Here at Ashby House it was a very special day - one of our lovely residents, Mary Peak, celebrated her 100th birthday!

In the morning she had a skype call with family while she opened her cards and presents, so they could be involved too. She received many lovely cards from family and friends and some lovely presents, including some from all the staff here at Ashby House. Mary became emotional reading a letter from the Mayor of Milton Keynes and a telegraph from the Queen.

In the afternoon we had a wonderful party to celebrate this fantastic milestone in Mary’s life. Decorations were put up, party music was played and everyone had a lovely time. Our chef made lots of delicious party food for all to enjoy.

Mary is a wonderful woman and a lovely member of Ashby House - it was delightful to celebrate her special day with her. Congratulations Mary!

Residents at Ashby House have been using their crafting skills to send a bright message of hope and love to everyone passing by.

On Friday 8th May 2020, it was the 75th Anniversary of VE Day.

The balloons were pumped up and the music was on – everyone was singing along to well known songs, waving their flags, with their VE day hats on.

We have been reminiscing. We looked at some old photos relating to the war - spitfires, warships, ration books and children evacuating. One resident recalls that during the war she worked in a mill making rope to be sent to ships to use for the war effort. She also remembers ships coming in near where she lived, with troops on. While the troops were on land she and around 20 other ladies scrubbed the ships clean so they could be used as hospital ships to transport the wounded and ill back to America. One of these ships was the Queen Mary.

We enjoyed lots of food from the era, such as spam sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, and mini quiches.

Local bakery, J Bakes Cakes, has given staff a very generous donation of a beautiful cake for us all to enjoy. It almost looked too good to eat! However, we all enjoyed the masterpiece.

We have also had another donation of pastries, muffins, grapes and strawberries from Night River Shelter. Everything was so fresh and yummy!

We would like to thank all who donate to us in these worrying times.

We had such a lovely surprise today when some volunteers from a local church came around to Ashby with a donation of cakes, sandwiches, rolls, biscuits, all from Greggs for staff and residents here at Ashby House.

A few days later we had another lovely surprise and the same volunteer’s came back with a massive bag of small foiled chocolate eggs! These are all available for all residents and staff to have around Easter!

We would like to say a massive thank you! And thank you to relatives for bringing in cake, chocolates for all the staff and residents. We really appreciate it during this time.

We are still crafting here at Ashby House. Across the country many children have been colouring and painting rainbows to spread hope in response to the Coronavirus.

We thought that we would join in with this movement! For the past couple of weeks our residents have been painting rainbows to put around the care home so that the community passing can see as well as our fellow residents.

We have also have a few school children painting and writing letters to us to lift our spirits and inspire hope! Our residents have loved all of it and were so happy to read and see everyone’s creations.

We have created a ‘Smile Board’ to display all the wonderful things we have received!