So April, the garden is full of buds waiting to burst and the daffodils and tulips are in  bloom.

We have been busy on a spring/Easter theme in arts and crafts. We painted pictures of our favourite animals, made clay models of Easter eggs, chicks and animals and painted them. We made, decorated and painted Easter bonnets.

We have been busy in the greenhouse, sewing seeds such as basil, chives, thyme, lettuce, coriander and mint. We have also planted flowers in pots and displayed them in the garden and on the tables. The sing for fun choir, Stella, music for health and Java Jive have been in to entertain us. They all managed, to get our feet tapping and even a few up having a jig.

Our Mini-bus whisked us off to Pegwell Bay, Sandwich Quay for ice cream, Gibsons farm shop for coffee and Goodnestone Park to the old dairy cafe for tea. In our baking session, we made, blueberry muffins, chocolate chip and cherry cookies and lastly our Chocolate Easter nests filled with Maltese bunnies and mini eggs. Our food experiences this month took us to, Germany, Jamaica, Peru, Cambodia and Finland and the catering staff did not disappoint us.

We have created our own smoothie’s, which is always fun and they are delicious and nutritious. The cheese and wine tasting, in the summerhouse, was a delight, it was followed by a trivia quiz. The Grand National was such fun. We had a sweepstakes and those that came first, second or third won prizes, we watched the race in the lounge and enjoyed wine, beer and snacks.

St George’s day was another celebration.  We made personal cross’s of St George to decorate the lounge, traditional English afternoon tea with Prosecco followed by a quiz.

Other April Activities were, chair yoga, manicures, board games, walks in the village, book club, lots more besides and those that wanted to, watch the Popes funeral and the London Marathon. Never a dull moment.

Looking forward to what’s in Mays activity diary.

So February, the shortest month but filled with love. If you are a regular reader of our activity page, you will know that food is very much on the agenda. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we visited 🇲🇽 Mexico - 🇬🇷 Greece - Morocco 🇲🇦 and 🇯🇵 Japan. The catering staff always make delicious tasters for us to enjoy. We have been busy baking pizzas, cakes, cookies, turnovers and smoothies. Our cheese and wine afternoon was a mixture of French and British cheeses, helped down with Pinot Grigio and Merlot. After we had a cheese and wine quiz.

On Valentine’s Day morning, we were entertained by Glenda with songs of love. In the afternoon we had tea and cake with some bubbles to celebrate the day of love ❤️ Fizzy Friday, we sampled, peach and passion fruit cocktail, red berry fizz, mojitos, lager shandy and for the tea totals we had cherry cola, pink lemonade and shandy. On the entertainment front we’ve had a busy month. We painted pictures of ribbons for world cancer day and our favourite birds and pastel marble painting. We made heart wreaths, that we put on our doors. We have started our personal scrap books of our interests, past interests, hobbies and things we enjoy and love.

We have been out on the mini-bus to Mama Feelgoods- Juliette’s - Gibsons and the Tadpole Tearoom, they all do yummy food and we always enjoy visiting them. Apart from Glenda, we were entertained by Stella’s music for health, Java jive and Abi music. On the games front we’ve have played numerous card and board games, this keeps ‘the little grey cells’ on the ball. Our flower arranging group have worked with Daffodils, tulips and roses. Our finished displays were placed around the home. Movie/TV club have watched a variety of programs and films, these were discussed afterwards.

As if that wasn’t enough to keep us out of trouble, we have had quizzes in the summer house, manicures and hand massages, there has been great interest in the six nations rugby tournament, poetry club, knitting and sewing group and finally floor games. We are really looking forward to the weather getting warmer, we have a great summer house and a beautiful garden to sit in, roll on summer.

March. The meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the 1st March. March was the 1st month of the earliest Roman calendar, Marius. So called after the Roman God of war, Mars.

Three months into 2025, we are enjoying the spring weather and keeping busy. We celebrate two saints days in March. On the first day of the month we celebrated St David’s day. In the morning we made Welsh cakes for afternoon tea, followed by a St David’s day quiz. In the afternoon we made felt daffodils in arts and crafts. For supper we were treated to Welsh Rabbit - laverbread - Welsh apple pudding to finish.

On the 17th March, we celebrated St Patrick’s Day. We started the day with an Irish based quiz. In the afternoon we made stain glass shamrocks, in arts and crafts. For supper we had Colcannon soup - Irish stew - and cake for supper. On ‘Red NoseDay’, we baked cakes in the morning, ready for our fundraiser for ‘Comic Relief in the afternoon. We had a sing-a-long after the cake sale.

Shrove Tuesday, in the morning we whisked up our own Smoothies. In the afternoon we created pancakes. We filled them with sugar and lemon, my favourite, Nutella and strawberry sauce and cream. We had a ‘tossing’ the pancake competition and we enjoyed watching the staff, racing round the garden, frying pans and pancakes in all directions.

On world book day, we formed a group, to discuss our favourite childhood books. The three bears was a popular one as were Swallows and Amazons, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and the Beatrix Potter books. In the afternoon in arts and crafts, we made personalised book marks.

Guess the fruit and herb quiz, was great fun. When you have your eyes shut and have to rely on your nose, it makes it all the more challenging. Pomegranate, kiwi, dragon fruit, watermelon, pineapple and coconut were tried. In the herb section rosemary, mint, basil, chive, sage and tarragon were used.

We have been out and about with walks in the garden and round the village. Mr T took us out on the Mini-bus. We went to Gibsons twice for coffee and cake, Canterbury garden centre, Juliette’s cafe and St Anselm’s school on an Easter themed outing, we had afternoon tea, had a game of Bingo and the pupils sang for us.

We have been entertained by Stella, music for health, Laura’s sing along and Littlebourne’s Little Beavers, who came to the summer house and read their favourite books and sang songs for us. We have joined in with, Arts and Crafts - updating our scrap books - and ballon modelling. We have baked cakes and biscuits in cookery club. We have played games inside and outside. We have crammed in piano playing, chair yoga, Holly Communion, book and poetry club, knitting, quizzes, story reading and a residents meeting.

Last but not least ‘Taste it Tuesday we visited Portugal 🇵🇹- France 🇫🇷 and Vietnam 🇻🇳 all very delicious. Fizzy Friday we were tempted to a glass or three with Mimosas or cloudy lemonade, Sunset cocktail, ginger bear or shandy and to finish pink gins/tonic or dandelion and burdock. We have achieved a lot this month.

Let’s see what April brings.

So February, the shortest month but filled with love. If you are a regular reader of our activity page, you will know that food is very much on the agenda. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we visited 🇲🇽 Mexico - 🇬🇷 Greece - Morocco 🇲🇦 and 🇯🇵 Japan. The catering staff always make delicious tasters for us to enjoy. We have been busy baking pizzas, cakes, cookies, turnovers and smoothies. Our cheese and wine afternoon was a mixture of French and British cheeses, helped down with Pinot Grigio and Merlot. After we had a cheese and wine quiz.

On Valentine’s Day morning, we were entertained by Glenda with songs of love. In the afternoon we had tea and cake with some bubbles to celebrate the day of love ❤️ Fizzy Friday, we sampled, peach and passion fruit cocktail, red berry fizz, mojitos, lager shandy and for the tea totals we had cherry cola, pink lemonade and shandy. On the entertainment front we’ve had a busy month. We painted pictures of ribbons for world cancer day and our favourite birds and pastel marble painting. We made heart wreaths, that we put on our doors. We have started our personal scrap books of our interests, past interests, hobbies and things we enjoy and love.

We have been out on the mini-bus to Mama Feelgoods- Juliette’s - Gibsons and the Tadpole Tearoom, they all do yummy food and we always enjoy visiting them. Apart from Glenda, we were entertained by Stella’s music for health, Java jive and Abi music. On the games front we’ve have played numerous card and board games, this keeps ‘the little grey cells’ on the ball. Our flower arranging group have worked with Daffodils, tulips and roses. Our finished displays were placed around the home. Movie/TV club have watched a variety of programs and films, these were discussed afterwards.

As if that wasn’t enough to keep us out of trouble, we have had quizzes in the summer house, manicures and hand massages, there has been great interest in the six nations rugby tournament, poetry club, knitting and sewing group and finally floor games. We are really looking forward to the weather getting warmer, we have a great summer house and a beautiful garden to sit in, roll on summer.

March. The meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the 1st March. March was the 1st month of the earliest Roman calendar, Marius. So called after the Roman God of war, Mars.

Three months into 2025, we are enjoying the spring weather and keeping busy. We celebrate two saints days in March. On the first day of the month we celebrated St David’s day. In the morning we made Welsh cakes for afternoon tea, followed by a St David’s day quiz. In the afternoon we made felt daffodils in arts and crafts. For supper we were treated to Welsh Rabbit - laverbread - Welsh apple pudding to finish.

