Celebrating life at Barchester

After weeks upon weeks of glorious sunshine, we’re finally getting to see some much-needed rain.

But a few rainy days certainly haven’t put a dampener on things here at Bayleaf! We’ve been keeping our residents busy with a fantastic variety of activities.

We’ve been having fun with games on the magic tablet, held our very own in-house ten-pin bowling competition and we’ve enjoyed plenty of ball games with our giant parachute.

It has been such a pleasure watching our residents getting involved, having fun and, most importantly, enjoying themselves.

Whether the sun is shining or the rain is falling, there’s always plenty going on at Bayleaf!

Residents enjoy getting creative and taking part in a variety of fun arts and crafts activities. They enjoy the socialising aspect of the craft club alongside demonstrating their creative skills.

A hugely popular afternoon at Wimborne was our petting Farm experience.

We had residents holding ducks, guinea pigs, rabbits and chicks. We had a wonderful array of animals to enjoy and it was glorious to see the many generations enjoying the fun and frolicks from the sheep, goats, minature donkeys and even turkeys!

The donkeys had an internal tour too!

Our Summer Fair was a wonderful afternoon of stalls, songs, raffles, cakes, icecreams and smiling faces. We had many family and community join our residents.

The fresh daily bread is going down a treat, especially as we move to our delicious, nutritious Autumn menu

Some of our residents thoroughly enjoy gathering together and enjoy listening to and discussing poetry - they come prepared with their favourite poems, leading to lovely discussions and laughter. Some highlights of this regular gathering include creating our own limericks, Singing/Talking "Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace" and more recently, the discussing the poetic brilliance of the newly departed Dolly Parton.

Now becoming a favourite activity at Pittsmead, it's wonderful to see how some words can inspire and bring back happy memories.

Residents of Ross Court enjoyed A wonderful morning at Pen Y Bryn Animal Sanctuary, where they got to spend time with some of the beautiful animals that are in the sanctuary's care.

They are typically not open to the public, however in their kindness we we're able to visit to learn more about what they do, and spend time with some of their animals, which is a real credit to the Ross community spirit. 

Not only did residents, get to spend a morning at the Sanctuary, they were able to take in the beautiful surrounding countryside, get in touch with nature, and go somewhere that is typically not accessible to the general public.