyed their visit from Duncan and his 1948 Albion lorry which was in service locally as a Brewer’s Dray until 1963. It was then sold and used until 1986 after which it was left outside and allowed to become derelict. The lorry was restored to its former glory in 1997 after four years of restoration work. It's now a regular at venues such as the Dorset Steam Fair and the Berwick St John Country Fayre where it helps raise money for local charities.

While we viewed the truck and admired the gleaming paintwork we chatted to Duncan and enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies. There was only one disappointment – that it wasn’t carrying the original cargo of ale! Thank you Duncan for a great afternoon.

Milford residents celebrated the day with enthusiasm and great fun as they got together to create a fabulous replica of the home complete with porch and Christmas wreath on the front door for Gingerbread House Day . Until this week we might have said that the snowman and snow were a little over the top but, with the freezing temperatures and flurries of snow, our baking and decorating has truly imitated life. We will be entering our 'Milford House' into Barchester's Gingerbread House competition - so good luck everyone and fingers crossed!

There was lots of party spirit in evidence as residents enjoyed their Christmas Wine & Cheese Party. There was a fabulous cheese and charcuterie board as the main event, followed by trays of 'sweet treats' to round off the evening and of course the wine! Many thanks to the chef team who prepared the tempting treats and to all the staff who joined in the evening. Crackers were pulled, jokes told and party hats were all the rage - it was a great evening. Looking forward to the next party already!

We had a great afternoon thanks to everyone who came along to our Christmas Fete. We were honoured to have the Deputy Mayor of Salisbury, Councillor Atiqul Hoque attend along with Salisbury Community Choir who sang carols around the Christmas tree in the courtyard. We had an array of crafts and food and other items on show and special thanks to Lucinda Nicholas - Artist, George Shapland - Woodturner and Mary from Phoenix Artists for setting up their fabulous stalls with lots of things to tempt! There was also an array of delights from the Milford Kitchen and handmade chocolates amongst other things. It was lovely to welcome so many people to the home and we will look forward to doing it all again next year!

Our huge thanks to everyone at Riding for the Disabled - Wilton Group who hosted us for such a great afternoon at their centre where residents got to see the facilities and meet super friendly ponies Tommy, Mikey, Frankie and Poppy and not forgetting Marmite the cat as well! We were able to see some of the ponies in the fields as well as the yard as, fortunately after all the bad weather this week, it was a gloriously sunny afternoon, before getting up close in the covered menage. It turned out that one of our residents had volunteered here some 20 years ago so it was a real trip down memory lane. After meeting the ponies, residents enjoyed a tour of the tack rooms before being treated to tea and chatting about the work that the volunteers do here. It really was a great afternoon with smiles all round and we hope to be back before too long!

A group of residents were delighted recently to take up the invitation to attend the 'Celebrate Age Gala Concert' featuring some of the international cast of the festival opera ‘Pirates of Penzance’ who performed a range of music covering opera, musical theatre, folk songs, parlour songs and popular music. Organised as part of the Celebrate Voice Festival in Salisbury, the concert took place in the loveliest of settings, Salisbury Guildhall, and with a scrumptious tea served during the course of the concert it was a very special afternoon indeed.