On the 17th March, we celebrated St Patrick’s Day. We started the day with an Irish based quiz. In the afternoon we made stain glass shamrocks, in arts and crafts. For supper we had Colcannon soup - Irish stew - and cake for supper. On ‘Red NoseDay’, we baked cakes in the morning, ready for our fundraiser for ‘Comic Relief in the afternoon. We had a sing-a-long after the cake sale.

Shrove Tuesday, in the morning we whisked up our own Smoothies. In the afternoon we created pancakes. We filled them with sugar and lemon, my favourite, Nutella and strawberry sauce and cream. We had a ‘tossing’ the pancake competition and we enjoyed watching the staff, racing round the garden, frying pans and pancakes in all directions.

On world book day, we formed a group, to discuss our favourite childhood books. The three bears was a popular one as were Swallows and Amazons, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and the Beatrix Potter books. In the afternoon in arts and crafts, we made personalised book marks.

Guess the fruit and herb quiz, was great fun. When you have your eyes shut and have to rely on your nose, it makes it all the more challenging. Pomegranate, kiwi, dragon fruit, watermelon, pineapple and coconut were tried. In the herb section rosemary, mint, basil, chive, sage and tarragon were used.

We have been out and about with walks in the garden and round the village. Mr T took us out on the Mini-bus. We went to Gibsons twice for coffee and cake, Canterbury garden centre, Juliette’s cafe and St Anselm’s school on an Easter themed outing, we had afternoon tea, had a game of Bingo and the pupils sang for us.

We have been entertained by Stella, music for health, Laura’s sing along and Littlebourne’s Little Beavers, who came to the summer house and read their favourite books and sang songs for us. We have joined in with, Arts and Crafts - updating our scrap books - and ballon modelling. We have baked cakes and biscuits in cookery club. We have played games inside and outside. We have crammed in piano playing, chair yoga, Holly Communion, book and poetry club, knitting, quizzes, story reading and a residents meeting.

Last but not least ‘Taste it Tuesday we visited Portugal 🇵🇹- France 🇫🇷 and Vietnam 🇻🇳 all very delicious. Fizzy Friday we were tempted to a glass or three with Mimosas or cloudy lemonade, Sunset cocktail, ginger bear or shandy and to finish pink gins/tonic or dandelion and burdock. We have achieved a lot this month.

Let’s see what April brings.

So, the start of a New Year. What is in store for us all. Well, we know if it’s anything like last year, it will be busy.

We started on New Year’s Day with arts and crafts and discussing what we would like to achieve this year creatively. We have made some delicious cakes and biscuits, plus pizzas in our Baking club. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we have visited Spain 🇪🇸-
Poland 🇵🇱- Sweden 🇸🇪- and China 🇨🇳. As usual the catering staff excelled in bringing the culinary world to us. Our regular cheese and wine afternoons, found us in France, we included pate as well. This was helped down with Pinot Noir, red and Chardonnay, white. After the tasting we had a quiz on French cheese and wine.

Fizzy Friday we sampled Bucks Fizz, Lager Shandy, Vanilla Cola, Baileys hot chocolate, Cherry cola and Orange Mimosa’s. All very good. Still on the subject of food. We had a ‘Guess the Exotic Fruit, taste test. We had pomegranate, papaya, dragon fruit, coconut, passion fruit and mango. All so different but tasty. Away from food, we have been busy crating. In arts and crafts we drew pictures of the  New Year’s Eve fireworks, Chinese new year lanterns and posters. Water marbling paintings, pictures of bird silhouettes and clay modelling, vases and jugs.

We enjoyed our sensory session, guessing sensory oils, some proved difficult. Our flower arranging classes, we worked with Lillie’s, roses and carnations. The finished displays were placed throughout the home. The poetry group met in the summer house with residents, staff, visitors and family members. We read and discussed New Year poetry, like Auld lang Syne by Robert Burns.

Always a treat are our Spa afternoons. It’s a great social event, relaxing with friends, talking and being pampered at the same time,  enjoying music and delicious food and drinks. Movie club, we enjoyed a variety of films and TV. Entertainment, we had good ole Stella, an old favourite, Abi and Laura, we love a sing along and some of us have a little jig as well.

Our mini-bus trips took us too, Tadpole tearoom, Mama Feelgoods, Gibsons farm shop and Juliette’s cafe. Needless to say we had to sample the cakes in all of them. As if that wasn’t enough to keep us busy, we have taken part in:
quizzes -bingo - manicures and hand massages - board games - cards - jigsaw puzzles - tuck shop - chair yoga, meditation and exercise class- knitting club - making smoothies and piano sessions (group/one-to-one)in the front hall.

Well, that’s just the beginning of the year. Looking forward to better weather and getting in to the garden. Happy New Year.

So, here we are in December. It’s the month of baby Jesus’s birthday and a time when families get together and exchange gifts and make merry. Well we have been making merry too. We enjoyed our Christmas party get together with our friends and staff. The catering team made it a really memorable afternoon. We were entertained by Laura, we sung carols and other seasonal songs. We enjoyed a cheese and wine afternoon in the summer house.

We had a variety of cheeses and sampled Merlot’s and Sauvignon Blanc. We have made milkshakes and smoothies and baked a variety of cakes and biscuits in cookery club. We have been off on our culinary tour of the world. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we have sampled French 🇫🇷- Italian 🇮🇹 - Turkish 🇹🇷-

and Christmas delights, such as mince pies, sausages rolls, Yule log and mulled wine. ‘Fizzy Friday’ we sampled Prosecco, sherry, spiced fruit punch, mulled wine, hot chocolate, Irish coffee and Baileys. They were all very good and very moorish. We enjoyed a variety of Christmas movies, Love actually, white Christmas, it’s a wonderful life to name but a few . We had great entertainment from Stella, Laura, the Little Stour choir singing carols, Glenda’s Christmas special and Great Oaks school choir.

We traveled to St Anselm’s school for afternoon tea, bingo and Carols. It was lovely spending time with the students. In Arts & Crafts we have been busy making festive decorations, paper chains, Christmas cards and wreaths that we put on our doors. We arranged festive flowers and used them as table decorations.

Some of us ventured out in the mini-bus and visited Juliette’s farm shop for coffee and mince pies, Gibsons for afternoon tea, Chartham garden centre and Mama-Feel-goods cafe, great cake. We have also managed to fit in, quizzes in the summer house, we assisted decorating the Christmas trees, board games, Christmas  bingo, playing in the Tovertafel, tuck shop and the Reverend Lesley gave Holy Communion to those who wanted it. Christmas Eve we enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies. Santa and his happy, helping Elves visited as well and handed out Christmas presents to us all. We sung carols, which was a fitting end to a very joyful day.

November is the month we remember our war heroes from the Great War and World War 2 and all wars before and to present day. We also remembered Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up parliament.  The service from the cenotaph was viewed by both residents and staff, it’s always very moving and it’s so sad to see the handful of veterans from World War Two that remain.

For some, we were lucky enough to go to Littlebourne Church for the service. On Remembrance Day, we made remembrance wreaths and Posters. We had musical entertainment from Java Jive, they played old time music in keeping with the mood of the hour. For Guy Fawkes Day we made pictures of bonfires and fireworks and we discussed our memories of bonfire night. We had a fire work display and enjoyed hot dogs, burgers and fries and jacket potatoes.

St Andrews day also occur’s in November. We made shortbread in the morning and designed our own tartans in the afternoon at Arts and Crafts. We had traditional Scottish fare for supper, Haggis, neeps and tatties. We also had a nip of whiskey. Our other activities, apart from the above, have kept us busy. We have created smoothies, had poetry club, quizzes, exercise groups, residents meeting, sing-a-longs, one to one piano playing, cinema/TV club and board games. We have had trips out to Gibsons, Juliette’s, Chartham garden centre and Mama Feelgoods. Needless to say, these trips, always involved food and drink.

Our sensory group discovered the delight of smelling Essential Oils. We smelt lavender, tea tree, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemongrass and orange. We discussed what the smells reminded us of and what memories of the past were bought back. We also enjoyed fizzy Friday with some scrummy cocktails. Taste it Tuesday we were treated to the delights of food from Greece, Brazil, Germany and Thailand. Next month we will be preparing for Christmas, very exciting.

October the months of ghosts witches and everything scary. We have been busy Pumpkin carving to decorate the lounge and there was a competition for the best carved pumpkin. We enjoyed a Halloween tea and we made Halloween cookies and decorated them.

We have also been busy in our cookery club making a variety of cakes, pizzas and special pink cup cakes for Cancer awareness day. They went towards our afternoon fund raising tea party. Staff and family members also brought in cakes to be sold. We have made milkshakes and smoothies that are healthy for us and help’s to get vitamins and nutrients in to those residents, with not so good appetites. Taste it Tuesday we visited Mexico, Peru, Australia, Spain, and China. As usual the kitchen staff made it a lot of fun.

