After a good few rainy days, we were delighted that the sun shone for the first of our summer events: our first BBQ of the year. We had a great time with residents, family and friends on the May Bank Holiday weekend. There was music and singing from G & T Acoustics and amazing BBQ food from John, John and Wendy. Lots of staff came in on their day off and the team worked incredibly hard to make sure everyone had a fun day.
Be sure to put 21st July in your diary as we are hosting our Summer Fete. There will be stalls, a raffle, tombola, games, ice creams and cakes. Please do give us a shout if you are a stall holder and want to be involved.
Events and celebrations
We celebrated Doreen’s 100th birthday. Such a very special lady; 100 birthdays, adventures, long friendships, all the amazing poems remembered, recited and wisdom given. She wanted a quiet day with “no fuss” but we had other ideas! Our chef made her favourite chocolate cheese cake and night staff decorated the Manor to surprise Doreen on her birthday morning. The fragrance of flowers could be smelt throughout our home. Friends from around the world sent cards, flowers and messages and, of course, she received a card from King Charles and Queen Camilla. 
On International Nurses Day we celebrated all the brilliant nurses we know. We had a lovely time chatting about a career as a nurse and how nursing has changed throughout the last 100 years. We learnt about Florence Nightingale and her efforts to improve nursing. This then lead to chatting about Edith Cavell, a famous Red Cross nurse.
International Tea Day was an excuse for a tea party! We had a great afternoon trying lots of different flavoured teas from around the world. A few favourites and dislikes, but overall lots of fun.
National Cheese Day. There seems to be a day for everything! We even found a cheesy quiz for our clever residents and put together a cheese board for supper.
Our Men’s Club are loving their get togethers. Sometimes they chose a film to watch, other times, chatting about sport or the news. The RSPB Garden Bird Count results recently came out, so for the last Men’s Club they chose a spot of bird watching in the garden. There are always pub snacks and tipples. The response has been “It’s great having a beer and crisps, can we do this again?” Of course! Men’s Club is the last Friday of each month.
Rainy days and Mondays
Rainy days call for games in the lounge. There is always a competitive edge to our scrabble playing! And we all do enjoy socialising at one of our regular events – bingo. One of our gentleman residents is fondly called Bingo Bill when he is our bingo caller, as he does it with such flare!
We have some fabulous bakers at our home too, who whip up all sorts of delicious treats for us. Cupcakes with red and white icing for St Georges Day, for example.
Messy Mondays are our crafting days. Our Easter craft, making salt dough decorations, gave a real sense of achievement. Some of our residents who thought they were “no good at art” proved to themselves that “there is no wrong way to be creative”. With lots of encouragement from each other, guidance from Sarah, our Lifestyle and Wellbeing lead, and a bit of time (with lots of nattering, giggles, tea and biccies!) the resulting decorations were super-impressive and much admired on our Easter tree.
What better way to start preparations for D-Day commemorative events than getting creative! Lots of chatter, laughter, reminiscing and creativity.
Our beautiful gardens
Residents love to get out into the garden at any opportunity. It’s so important for our mental health to have that connection with nature, fresh air and tranquillity. With the weather so inclement, our secret walled garden has some lovely sheltered sunny spots. It’s a good place to oversea some gardening. Thank you to one of our resident’s family for helping make the raised herb beds. Residents have now planted their vegetable plants and are busy tending their flower seedlings. They have also created a gnome patch!
We have had a visit from John, our local Essex Wildlife Community Ranger. He had a tour round our beautiful gardens and chatted about how we can treasure the amazing flowers, trees and increase wildlife.
He discovered butterfly eggs on the nettles. Residents are keeping a watchful eye as they change. John will be keeping in touch, and attending our Gardening Club. He will be working with residents to tend to our local wildlife and gardens.