Celebrating life at Barchester

Our home was filled with flowers, cards and sweets in celebration of St Valentine’s Day.    Staff and residents celebrated the day of love by showing love and kindness to their carers with handmade chocolate truffles and heart decorations. They held a practical ‘Heart Healthy’ presentation giving residents handy hints for better sleep, reducing stress and gentle exercises. Residents were excited to play a special edition of Valentine’s bingo, raised £70 in a raffle and finally enjoyed a medley of love songs performed by Clearer Productions.

June, a resident said: “It has been a lovely day. It was wonderful to see everyone go to so much effort to get involved with the day’s festivities. I really enjoyed the raffle and bingo, I won two prizes! 

The staff and residents have been mixing up batter and flipping pancakes all morning in preparation for their annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day celebrations.   We marked this year’s Pancake Day with a pancake tossing competition and of course, lots of pancakes! The home chef, flipped more than 50 pancakes, serving them up with sweet and savoury fillings for all the eager staff and residents.

He said: “My secret to the best pancakes is all in the whipping. Give it some elbow grease when mixing the batter and you’ll get perfect pancakes every time. I like experimenting with the fillings – the residents’ favourites are honey, chocolate spread and banana and of course, good old-fashioned lemon and sugar!”

Resident, Norman had always wanted to return to St John’s University where he taught in the early 1950s Norman wanted to go back and see a photo of himself from that time which is displayed proudly in the entrance to the original part of the university and is also the place where he met his wife Anne at one of the many dances held there they have been married to for over seventy years! so staff at the home made his wish a reality proving the old adage, it’s never too late.

Norman has lived at Mulberry Court for nearly two years with his wife Anne and is beloved by staff and residents alike. Staff at the home were delighted to be a part of making his dream come true, as they knew how much it meant to him, and they all wanted to be there to see the smile on Norman’s face when his dream was realised.

Our latest community dog café welcomed an impressive TWELVE dogs to Farley Gardens to meet our residents for an afternoon of fun!

Resident, Gill, was on hand to masterfully make the puppycinos while we enjoyed a tricky quiz for dog lovers! We had an impressive tie breaker where 4 dogs competed with their best trick, resulting in Jack taking home his winning dog toy! Well done Jack and thank you to all those who joined us, as we build this wonderful community of dog lovers!