We have been busy in Arts & Crafts making autumn wreaths, posters, lanterns, spooky Halloween decorations, and we used clay and cut round leaves and left them to dry. Poetry club, staff read out poems to do with autumn. Residents read out their own choice of poems and some had found poetry in magazines and newspapers to read. We were treated to a Spa afternoon in the summer house, hand and arm massages, manicures, face masks and made even better with soothing music, a glass of bubbly and nibbles. Enid Blyton was the celebrated author in book club this month. Reading her books bought back happy memories for us all.

Stella, Laura and Glenda came in to entertain us with singing and dancing, always gets the foot tapping. We enjoyed our Halloween party. Staff dressed in Halloween costumes and we had lots of foodie Halloween treats. Fizzy Friday is always a highlight. It’s the time of year for mulled wine and drinks that make you feel warm inside.

Cinema and TV club we watched a variety of productions. Calamity Jane, Gone with the Wind, For whom the Bell Tolls, we caught up with strictly come dancing and our great national parks. We have also managed to squeeze in games of Bingo, hoopla and bowling. Quizzes, a residents meeting, chair and group exercise classes, knitting and sewing club, group exercises/yoga. The tuck shop and manicures and massages for those who can’t get to the Spa day.

Looking forward to an activity, cram filled November. 

We are making our way in to Autumn, the mornings can be a bit chilly and the nights are drawing in.

We have been kept on our toes though. Out in the mini-bus with trips to Pegwell Bay, the wild life is terrific there, if you time it right, two visits to Gibsons farm shop for coffee and their delicious cakes, Solley’s ice cream farm, Mama  Feelgoods cafe and Juliette’s cafe.

Stella came in to entertain us, as did Barry’s ‘Blast from the Past’ show and Laura who sang to us. We enjoyed a social evening in the summer house. Staff and residents bought in pictures of favourite holidays, to reminisce and discuss. We had cheese and wine and chocolates and cake which was delightful.

Gardening club we planted spring bulbs in pots. Violas, pansies and ivy, we had a white and purple theme. We also planted Hyacinths for us in doors. We spent time in the sensory garden and planted bulbs in the garden. Flower arranging club we used roses and carnations for our displays that were distributed throughout the home.

In baking club we have made sausage rolls, and cakes for our MacMillan coffee morning. We enjoyed raising money for the MacMillan campaign as it’s a God send to some families.

A small group of us enjoyed knitting and sewing as we continue with our heart garland. In Arts and crafts we painted pictures of animals we have owned in the past. Our choice of flowers this month for our Flower arranging group, were poppies, daisies and roses. We discussed a variety of books in book club, also which authors we would like to read in the future.

Our movie club had a variety of films including Mrs Harris goes to Paris, Grease, The Railway Children and many more. Our cheese and Wine evening was wonderful and we finished off with a cheese and wine quiz.

‘Taste it Tuesday’ we whisked off to Sweden, Portugal, Vietnam and Romania. Always the catering staff excel in making it a culinary destination. Fizzy Friday we enjoyed pear cider, apple sparkle and more. We have had our usual chair yoga and group exercises, walks, piano playing, manicures, bingo, sing along and dance sessions and this month a residents meeting to discuss any concerns we might have and what we would like to do in future activities.

We look forward to October with Halloween coming up.

I can’t believe it’s August already, where has the summer gone?

Still, we have been busy with our activities. We enjoyed a Spa afternoon in the Summer house. This included face masks, manicures, hand and arm massages and while we waited indulged in hot chocolate, strawberries and chocolates. We also had our ‘Poetry Club’ in the Summer house. We wrote and read poetry to one another, and were joined by a relative which was wonderful, as they joined in with the reading. A small group of us enjoyed Book Club, discussing our favourite authors.

Gardening club we made lavender bags, picked our tomatoes that we have grown and explored the sensory herb garden. We enjoyed smelling and tasting the herbs and guessing what they are. In Arts and Crafts we painted our favourite birds, made window sun catchers, made our own jig-saw puzzles and did some clay modelling.

Stella came in and entertained us with Music for Health, we always enjoy the session. Now on to food activities. We made cakes, pizzas, cookies and turnovers in Baking Club.

‘Taste it Tuesday’ we were taken to the Greek Islands, the French Riviera, The land of the Lotus Blossom Japan and lastly the home of pasta Italy. Fizzy Friday we sampled Pimm’s, Red grape lemonade, coke, ginger beer, Sangria and white and rose spritzers.
Extras that we fitted in were k pitting and sewing, one to one piano playing, walking in to the village and the shop, garden games, scrabble, chair yoga, puzzles, ball games and watching the Olympic Games. 

I wonder what we will get up to next month?

So, July and the weather is still not that great. This has not stopped us from going out and about. The mini-bus has taken us to Coppers Bistro Preston for coffee, Ramsgate harbour twice, the ice cream is delicious, Goodnestone Park, the grounds are very pretty, Juliette’s farm shop, they must have two hundred, free range chickens, that come to greet you and lastly Gibsons, always good for tea and cake. Mentioning cake, in cookery club we have baked Vanilla sponge, almond cake, coffee and walnut cake, cheese and bacon turnovers, veggie pizzas and lastly we decorated biscuits.

Still on food, ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we were tempted with Chinese, Danish, German, Spanish and Australian  goodies. They were all very delicious and our catering team always excel themselves. Fizzy Friday, our old favourite gin and orange, classic mojitos, lager shandy, rose spritzers, those amongst us who do not indulge there was dandelion and burdock, fresh juices, apple and orange and lemon and lime.

We have been busy in the greenhouse, planting lettuce seeds. We have potted up Blechnum spicant - fern. Alabama sunrise, stops tenuissima and veriegated ivy. We have also made lavender bags. We have filled the house with our flower arrangements, using roses, carnations and lavender.

Arts and crafts we have enjoyed painting flowers, making clay model flowers, paining vases, and making sun-catchers. Our monthly poetry club was taken by ‘T’ who discussed our favourite poets, he read poems to us and we read to each other. Cheese club we enjoyed a variety of cheeses from Wensleydale to Italy, washed down with a choice of vino. With all that food and drink we have joined in chair yoga, chair exercises, played Indoor/outdoor games.

Stella has entertained us and we had a sing along with Laura. In cinema club we have watched the opening of the Paris olympics, various films and television programmes. We managed to fit in a residents meeting, manicures and hand massages and a couple of bingo sessions.

So all in all a busy July.

What will August have in store for us? 

One thought it would never stop raining this month. Apparently it was the wettest spring since 1986. This did not dampen our spirits and we were kept busy.

Some of us had one-to-ones, which included knitting, playing the piano, walking in and around the village, walks in our beautiful gardens and reading. We have baked all sorts of delicious cakes and biscuits in our cooking club. In Arts and Crafts we enjoyed making banners and flags for the Euro football competition and D-Day. We have made clay models of flowers and painted pictures of garden birds.

We were entertained by Stella, music for health and Glenda visited twice, once for a show devoted to D-Day and we had, a 40’s-50’s and 60’s musical sing a long. We have been out on trips to Chartham Garden Centre, Pegwell Bay birdwatching, Ivy Barn cafe, Tadpole Tea Room and Fifth trust vineyard cafe. Needless to say we indulged in tea and cake.

In gardening club we enjoyed planting troughs of white plants inspired by Sissinghust’s White garden. We planted sweet pea wigwams, made lavender bags and explored the sensory garden, smelling and tasting different herbs. We picked mint and verbena and made tea, which was delicious.

We enjoyed celebrating D-Day. We sang war time songs with Glenda and listened to and sang along with Vera Lynn. The afternoon included a quiz and we played instruments along with 40’s music. 

We had a murder mystery evening in the summer house and enjoyed cheese and wine while working out ‘Who Dunnit’. We have created smoothies and pizzas which we all enjoyed. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we sampled Moroccan, Thai, Italian and Mexican food, all very delicious. ‘Fizzy Friday we were tempted by Rum and coke, ginger beer, sangria with fruit and cloudy lemonade, apple tango, pink gin and tonic, Rose spritzer and lastly coke with lemon. Needless to say the tasting was enjoyed by all. We enjoyed a cheese and wine afternoon with a variety of cheese and wine’s from various countries.

Poetry club in the summer house ‘T’ read to us then we discussed what we liked/disliked about the poems. This was all enjoyed with tea and cake. Lastly our exercise class where ‘T’ put us through our passes, using muscles we forgot we had and getting the blood pumping. We included as well as the above, two quizzes, a residents meeting, sing along’s, scrabble and anagrams, movie mornings and afternoons and lastly manicures and hand massages. Let’s hope July brings better weather. 

May was a combination of sunshine and showers and on days quite nippy.

This did not stop us from keeping busy out in the greenhouse. We potted up sunflower and tomato seeds. In the tubs and boxes we planted bacopa, petunia, pink cosmos, red geraniums and violets. We planted herbs such as rosemary, thyme, mint and chives and in the troughs we planted succulents and alpines. We had a flower arranging class using roses, carnations and tulips and displayed them around the home. Still in the garden we played outside games such as bowls, skittles, hoopla and giant connect four. We had a wonderful spa afternoon in the summer house and were treated to face masks, eye masks, manicures and hand massages. The music was very relaxing and we were served tea and cake.

