Activities at The Fernes Care Home

This year marked our very first Valentine’s Day at The Fernes and we made sure we celebrated in style!

Residents spent the day making bunting, flowers and centre pieces, as well as a table seating plan in preparation for the evening’s ‘Love your family’ Valentine's buffet, with friends and family donating £5 per head to the Barchester Foundation in exchange for a wonderful family Indian buffet meal.

There were onion bhajis for starters, followed by a selection of curries, including Korma and Madras. For those who weren’t so fond of curries, our chef made an incredible Turkey a la King to accompany the choice of 2 rice dishes, or mashed potatoes for those who preferred it. On the side, of course, were papadums, herb naan bread and a little minted sour cream for cooling! Dessert followed and consisted of a mouth-watering coconut cheesecake or ice cream, all washed down with a selection of drinks, including wine and beers.

Residents, their relatives and friends couldn’t praise our kitchen team more highly, with everyone complimenting the fantastic job that they had done throughout the night. We thank all of our guests for attending our dinner, and we hope to see you soon for the next one!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here at The Fernes, residents love our trips to the local aquarium, Maidenhead Aquatics, based in The Abbey Garden Centre. We try and visit at least once a month to feed the Koi Carp and look at the other colourful and beautiful fish.

We have decided it would be a brilliant idea to have our own fish tank so that those who are unable to come with us on trips (due to numbers or other engagements) can see and appreciate these beautiful creatures.

We were kindly donated a wonderful tank and stand by a member of the public. The tank is currently having a clean and we are sourcing our filters, heaters, pumps, décor and other bits and pieces; we will need to set up a tropical tank before we can cycle the tank filters and add our first fish.

We will keep you updated as the project progresses, so keep an eye out for more!

If you have anything that you would like to donate for our fish tank project, such as ornaments, or are interested in volunteering to help with this project, please get in contact with Kat, our Lifestyle Specialist and Activities Coordinator, on 01392 443600.

Residents received a visit from Betsy, who performed an amazing show called Hollywood Heartthrobs.

Backed by a red carpet backdrop and with multiple costume changes in between, Betsy performed songs from all the best-known artists, including Gene Kelly, Doris Day, and Elvis Presley.

The dresses matched each era that she sang through, with a simple light pink to start, through to a polka dot halter for the more 'rock 'n' roll' numbers, and finishing with a glamorous green floor length dress, completed with a white fur shawl for the more classy numbers, such as Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.

Betsy will be back on 2nd June performing a tribute to Judy Garland.

With a relaxing pianist in the morning and a bit of upbeat karaoke in the afternoon, our musical medley day was great for everyone.

We started the off day with Ang coming to play her piano for us in the morning. She delighted us with classical numbers, such as Air on the G String by Bach, A Thousand Years by Christina Perry and many others.

After a break for lunch, we were joined by Bernie for a bit of karaoke. With the words on the screen - and lots of energy and laughter - we sang along and danced to each and every song that was played.

The atmosphere was fantastic and all residents had a chance to sing with the microphone to different tunes if they wanted to.

We can’t wait to see these ladies again and look forward to their next visits in the very near future.

Resident, Pamela (in the middle), and her two sisters celebrated Burns Night at The Fernes. A special Burns Night menu was enjoyed by everyone at the home, which was followed by a little competition of guessing the content of the chocolate liquors. The dining room was decorated with tartan bunting made by residents earlier in the week.   

At The Fernes, we were lucky enough to be invited to the Henry Cort Christmas Party on Tuesday 13th December. Henry Cort is a secondary school based less than a mile down the road, so we were happy to come along and take part.

We were welcomed on arrival by smiling pupils who helped residents through to the hall that the party was taking place in. We were seated at a table filled with lovely cakes, crisps and snacks and were offered a hot drink. This was just the start of a fantastic party!

Our first lot of entertainment was from the school's choir singing a variety of Christmas music. This was interwoven with solos from different pupils who sounded amazing. Next, we had a bit of bingo and won with 2 full lines! Finally, we were all given raffle tickets and we had a raffle draw with all the residents being lucky enough to come home with a prize. 

Thank you so much to the lovely staff and pupils at Henry Cort for hosting us, and we hope to see you again next year!