Activities at Wimborne Care Home

Hayling has a unique seasonal favourite – Sam’s Sunflowers. Sam a local farmer, some 6 years ago, planted a small patch of sunflowers for his wedding, sadly the weather wasn’t kind and timing was off so he sadly had to give them away, raising funds for charity in doing so. 

This started a business that has now become ‘ Sam’s Sunflowers’ and fields & fields of Sunflowers, love is still very much in the air. A couple of our residents, soon to celebrate their 70th Wedding Anniversary enjoyed being part of a very super trip there. We at Wimborne love supporting local businesses and are delighted that Sam’s has been voted UK Sunflower Field of the Year 2025!

A local Volunteer – Rosy Raines, who also happens to be the Town Ccrier, came and shared her passion for flower arranging with us.

The jars were recycled, the flowers were trimmed and from happy residents with busy fingers the home was soon filled with little pots of colour and fragrance. Dining tables, windows sills and bedrooms all benefitted and the colour brightened everyone and everything. One of our residents was a florist and she delighted in returning to this joyous activity, others tackled a new pastime with smiles and chatter.

Wimborne celebrated another event with some interesting and varied sharing. We collaborated with Hayling Camera Club and had a unique display of 14 photos of Hayling sights. From these residents and staff chose a favourite which will soon adorn the walls. In addition a morning of sharing favourite shots elicited some wonderful conversations and reminiscences.

The camera can tell part of the story, at Wimborne we love to hear residents complete the tale, we are a home of conversation and warmth and sharing. Of chatter and giggles, of debate and discovery, the photos gave us a great deal to discuss and enjoy.

On VJ Day, Friday 15th August, Wimborne was filled with excitement. The sun was shining, our courtyard was bustling with a party atmosphere. Sarah Peach, our General Manager, and Zoe Freeman, our Senior Activities Coordinator, had secured Veteran Friendly Status (Wimborne the first to do so in the Barchester Family) and what better day to celebrate this achievement! 

With bunting and balloons, a sensationally tasty BBQ and live music, drinks were flowing, shade was welcome and we all had a great time celebrating with our veteran residents, all our residents and our very many guests and visitors.

Wimborne is a Care Home with a great many dog lovers and those that do enjoyed National Dog Day. We enjoyed lots of 4 legged visitors and their owners. The waggy tales and wet noses started conversations and connections, it was a magical day and the smiles were aplenty. 

Visitors all enjoyed refreshments, including dog biscuits and cakes to suit! We are now aiming to be Hayling Island’s most dog friendly Care Home.

Us chocoholics had a wonderful day celebrating World Chocolate day and all things chocolate! We enjoyed a chocolate quiz bringing back memories of our favourite chocolate boxes and their slogans, as well as enjoying some classic dairy milk, chocolate fudge cake and homemade chocolate shakes from our amazing head chef, Hayden! 

We couldn’t decide on our favourite chocolate bar but have come to the conclusion that chocolate equals happiness.     

Our home is right in the holiday town of Hayling Island, a place many people spend their summer and travel for miles to visit, so with this wonderful seaside on our doorstep we brought the ocean to them. 

Many of our residents dream of putting their feet back in the ocean, so we brought this experience to them. Enjoying the sunshine, paddling their feet in the water and enjoying a refreshing ice cream is the perfect way to spend a hot summer's day!  

Today we saddled up for a rootin’-tootin’ good time at Wimborne Care Home with our Western-Themed Event! From cowboy hats and line dancing to country tunes and hearty laughs, our residents had an unforgettable day of fun, friendship, and frontier flair. With live country music, line dancing, Smokehouse BBQ, Smiles, stories, and moments to remember.

It was heart-warming to see our wonderful residents, family and community come together in celebration, and we’re so proud to keep building joyful, memory-filled days like this. A huge thank-you to our amazing team and all the guests who made it so special! 

Motorbike fan moment we spent the evening taking the men for a night to remember! We enjoyed joining the famous Hayling Bike Night and it did not disappoint joining hundreds of people from all over the south who join once a week. 

A few of our residents owned bikes all their life and felt like they were back in their community and their biker family hearing the engines roar and admire these amazing machines, we already can’t wait for another night just like this! 

We are excited to share with you this session of our gardening club. We planted our seeds a while ago, and now we have sprouts for our veg, it’s time for them to be planted in our sensory courtyard. 

We have planted not only pretty flowers to brighten up the courtyard, but courgettes, tomatoes and many vegetables. We can’t wait to watch it flourish! During our biweekly sessions, we enjoy picking any vegetables that are fully grown and keeping outgrowing veg healthy and watered. 

This night was an absolute success. We enjoyed a night in our lovely courtyard trying different wines and cheeses whilst listening to the talented Nathalie Gunn, who sang us through some of the greatest jazz and songs throughout the decades! 

We ended the night up on our feet dancing and enjoying the sunset with friends, family and starting the summer perfectly. 

It is time for our annual sunflower competition here at Wimborne. All staff and residents love to join in every year and this day was no different. Everyone lined up to pick their special sunflower seed, from a classic sunflower to king sunflowers and some more exotic species. 

Everyone planted their seeds with love, ready to keep watered in the conservatory until they are ready to be planted. Everyone has been keeping a close eye on their little sprouting seed and hoping they can take home the win this year for best looking, the biggest head and tallest sunflower. 

This has got to be the most important day of the year for our residents here at Wimborne. We have many residents that served in the war and others that remember celebrating this day with street parties and hearing Winston Churchill declare Victory in Europe. We didn’t just celebrate with one day, but the whole week, enjoying celebrations out in the community, taking 15 of our residents to the beach to enjoy a live brass band, meeting service men and even getting interviewed by ITV. 

Throughout the week, we headed out to attend our community centre celebrations and a college where we enjoyed a performance by the children. We then finished out the week with a 1940’s BBQ and party with our friends and family in our courtyard with live music, great food and lots of dancing.   

Now the sun is shining, it is time to head back out to sea! Inspired by our ex-marine engineer, Tim, as well as our resident, Colin, who used to own a boat and was at his happiest when at sea, we decided to get these men back out to sea. We partnered up with the amazing charity Solent Dolphins, who helped make this dream come true. We headed out on our mini-bus to the seaside town of Heath. As we boarded the boat, we enjoyed a gourmet packed lunch from our head chef and headed out to sea. 

We enjoyed seeing all the sights of the Solent, from luxury yachts to black swans. We got to see some wonderful sights and everyone can't wait for the next trip on the water.

The night finally arrived for a wonderful evening full of laughter with friends, family and colleagues. We were lucky enough to be joined by a group of hilarious comedians hosted by the one and only Marcus! 

The evening couldn’t have been better, with laughter all night, everyone enjoying jokes, music and a few drinks with all our favourite people! Thank you to all the comedians who performed and everyone for supporting our night. We can’t wait for the next one.