On the food front we have baked a variety of cakes and savouries, which were enjoyed by all. We have personalised smoothies which were all yummy. Taste it Tuesday saw us visiting Peru, Cambodia, Greece and Cuba, all prepared by our dedicated catering staff. Fizzy Friday we sampled sangria, ginger beer, grape fizz, mojitos, dandy-lion and burdock and orangeade. Our cheese club afternoon was all French cheeses with crackers, baguettes and grapes, enjoyed with a glass or two of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. 

We have been out in the min bus to Minnis Bay with a picnic, Gibsons Farm Shop for coffee, Juliette’s for tea, Preston garden centre, always a good place to people watch and lastly Chartham garden centre. 

In arts and crafts we made ‘Welcome May’ banners, we made butterflies and flowers to decorate our walking aids, painted spring flowers, bees and butterflies. We also did some clay work, which can be messy. Some of us played board games such as scrabble and did crosswords. We had a ‘call to mind’ quiz recalling holidays as children and with family, favourite foods, animals, hobbies and places visited with friends and family that have made an impression on us. 

We’ve had our cinema club and watched a variety of films including Sabrina, Roman holiday, singing in the rain and many more. Out one to ones have discovered a pianist who now plays once a week for the residents, ‘K’ is teaching residents to learn to knit again. Walks to the village shop and surrounding areas have been popular and reading to those who find it difficult. Of course there is always our beautiful garden to walk round and just listen to the bird song.

Stella’s music for health has been in to get our bodies moving and the zoo lab with all its creepy crawly specimens, which is always fun. We have also managed to fit in a residents meeting, quizzes in the summer house, a couple of sessions of bingo, the tuck shop for those with a sweet tooth and lastly for those who can’t get to the spa, manicures and hand massages, 

Hopefully next month will see more sunshine and new adventures.

So the month of Love and Pancakes, I know my preference. Countries visited for ‘Taste it Tuesday’ were Japan, Turkey and Spain, all very tasty and beautifully prepared by our catering team. In our cookery club we prepared Chinese New Year cookies, jam and coconut cake, jam and lemon curd tarts, valentine heart cookies and spiced fruit cake. We made heart shaped pizzas with various savoury toppings.

On shrove Tuesday we had a pancake tossing competition between staff and residents, not sure who won and we are still retrieving pancakes from various places. We did enjoy eating them as well, with all sorts of fillings. We had an exotic fruit guessing game. We were blind folded and given obscure fruit. We had to guess what we thought it was and where it was from. We sampled Papaya, Dragon Fruit, Pomegranate, Passion fruit, Guava, Mango and Coconut. Harder than you think.

A cheese and wine afternoon was enjoyed by a group of us. Including cheddar, Stilton, Brie and many more all washed down with Merlot and Chardonnay. It sounds like we are always eating, just as well Tony has us doing our chair yoga and indoor games, including, hoopla, bowling, bean bag tossing and catching the ball.

We have ventured out of the mini-bus to, Ramsgate Harbour to Ship Shape, Mama Feelgoods cafe, cakes to die for. Juliette’s farm shop, always good for a bacon butty, and Coopers cafe. We had a couple of social evening events in the summer house, played cards and scrabble and  a quiz on 50-60’s music. This months poetry club was about leap years, as we are in one this year, most interesting. Music entertainment came in the form of Stella for health and Java Jive. They certainly get your feet tapping.

Fizzy Friday we tasted sparkling apple fizz, G&T our ole favourite, Raspberry daiquiris and white and rose spritzers. We have watched many films in cinema club, including seven brides for seven brothers , chitty chitty bang bang and many more. Arts and crafts we concentrated on Chinese New Year and Valentines.

We have also started a Littlebourne House Family Tree, which is fascinating. Flower arranging club we made arrangements from Daffodils, such a happy flower to distribute in public places and we used carnations and roses for our rooms. Other activities, we have managed to cram in, are sing along with instruments, bingo, the hair dresser, manicures and hand massages and a residents meeting.

So all in all a busy month.

December, the month of carols, turkey, Christmas pudding, mince pies and the birth of the baby Jesus. It’s a busy time of year and we have been busy.

We have been out visiting Great Oak school and Littlebourne Primary schools carol singing and we were privileged to watch the dress rehearsal of the Nativity at Littlebourne Primary School. At St Anselm’s school we enjoyed afternoon tea, with Bingo and 
Carols.

St Vincent’s Church held a carol service, the church was decorated beautifully and it got us in to the festive mood. At the home, we have been entertained by, Java Jive‘s Christmas show, Stella’s music for health and our old favourite Glenda’s Christmas Eve show.

We have enjoyed our ‘Taste it Tuesday’s’, visiting German and Sweden. ‘Fizzy Friday’ took on a festive feel, with mulled wine, Bailey’s coffee and hot chocolate with mince pies and some bubbles in the form of Bucks Fizz.

Staff and residents got together for a Christmas get together, enjoying Christmas fare and singing carols. Our movie club concentrated on Christmas films, including, Elf, a Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th street and a Christmas favourite The Sound of Music.

We made, in arts and crafts, our own Christmas cards, for friends and family, decorations for the trees, wreaths for the doors, and table decorations for our Christmas dinner. In cookery club we created festive cookies, gingerbread men, almond cake and shortbread.

Christmas Eve, Father Christmas came and with his elves, Tony, Alice and Kitty delivered presents to us all. Christmas Day, the catering staff excelled. We were joined by staff and relatives for Christmas dinner. We had prawn cocktail or vegetable soup, turkey with all the trimmings, nut roast as an option. Dessert, Christmas pudding or Yule log with brandy sauce or cream. Boxing Day, roast beef was on the menu with Yorkshire pudding, seasonal vegetables and dauphinoise potatoes, sherry trifle and coffee and mints. If you weren’t busting at the seams after all that, bubble and squeak, a selection of sandwiches and mince pies and cream for supper. We had a Boxing Day quiz, for those that could stay awake.

We have also managed to find time to fit in exercise classes, chair yoga, a residents meeting, flower arranging and an array of board games.

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a peaceful, healthy and happy New Year. 

December, the month of carols, turkey, Christmas pudding, mince pies and the birth of the baby Jesus. It’s a busy time of year and we have been busy.

We have been out visiting Great Oak school and Littlebourne Primary schools carol singing and we were privileged to watch the dress rehearsal of the Nativity at Littlebourne Primary School. At St Anselm’s school we enjoyed afternoon tea, with Bingo and 
Carols.

St Vincent’s Church held a carol service, the church was decorated beautifully and it got us in to the festive mood. At the home, we have been entertained by, Java Jive‘s Christmas show, Stella’s music for health and our old favourite Glenda’s Christmas Eve show.

We have enjoyed our ‘Taste it Tuesday’s’, visiting German and Sweden. ‘Fizzy Friday’ took on a festive feel, with mulled wine, Bailey’s coffee and hot chocolate with mince pies and some bubbles in the form of Bucks Fizz.

Staff and residents got together for a Christmas get together, enjoying Christmas fare and singing carols. Our movie club concentrated on Christmas films, including, Elf, a Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th street and a Christmas favourite The Sound of Music.

We made, in arts and crafts, our own Christmas cards, for friends and family, decorations for the trees, wreaths for the doors, and table decorations for our Christmas dinner. In cookery club we created festive cookies, gingerbread men, almond cake and shortbread.

Christmas Eve, Father Christmas came and with his elves, Tony, Alice and Kitty delivered presents to us all. Christmas Day, the catering staff excelled. We were joined by staff and relatives for Christmas dinner. We had prawn cocktail or vegetable soup, turkey with all the trimmings, nut roast as an option. Dessert, Christmas pudding or Yule log with brandy sauce or cream. Boxing Day, roast beef was on the menu with Yorkshire pudding, seasonal vegetables and dauphinoise potatoes, sherry trifle and coffee and mints. If you weren’t busting at the seams after all that, bubble and squeak, a selection of sandwiches and mince pies and cream for supper. We had a Boxing Day quiz, for those that could stay awake.

We have also managed to find time to fit in exercise classes, chair yoga, a residents meeting, flower arranging and an array of board games.

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a peaceful, healthy and happy New Year. 

December, the month of carols, turkey, Christmas pudding, mince pies and the birth of the baby Jesus. It’s a busy time of year and we have been busy.

We have been out visiting Great Oak school and Littlebourne Primary schools carol singing and we were privileged to watch the dress rehearsal of the Nativity at Littlebourne Primary School. At St Anselm’s school we enjoyed afternoon tea, with Bingo and 
Carols.

St Vincent’s Church held a carol service, the church was decorated beautifully and it got us in to the festive mood. At the home, we have been entertained by, Java Jive‘s Christmas show, Stella’s music for health and our old favourite Glenda’s Christmas Eve show.

