There is nothing nicer than a freshly baked scone with strawberry jam and fresh cream. It's even better when you've baked them yourself!

Residents at Woodland View made a large batch of what have to have been some of the nicest scones you could get. Not surprisingly, the reward for their effort was an afternoon tea featuring the very same scones.

It's a fair certainty that more scones will be produced in the near future!

Vimla Parmessa gives 100% all of the time, coming in on her days off to cover when needed. She is conscientious and a joy to work with.

Clare Leach had a packed audience on a cold February day at Woodland View. A weekly visitor to Woodland View, providing interactive singalong sessions with song sheets, Clare gets a great reaction from both residents and visitors, with their favourite song for interactive fun without a doubt being 'Underneath the Spreading Chestnut Tree'.

Activities Coordinator, Kevin Riley, always appears just in time with his battery operated bubble machine, working his way around the audience during 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles' – another firm favourite – unless you've just had your hair done by Tansie in the home's own hair salon of course!

We decorated the main coffee lounge and reception, changed the mood lighting to pink shades and introduced a cuddly Tiger called Valentino for everyone to bond with to celebrate Valentine's Day. In the morning, residents attended a craft session to create Valentine's=themed boxes, complimented by a Valentine's fact and famous couples quiz in the afternoon. Residents loved it all!

Folks at Woodland View were quite ready for this year's Shrove Tuesday, with residents and the staff all having a go at doing more than just eating pancakes.

Staff took part in a pancake challenge, which had them puffing and panting, progressing down one of the community corridors, holding a frying pan containing a pancake. As they arrived at predetermined points along the course, they had to turn around three times before tossing the pancake. They would then progress in an increasingly dizzy state! This was on a stopwatch and times were compared and an overall winner established. The winner – super-fast Housekeeper, Kate Wlodarczyk – won a bottle of our finest Prosecco with Senior Carer, Ann Francis, winning the booby prize (a packet of 8 ready-made pancakes!) for being super-slow, but still out of breath! Residents watched, laughing out loud, as this ridiculous caper continued.

Residents were not going to get away lightly – oh no!. Activities Coordinator, Kevin Riley, prepared a firing range for them in the form of a target, which was over 4 feet tall, which was projected on to a large piece of vinyl. Armed with buttered scotch pancakes, they were to score points by throwing them at the target. The pancakes, of course, would stick and the appropriate scores recorded for three pancakes thrown. Despite the size of the target, the residents still missed! This was hilarious and eventually scores were recorded... for most anyway. Sharp shooter, Peter Hurst, won a large box of chocolates, with Mary Harvey winning the booby prize for the lowest score. She was so impressed when she received her very own packet of scotch pancakes.

An exhausting but fun day for all involved and one that would be fondly talked about for days to come.

There's nothing more effective than combining the power of music from a decade long gone with the therapeutic properties of art. At Woodland View, residents appreciated this soothing combination and its benefits.

Those lovely old tunes, very familiar to those attending, stimulated both memories and conversation, providing a wonderful backdrop for the painting and drawing sessions. Some of the residents produced their own work, whilst others preferred to use prepared drawings for colouring.