Celebrating life at Barchester

A fantastic day seeing all the animals. It brought back memories and happy times and even seeing some of these animals for the very first time. We had little Lilah making sure the day went smoothly. 

Great day had by all!

We had the most perfect afternoon with the Garstang Ukuele group playing for our residents while we enjoyed burgers, hot dogs, and desserts.

The family enjoyed a Pimms with their loved ones while the kids played games, enjoyed goodies from the shop, had donkey rides and their faces painted by Krystal. 

We had a dog show for everyone to enjoy, and some very worthy winners were well done little pooches. Congratulations on the WINNERS of the Hamper and night away to Wonderland retreats. Amazing day. Well done to all involved.  

Thank you to everyone who helped or donated.

In a recent Resident’s Meeting, our residents asked for a gin tasting afternoon and a cheese and wine night. Activities and the kitchen team delivered upon these food-based activities and more, with the Head Chef delivering a cocktail in the afternoon too. 

There are lots of plans in place to make these events regular within our home, seeing the popularity amongst our residents and their family during their visits.    

We had fun in the home putting together our resident's words of wisdom for school children. Our residents are in particular looking forward to receiving children's words of wisdom in return, noting how important intergenerational relationships are to them. We had individual room visits full of reminisce, talking about the resident's school days. 

Please feel free to either post words of wisdom to our home or collate and email across to tixover.activities@barchester.com at, Caroline Geddes.

Rock-A-Hula Baby on August 12th we had our Hawaiian Day. There was fruit punch, hula skirts, straw hats and a ton of fun with Mike Memphis as Elvis performing some of Elvis' best hits. We had a lovely day in the sunshine and sang and danced like we were in Hawaii itself.    

We headed off to Brockbushes Farm Shop in Corbridge with our friends from Bedewell Grange Care Home. The rain kept us inside, but we had a lovely time looking through the shop and had some lovely food from the restaurant. After the visit, we headed off for a drive into Blanchland and for a look at the countryside.   

It brought back so many memories and also had everyone smiling.

This month we held our annual summer fair to raise money for our residents' fun. 

There were plenty of things to do with a tombola, bake sale, craft stall, ice cream van and hot food to buy. It was a lovely afternoon and the weather stayed on our side to make it even better. 

Our residents always enjoy a themed day in our home and this recent themed day was no exception. Residents in the lead up to the day enjoyed colouring elephant designs and exploring Oomph activity packs. We had an African-themed water colour painting activity and explored African travel in our nursing community. 

Our staff team got involved and shared their African culture on room visits in addition to their nursing duties, so for this we are so grateful, and it is a wonderful example of the whole home approach to life enrichment, diversity and variety in activity deliverance. One of our nurses kindly shared an African dance with a bed-bound resident whilst on one of his working nights.     

We were delighted to welcome Ability Dogs 4 Young People IoW to Orchard House, where our residents enjoyed meeting Cyril, Clive and Sami and learning about the amazing work therapy dogs do to bring comfort, companionship and joy to others.

We’re also incredibly excited to announce that Orchard House is now sponsoring Zara, Cyril’s sister, who is currently training to become a Therapy Dog! 

Our residents loved hearing about Zara’s journey and sharing their own memories of beloved pets.

A huge thank you to the Ability Dogs 4 Young People IoW team for such a wonderful visit — and we can’t wait to have you back again for another furry visit!