We have enjoyed our ‘Taste it Tuesday’s’, visiting German and Sweden. ‘Fizzy Friday’ took on a festive feel, with mulled wine, Bailey’s coffee and hot chocolate with mince pies and some bubbles in the form of Bucks Fizz.

Staff and residents got together for a Christmas get together, enjoying Christmas fare and singing carols. Our movie club concentrated on Christmas films, including, Elf, a Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th street and a Christmas favourite The Sound of Music.

We made, in arts and crafts, our own Christmas cards, for friends and family, decorations for the trees, wreaths for the doors, and table decorations for our Christmas dinner. In cookery club we created festive cookies, gingerbread men, almond cake and shortbread.

Christmas Eve, Father Christmas came and with his elves, Tony, Alice and Kitty delivered presents to us all. Christmas Day, the catering staff excelled. We were joined by staff and relatives for Christmas dinner. We had prawn cocktail or vegetable soup, turkey with all the trimmings, nut roast as an option. Dessert, Christmas pudding or Yule log with brandy sauce or cream. Boxing Day, roast beef was on the menu with Yorkshire pudding, seasonal vegetables and dauphinoise potatoes, sherry trifle and coffee and mints. If you weren’t busting at the seams after all that, bubble and squeak, a selection of sandwiches and mince pies and cream for supper. We had a Boxing Day quiz, for those that could stay awake.

We have also managed to find time to fit in exercise classes, chair yoga, a residents meeting, flower arranging and an array of board games.

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a peaceful, healthy and happy New Year. 

November is the month of Reflection and Remembrance, for all those people who gave their lives during both World Wars. We watched Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph on the television. We coincided this with our arts and crafts session, making poppies and painting pictures related to the time.

We also celebrated St Andrews Day, by making Scottish Shortbread in our cookery club. We enjoyed the said shortbread at tea time, after tea we had a St Andrews day quiz. After which we had a St Andrews day supper of scotch broth, Haggis, neeps and tatties followed by a tot of whisky.

We have ventured out on the mini- bus to Gillingham war museum, Gibson farm shop, Canterbury garden centre and Mama-Feelgoods for cake and coffee. Stella music for health and Java Jive have musically entertained us.

We have baked in cookery club, watched a variety of old films, including some like it hot, seven brides for seven brothers and Calamity Jane in film club. Some of us went to Littlebourne church for the Remembrance Service and to Wingham church for Holy Communion. We have played board games and joined in exercises classes and chair yoga. Taste it Tuesday we visited Italy, Spain, China and Mexico with a variety of dishes from each country, including fajitas, sweet and sour chicken, paella and tomato and garlic spaghetti.

We have made pizzas, smoothies and enjoyed an afternoon of cheese and wine tasting, this time enjoying British cheeses and wine. This was followed by a cheese and wine quiz.

We are looking forward to what December brings, I’m sure we will be kept busy. 

November is the month of Reflection and Remembrance, for all those people who gave their lives during both World Wars. We watched Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph on the television. We coincided this with our arts and crafts session, making poppies and painting pictures related to the time.

We also celebrated St Andrews Day, by making Scottish Shortbread in our cookery club. We enjoyed the said shortbread at tea time, after tea we had a St Andrews day quiz. After which we had a St Andrews day supper of scotch broth, Haggis, neeps and tatties followed by a tot of whisky.

We have ventured out on the mini- bus to Gillingham war museum, Gibson farm shop, Canterbury garden centre and Mama-Feelgoods for cake and coffee. Stella music for health and Java Jive have musically entertained us.

We have baked in cookery club, watched a variety of old films, including some like it hot, seven brides for seven brothers and Calamity Jane in film club. Some of us went to Littlebourne church for the Remembrance Service and to Wingham church for Holy Communion. We have played board games and joined in exercises classes and chair yoga. Taste it Tuesday we visited Italy, Spain, China and Mexico with a variety of dishes from each country, including fajitas, sweet and sour chicken, paella and tomato and garlic spaghetti.

We have made pizzas, smoothies and enjoyed an afternoon of cheese and wine tasting, this time enjoying British cheeses and wine. This was followed by a cheese and wine quiz.

We are looking forward to what December brings, I’m sure we will be kept busy. 

November is the month of Reflection and Remembrance, for all those people who gave their lives during both World Wars. We watched Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph on the television. We coincided this with our arts and crafts session, making poppies and painting pictures related to the time.

We also celebrated St Andrews Day, by making Scottish Shortbread in our cookery club. We enjoyed the said shortbread at tea time, after tea we had a St Andrews day quiz. After which we had a St Andrews day supper of scotch broth, Haggis, neeps and tatties followed by a tot of whisky.

We have ventured out on the mini- bus to Gillingham war museum, Gibson farm shop, Canterbury garden centre and Mama-Feelgoods for cake and coffee. Stella music for health and Java Jive have musically entertained us.

We have baked in cookery club, watched a variety of old films, including some like it hot, seven brides for seven brothers and Calamity Jane in film club. Some of us went to Littlebourne church for the Remembrance Service and to Wingham church for Holy Communion. We have played board games and joined in exercises classes and chair yoga. Taste it Tuesday we visited Italy, Spain, China and Mexico with a variety of dishes from each country, including fajitas, sweet and sour chicken, paella and tomato and garlic spaghetti.

We have made pizzas, smoothies and enjoyed an afternoon of cheese and wine tasting, this time enjoying British cheeses and wine. This was followed by a cheese and wine quiz.

We are looking forward to what December brings, I’m sure we will be kept busy. 

So, we are well and truly into Autumn now, even though the leaves are still on the trees? We have had some wet and wild weather, which has limited the time we have spent in the garden. But, when the sun is shinning we have made the most of the warm sun.

Between the storms, we have been out in the mini-bus to Ramsgate harbour, which is always interesting, Gibsons farm shop for coffee and cake and Juliet’s farm shop for tea. Stella’s music for health put us through our paces and J&J’s accordion show was very entertaining.

Glenda also came in with her Halloween show, it put us in the mood for carving pumpkins, making Halloween bunting and Halloween pictures. We also painted autumn landscapes, made autumn wreaths for the doors and decorated our zimmer frames. This concluded in a Halloween party.

We have been busy in our cookery club, making Welsh cakes, jam roly poly, almond cake and many other delights. We were joined by a resident’s relative in our poetry group, which was wonderful. Staff joined in reading poetry to us and we wrote poetry taking ideas from magazines and the news papers.

We had a ‘Wear it Pink for Breast Cancer’ fund raiser and staff and residents made cakes to sell, it was a successful afternoon and all in a good cause. We used pink, red, white and artificial flowers in our flower arranging club that we distributed throughout the house.

'Taste it Tuesday’ saw us visiting Egypt, America and Hungary. We had stuffed vine leaves, shipyard pale ale and beef goulash to name but a few delights. ‘Fizzy Friday’ had us trying pear cider, larger shandy, dandelion and burdock and of course that old favourite G&T. We have had TV and film club, with a variety of viewing.

Finally we have fitted in our church services, hand manicures, indoor games and chair yoga exercises. Looking forward to next months events and delights.

So, we are well and truly into Autumn now, even though the leaves are still on the trees? We have had some wet and wild weather, which has limited the time we have spent in the garden. But, when the sun is shinning we have made the most of the warm sun.

Between the storms, we have been out in the mini-bus to Ramsgate harbour, which is always interesting, Gibsons farm shop for coffee and cake and Juliet’s farm shop for tea. Stella’s music for health put us through our paces and J&J’s accordion show was very entertaining.

Glenda also came in with her Halloween show, it put us in the mood for carving pumpkins, making Halloween bunting and Halloween pictures. We also painted autumn landscapes, made autumn wreaths for the doors and decorated our zimmer frames. This concluded in a Halloween party.

We have been busy in our cookery club, making Welsh cakes, jam roly poly, almond cake and many other delights. We were joined by a resident’s relative in our poetry group, which was wonderful. Staff joined in reading poetry to us and we wrote poetry taking ideas from magazines and the news papers.

We had a ‘Wear it Pink for Breast Cancer’ fund raiser and staff and residents made cakes to sell, it was a successful afternoon and all in a good cause. We used pink, red, white and artificial flowers in our flower arranging club that we distributed throughout the house.

'Taste it Tuesday’ saw us visiting Egypt, America and Hungary. We had stuffed vine leaves, shipyard pale ale and beef goulash to name but a few delights. ‘Fizzy Friday’ had us trying pear cider, larger shandy, dandelion and burdock and of course that old favourite G&T. We have had TV and film club, with a variety of viewing.

Finally we have fitted in our church services, hand manicures, indoor games and chair yoga exercises. Looking forward to next months events and delights.

September, nights are drawing in but the sun continues to shine and the temperature is not autumnal yet, which is great as we can still be in the garden enjoying the weather. This month we have enjoyed a fund raiser for Alzheimer’s Day.

We had a coffee morning, selling cakes that we made and raised £63. In cooking club we baked cherry cake, almond cake, vanilla tray bake, sausage rolls & cheese straws, chocolate cookies, jam & lemon tarts and cupcakes.

We enjoyed meeting the Zoo lab. A variety of different animals including a giant African snail, corn snake, cockroaches, African frog and a tarantula, it was extremely interesting.

The Jewish New Year was celebrated in September with a glass of red wine and apples dipped in honey, most enjoyable. We have been busy in ‘Gardeners Corner’ planting up our troughs for next year with spring bulbs. Flower arranging this month, we used different coloured roses to display around the home.

We have made pizzas, which we always enjoy, with those who can’t join in and we share for supper. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ had us travelling to Sweden, Jamaica, Japan and China. As usual the catering staff excelled themselves. The weekly tuck shop had us enjoying jelly babies, liquorice, fruit pastels and many more varieties.

Our poetry club met in the summer house. We spent time reading news papers and then writing poetry with the information we had read about. We read poetry to do with the month of September.

Arts and craft club we made flowers that we used as a border for the activities board. We painted animals using a scratch method and created seaside pictures with different materials. Stella entertained us with her music, which we always enjoy.

We visited Juliet’s farm shop and cafe, Ramsgate harbour to see all the boats, Mama Feelgoods cafe, great cakes, Herne Bay seafront, for ice cream and Preston garden centre.

We have enjoyed Film club, with a variety of films, church services, chair yoga, manicures and hand massages and indoor board games. Last but not least, ‘Fizzy Friday’ Mojitos, wine spritzers, red wine and blackberry fizz and lager shandy’s.

We are looking forward to the the delights of the month of October.

August was a really sunny month for us all, so we made good use of our wonderful gardens, thanks to our dedicated gardeners. In our gardening club we made lavender bags for our rooms. We had a flower arranging morning. We used roses, Lilly’s, chrysanthemums and carnations, these were displayed around the house. In our painting club, still life was the topic of the day.

We painted the flower of August, which is the Poppy and roses and lavender picked from the garden. Our mini-bus trips took us to the Fifth trust cafe and vineyard, Preston garden centre, Pegwell Bay and Deal seafront, which all ways means ice cream. Stella has entertained us with her Music for health and our ole favourite Stella’s musical entertainment got us all singing.

We have watched numerous films in ‘Film Club’ including Calamity Jane, Summer holiday, Guys and Dolls and many more. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ took us to Spain, Morocco, Belgium and Italy. Including Spanish omelette, Moroccan meatballs and cuscus, chocolate Belgian waffles and sausage and ham tortellini. As usual the catering team excelled.

We were joined in the summer house for our poetry club by a residents daughter, who read poetry with us. We enjoyed the tuck shop with a variety of sweets from our child hood. We have cooked and baked and made smoothies. We cooked pizzas, sausage rolls, chocolate cake, cheese twists, bacon and cheese turnovers and more delicious sweet and savoury delights. ‘Fizzy Friday’ we sampled passion fruit martini’s, appleade , peach and passim fruit fizz, G&T’s(our ole favourite) Mojitos, red wine spritzer and mixed berry punch.

We visit, alternate weekends, either Wingham or Littlebourne churches for the Sunday service. We had chair yoga, hand massages and manicures, indoor games including word games, scrabble and anagram's.

Last but not least the very kind people, who give up their time for our befriending service. They visit residents, who, do not get many visitors. So a big thank you to them.

So we are well and truly into summer, albeit the sixth soggiest July since 1836. Good for the gardens and our gardening club have been in action. We have potted up herbs, including Alpine strawberry’s, mint, basal, chive, marjoram and more. We have potted up sedum succulents ready for a Rockery or as garden table decorations.

We have enjoyed flower arranging, using lavender from the garden, tulips, roses, dahlias and chrysanthemum’s. We have distributed these throughout the house in public areas. Our poetry club met in the summerhouse and we read to each other, poems, that we have written and poems from books.

We have baked lots of yummy cakes, including, almond cake, scones, flapjacks, coffee and walnut cake, my favourite, cornflake cakes and vanilla traybake. We also made pizzas and ate them for tea. Taste it Tuesday’ we were transported to Turkey, India, China and Cuba, which cheered us all up as we thought of warmer climes.

We made different flavoured smoothies, which were delicious, especially with different flavoured milks. Cheese and wine club, we had a variety of British and continental cheeses, washed down with Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc. This was followed by a cheese and wine quiz. Fizzy Friday, we tried gin with cloudy lemonade, cherry schnapps and coke, non-alchoholic mango daiquiri and more.

In arts and crafts, we have painted still life tulips, dahlias’s and carnations. Painting rocks with different scenes. We made fans and rainbows using coloured mesh and cotton wool. We have been entertained by Chatham Larks Choir and Stella music for health.

The minibus, despite the weather took us to Kearsney Abbey, near Dover, it’s quite beautiful and peaceful there. We visited Gibsons and Mackenzie farm shops for coffee and Coopers Bistro and Tadpole tearoom. Needless to say cake was involved on all trips.

Film/TV club , we watched a variety of films including Little Women, The Railway Children, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Television we watched Wimbledon, the men’s finals were so exciting and young Victoria.

We have also fitted in chair yoga exercises, manicures and hand massages, indoor games, word games, befriending service and church services every fortnight, alternating between Littlebourne and Wingham.

We can only hope that the weather improves next month and we can sit in our beautiful garden and feel they sun on our faces.

The weather has been exceptionally good this month, which was great as we held our staff and residents ‘Garden Party’. We has BBQ, pavlova, cake and pimm’s to drink. It was a lovely afternoon and Java Jive entertained us.

‘Taste it Tuesday had us visiting Mexico, China, America, Japan and Italy. The Katsu curry was very good as was the ham and sausage tortellini.

We held the Poetry Club in the summer house and were joined by the daughter of one of our residents, which we all enjoyed and was lovely to have a new face. We hope that she will join us again and encourage others to come along.

We have been creative in the baking club. Putting together our own pizzas and smoothies. We baked choc chip cookies, jam tarts, sausage rolls, cheese straws, scones and many more. Flower arranging group made floral displays for the lounge areas. We had roses and carnations and added lavender sprigs from the garden. In Arts and Crafts we painted terracotta pots and planted them up. We made wreaths from flowers to put on the doors pained on canvas, made Father’s Day pictures and painted sun catchers.

We enjoyed a cheese and wine tasting afternoon followed by a cheese and wine quiz. Stella Music for health and Java Jive entertained us with their musical skills.

Fizzy Friday, always a treat we had Mango Daiquiri, Pink Lady, White Wine spritzer, Pimm’s and shandy. We have been out and about on the mini-bus, visiting Preston garden centre, Mama Feelgoods, cake always scrummy, Giovani’s pizza house and Pegwell Bay.

We have watched some excellent films in Film Club and some old favourites. We have been to church services at Littlebourne and Wingham which alternate.

Chair yoga, bingo, manicures and indoor and out door games have kept us busy. The longest day has been and gone and the nights will now be drawing in but we still have plenty of summer to enjoy and things to do.

So May, we are well and truly in to spring. Everything is blooming and we have loads of baby rabbits in the garden. We have been busy, as usual. Obviously the highlight of May was the coronation of King Charles lll. We were all glued to the television for most of the day.

Entertainment this month saw Java Jive, Stella music for health and our old favourite Glenda. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we travelled to Australia, France, Peru and Spain. It was all delightful and as always the catering staff did a fab job.

A group of us poetry lovers, retreated to the summer house to read poetry we had written and we also read from poetry books. We have been busy in the kitchen creating an assortment of cakes, pizza’s and smoothies. The flower arranging club made arrangements for the coronation, the lounge and for around the house. We used a lot of flowers from the garden.

In arts & crafts we made bunting and flags for the coronation and decorated the lounge. We made sun catchers now that the sun is shinning. All that work makes one dry and on ‘Fizzy Friday’s’ we sampled Pimm’s, ginger beer and rose water spritzer, Sangria and lager shandy, cherry and orange punch and lastly our favourite G&T.

We have been out and about on the mini-bus. We have visited Preston garden centre for coffee, RAF museum and cafe, Gibsons farm shop for tea and cake and the Macknade farm shop for more culinary delights. Film club, we watched a variety of films and TV. Calamity Jane, Ladies in Lavender, Carry on Doctor, Young Victoria and many more.

We have also managed to fit in, chair yoga, word games, hoopla, skittles, manicures and hand massages and church services at Littlebourne and Wingham.

We look forward to June and what it has in store for us. 

Spring is well and truly here. The flowers are out and there are buds on the trees. We have been out on the mini-bus making the most of sunny days.

We visited Coppers bistro, Gibsons coffee shop twice and Mama-Feelgoods. Taste it Tuesday we sampled the delights of Germany, Sweden, Thailand and Jamaica. All very different in their flavours. Fizzy Friday we tasted Berry Fizz, Ginger Ale, our ole favourite G&T, lager shandy, Pimm’s and Buck’s Fizz.

We celebrated St George’s day by making scones in the morning which we had for afternoon tea, with clotted cream and jam. What goes first cream or ham. Bit like the chicken and the egg. We had a St George’s day quiz after tea.

We had Easter Activities, painting Easter eggs which we exhibited in the lounge, made shortbread in the shape of chicks, rabbits and eggs. We created our own Easter bonnets. Easter quiz and Jasmines ‘The Bunny Jive Show’ entertained us. We have made flower arrangements that we utilised around the home and summer house.

We had cheese tasting, accompanied by Pinot and Merlot wines. In baking club we made, choc chip cookies, easter cup cakes, vanilla tray bake, fruit cake and created our own meat and vegetarian pizzas.

In arts and crafts we made easter egg bunting, Easter hats and St George shields. Stella music for health came in an entertained us. We have played board games, our usual chair yoga, hand massages, manicures and we have started a bridge club.

Every other week we have a church service either in Littlebourne or Wingham churches. Movie club/TV we watched an array of films, Easter Parade, Summer Holiday, High Society and Gentlemen prefer blonds, to name but a few.

We are looking forward to the Kings coronation next month.

Well March turned out to be a dull wet month.

But we have been busy enjoying sunnier destinations with ‘Taste it Tuesday’. We tasted the delights of Japan, USA, Greece and Italy. As usual the catering staff made some delicious treats. In our baking club we made chocolate tray bake, lemon tarts, cupcakes, pizzas and biscuits.

The monthly poetry club that are held in the summer house, residents read out poetry they had written and we discussed them. A member of the activities team read Poetry by Welsh poets to celebrate St David’s day, which we all enjoyed. On the theme of St David’s day, the flower arranging group potted daffodils and trimmed and potted carnations to display in the lounge. On St David’s day itself we made Welsh cakes in the morning and enjoyed a St David’s day supper of leek and potato soup, Welsh rabbit and Welsh apple crumble. We decorated the tables with Welsh flags.

Residents enjoyed a French cheese and wine evening with French music followed by a quiz. We had an afternoon tea party to celebrate two of the residents birthdays with Prosecco and sixties music.

On Red Nose Day staff and residents made cakes, to sell, to raise money for such a great cause. St Patrick’s Day we drank Guinness and Irish coffee and we had a traditional Irish supper, Irish stew and Baileys bread and butter pudding.

On Mother’s Day residents enjoyed a morning of entertainment by Java Jive. In the afternoon we played games and had afternoon tea with Prosecco. Fizzy Friday we sampled blackcurrant G&Ts, fresh pineapple a rusty nail cocktail, VAT and coke and fresh lemonade all very good.

Stella’s music for health had us up and dancing and we have managed to cram in games, chair yoga/exercises, bridge club, hand massages and manicures, trips out on the mini bus, including Westward Cross for lunch and shopping, a trip to the cinema to watch Alleluia a residents meeting and a trip to church. So we didn’t really notice the month of March as being wet and dull.

So the month of love and pancakes has passed. We celebrated St Valentine’s Day making heart shaped circlets. Also in Arts &Crafts we painted landscapes on canvas and painted on glass for a stained glass window for Ash Wednesday. There’s an abundance of daffodils in the garden and we painted these as a still life project.

Java Jive and Stella Music for health entertained us with their musical skills. We enjoyed ‘Taste it Tuesday’ sampling Polish and Spanish cuisine, very tasty. The poetry club sat in the summer house reading the poetry they had written and read love poems by famous poets. We sampled a British cheese and wine afternoon, followed by a quiz. We have baked lots of lovely cakes including almond cake, jam tarts, cup cakes and scones. These were consumed at our valentines tea.

We made a flower arrangements out of roses and daffodils for the hall. We had pancakes with various toppings including chocolate, jam and good ole lemon and sugar. Of course we did our usual chair exercises and yoga, had hand massages and manicures.

Looking forward to what’s in stall for us in March and hopefully improved weather so we can get in to the garden.

Here we are the start of 2023. Now that Christmas is behind us, we have started the New Year with an array of activities. As usual food is high on our list of activities. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we sampled American, Belgium, Mexican, Thai and Turkish food, which got the taste buds working. Two afternoons we sampled Cheese, wine, cold meats, stuffed peppers and garlic bread from Italy and we had French Cheese and wine followed by a quiz on what we had tasted.

We have created our own smoothies and pizzas. Burns night was celebrated in fine style, with shortbread with afternoon tea, scotch broth, haggis, neeps and tatties for supper with a nip of whiskey for good measure.

In cookery club we made gingerbread biscuits, shortbread, jam tarts, gooey chocolate chip cookies, flapjacks, Chinese new year cup cakes and a chocolate tray bake. Lastly’Fizzy Friday’ we sampled mulled wine , Buck’s Fizz, raspberry and rose gin and tonic, cream soda, berry and tropical fizz, white grape and elder flower and reap berry fizz. On the arts and craft side, flower arranging for the dinning room tables using tulips, daffodils and roses.

We decorated table cloths and posters for Chinese new year. We made our own memory pictures and 2023 posters to put up on display. In the summer house we held a poetry club. We wrote our own verse and read and discussed poetry. We lit a candle to remember the victims of the holocaust.

Our trips out in the mini-bus included Gibsons farm shop for coffee, Tadpoles tea room, Algar Lodge cafe, Copper Bistro at Preston garden centre, Macknade garden centre and lastly Ivy Barn coffee shop. We’ve played our usual board games and been entertained by Java Jive and Stella music for health. Film club we watched some old favourites like, Singing in the Rain, Calamity Jane, Victoria and Abdul and many more.

Lastly our usual quizzes, manicures and hand massages, chair yoga and exercise classes, painting sessions, church services and lastly our residents meeting.

We are looking forward to next month and what is on the agenda.

Well the festive season is well and truly finished for another year and we are well in to the New Year. We’ve had a really busy month.

In arts and crafts we made Christmas cards and decorations, and created our own Christmas Garland for our door. Painted winter landscapes on canvas and made snowmen out of paper plates. We were invited to St Anselem’s for a Carol Service given by the students and afterwards they laid on a delicious tea.

We had our own Christmas party with a wonderful buffet, Prosecco and other refreshments. Afterwards we enjoyed carol sinning with the staff. We were very lucky to get a link to the Marlowe theatre to watch ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ pantomime enjoyed even more with glasses of mulled wine and nibbles.

On top of that we still managed to fit in ‘Taste it Tuesday’, visiting Italy, India, China and Sweden, with some amazing tastes and textures. ‘Fizzy Friday’ was quite seasonal with wintertime spiced punch, apple and cinnamon fizz, mulled wine, Prosecco and the odd lager and appleade.

We baked festive cookies, shortbread, mince pies, gingerbread men, chocolate cupcakes and chocolate and cherry cornflake cakes.

We have been out and about on the bus, Gibsons, Preston Garden Centre and twice to Mama Feel Goods coffee shop, the cakes there are awesome.

We have played lots of board games, including word search and an anagram word game. Not board games I know but keeps the little grey cells active.

We have been entertained by Java Jive, Glenda's Christmas show, Stella’s music for health, local carol singers and Jasmines New Year Show. We’ve had seasonal films like, Mr Claus, Miracle on 34th Street and a White Christmas to name but a few. We have also managed to cram in two church services, quizzes, bingo, manicures, hand massages, chair yoga and exercise classes and a residents meeting.

A big thank you to the catering staff for a wonderful Christmas dinner and for Father Christmas finding his way down a chimney. We would like to wish everyone a happy New Year that’s healthy, peaceful and full of New Adventures

November the month of Gun Powder Plots, Saints and remembrance. We enjoyed fire work night, with hot dogs, sandwiches and Prosecco. Followed by the firework display itself.

On remembrance day morning, we gathered in a group and sang WW2 songs. In the afternoon we were entertained by Jasmine and her WW2 show and we sung and danced to the music. Afterwards we all enjoyed tea and cake. St Andrews day we had haggis, neeps and tarries, with a scotch whiskey. Very enjoyable. On the subject of food, we were transported to Argentina, Japan, Greece, Spain and Germany. We had everything from. Argentinian spiced steak to chicken and chorizo paella along with Malbec, Garnacha red and German white.

Fizzy Friday we sampled  ice cream soda with Prosecco, cherry lemonade with our afternoon tea, strawberry G&T or a lemon bitter shandy and Unicorn gin and an autumn punch. On the creative side we have had poetry reading, flower arranging, painting on canvas in the summer house.

Many of us painted poppies for Remembrance Sunday others chose to paint scenic views. We painted with acrylic or water colours. We made Scottish Flags for St Andrews day and painted fire work night to put up on the wall. We have baked jam tarts, cheese and bacon turnovers, choc chip cookies, shortbread and choc traybake. We created our own pizzas for our tea.

When the weather has been reasonable we went out on the mini-bus to Gibsons for coffee, Coppers bistro, mama feel good cafe, they do scrummy cakes and finally the Spitfire museum. We have been entertained by Glenda’s music, Jasmine ‘Through the Years’ and Stella’s music for health. We have played numerous board games and watched a variety of films and TV programmes. We had our church service, quizzes, manicures, chair yoga, exercise classes, hand massage and a residents meeting. We are heading rapidly towards Christmas, so let’s see what the month of festivities brings.

October the month of wizards and witches, ghouls and ghosts. The month the clocks fall back an hour and harvest festival services are conducted to celebrate the farmers hard work. We have been busy in the arts and craft department. Carving and decorating pumpkins, making autumn wreaths for our doors, cutting out Halloween bunting and making sun-catcher’s for our windows.

We have had a McMillan coffee morning and a ‘Wear Pink’ day for breast cancer. Both events had scrummy cakes made by us and staff. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we savoured food from France, China, Sweden and American deserts. All created by our talented catering team.

We experimented making our own ‘Mocktails’ with spirits, juices, fruit and herbs, some delicious, some not, needs more work maybe. We enjoyed taking part in an afternoon of tasting German cheeses, bread, cold meats and German wine. This was followed by a quiz all things German. We have baked, creating crispy cornflake cakes, cheese turnovers, Halloween cup cakes and many other delights.

We have been out in the mini-bus to M&S at West-Ward-Cross for lunch, Gibsons farm shop for coffee, Macknades at Faversham another coffee stop, Coopers Bistro and the Curzon Cinema to see Mrs Harris goes to Paris. It’s a remake of the 1958 original with Angela Lansbury and Omar Sharif. Stella music for health and Glenda have sung for us and we have watched a variety of films in our pop corn and lemonade film club. We have also played many board games, large and small.

Looking forward to Novembers activities as we are nearing further towards Christmas. We have enjoyed two church services, our quizzes, the befriending service, chair yoga and exercises, painting sessions, those lovely hand massages and manicures and a Residents meeting to discuss any worries or concerns and to discuss what we would like on our agenda.

Well July and August have passed this year and what a summer. I don’t think we have had a good dousing of rain since February? It’s been a very long, hot summer but that hasn’t stopped us from being active. 

In gardening club, we have planted pots of basil, parsley, mint, chilli peppers and yellow tomatoes and different varieties of red tomatoes, of which one is candy striped. We planted sun flowers and they are coming on well. We have made and filled bird containers for the bird tables, as we have a great variety of bird life around us. We have picked the dry lavender and made lavender bags. We have had an abundance of flowers and we have picked these, made them in to flower arrangements, to decorate our rooms and social areas.

Taste it Tuesday we have been transported to China, Spain, Greece, Italy, France, Japan, India, Germany and Australia. As usual the catering staff have excelled themselves, it was all very delicious.

Fizzy Friday we had Pimms, raspberry fizz, grape and rhubarb fizz, cherry lemonade, ginger beer, fruit punch, lager shandy and our old favourite gin and tonic. We have crated our own smoothies, cooked delicious cakes and biscuits and had two cheese and wine tastings, sampling British and Italian produce. Stella music for health, Glenda and Hollys Dramatherapy have entertained us, great fun was had by all.

We have tested ‘the little grey cells’ by playing scrabble, snakes and ladders, Ludo, call to mind, draughts and animal bingo. Outside games included hoopla, skittles and tin can ally. We have taken trips to St Margaret’s Bay, Preston coffee shop, Gibsons farm shop, Ivy Barn coffee shop, Manston Spitfire and Hurricane museum, Ramsgate garden centre and Pegwell bay.

We have followed Wimbledon, the commonwealth games, and watched a variety of films at film club. Other activities include the Church service, quizzes, manicures and hand massages, chair yoga/exercises and the Befriending Service. It doesn’t seem possible that we are not far off autumn. The nights are already shorter and the shadows in the garden are getting longer. I wonder what’s in store for next month.

Well July and August have passed this year and what a summer. I don’t think we have had a good dousing of rain since February? It’s been a very long, hot summer but that hasn’t stopped us from being active. 

In gardening club, we have planted pots of basil, parsley, mint, chilli peppers and yellow tomatoes and different varieties of red tomatoes, of which one is candy striped. We planted sun flowers and they are coming on well. We have made and filled bird containers for the bird tables, as we have a great variety of bird life around us. We have picked the dry lavender and made lavender bags. We have had an abundance of flowers and we have picked these, made them in to flower arrangements, to decorate our rooms and social areas.

Taste it Tuesday we have been transported to China, Spain, Greece, Italy, France, Japan, India, Germany and Australia. As usual the catering staff have excelled themselves, it was all very delicious.

Fizzy Friday we had Pimms, raspberry fizz, grape and rhubarb fizz, cherry lemonade, ginger beer, fruit punch, lager shandy and our old favourite gin and tonic. We have crated our own smoothies, cooked delicious cakes and biscuits and had two cheese and wine tastings, sampling British and Italian produce. Stella music for health, Glenda and Hollys Dramatherapy have entertained us, great fun was had by all.

We have tested ‘the little grey cells’ by playing scrabble, snakes and ladders, Ludo, call to mind, draughts and animal bingo. Outside games included hoopla, skittles and tin can ally. We have taken trips to St Margaret’s Bay, Preston coffee shop, Gibsons farm shop, Ivy Barn coffee shop, Manston Spitfire and Hurricane museum, Ramsgate garden centre and Pegwell bay.

We have followed Wimbledon, the commonwealth games, and watched a variety of films at film club. Other activities include the Church service, quizzes, manicures and hand massages, chair yoga/exercises and the Befriending Service. It doesn’t seem possible that we are not far off autumn. The nights are already shorter and the shadows in the garden are getting longer. I wonder what’s in store for next month.

September 8th 2022, will be remembered, as the day we lost our sovereign HRH Queen Elizabeth II. She has been a main stay in all our lives and we thank you for your life of service to our nation and beyond. We watched, on television, the Queens state funeral and many of us remember watching her coronation.

September is also the month that we remembered the the ‘Battle of Britain’. We enjoyed an afternoon tea, with various cakes and refreshments, including Ale and Prosecco, followed by a quiz.

Taste it Tuesday took us to Jamaica, Hungary, Poland and Greece. All very delicious food as usual by our catering staff. Fizzy Friday we sampled white grape and elderflower fizz, pimms, gin punch and orange and mango fizz and last but not least rose spritzer and orangeade. We were entertained by ‘Stella’s music for health’ and ‘Java jive’.

We have had our usual board games inside and outside, weather permitting. We have had our film club and in our gardening club, we had a sensory game, guessing different herbs that we had planted. We all enjoyed smelling and tasting them with our eyes shut. We’ve had arts and crafts, which took on an autumnal feel as the leaves are turning to reds, gold and brown, a really colourful time of year. And, we have baked lots of delicious cakes that we have enjoyed eating.

We have enjoyed trips out to Gibsons farm shop, Coppers bistro, Algar coffee shop, Ivy Barn and the Spitfire museum, remembering all those brave airman. And lastly we’ve enjoyed the church service, manicures/hand massage, chair yoga and exercise class and our residents meeting, a time to discuss future outings, menus and other business. 

September 8th 2022, will be remembered, as the day we lost our sovereign HRH Queen Elizabeth II. She has been a main stay in all our lives and we thank you for your life of service to our nation and beyond. We watched, on television, the Queens state funeral and many of us remember watching her coronation.

September is also the month that we remembered the the ‘Battle of Britain’. We enjoyed an afternoon tea, with various cakes and refreshments, including Ale and Prosecco, followed by a quiz.

Taste it Tuesday took us to Jamaica, Hungary, Poland and Greece. All very delicious food as usual by our catering staff. Fizzy Friday we sampled white grape and elderflower fizz, pimms, gin punch and orange and mango fizz and last but not least rose spritzer and orangeade. We were entertained by ‘Stella’s music for health’ and ‘Java jive’.

We have had our usual board games inside and outside, weather permitting. We have had our film club and in our gardening club, we had a sensory game, guessing different herbs that we had planted. We all enjoyed smelling and tasting them with our eyes shut. We’ve had arts and crafts, which took on an autumnal feel as the leaves are turning to reds, gold and brown, a really colourful time of year. And, we have baked lots of delicious cakes that we have enjoyed eating.

We have enjoyed trips out to Gibsons farm shop, Coppers bistro, Algar coffee shop, Ivy Barn and the Spitfire museum, remembering all those brave airman. And lastly we’ve enjoyed the church service, manicures/hand massage, chair yoga and exercise class and our residents meeting, a time to discuss future outings, menus and other business. 

Well July and August have passed this year and what a summer. I don’t think we have had a good dousing of rain since February? It’s been a very long, hot summer but that hasn’t stopped us from being active. 

In gardening club, we have planted pots of basil, parsley, mint, chilli peppers and yellow tomatoes and different varieties of red tomatoes, of which one is candy striped. We planted sun flowers and they are coming on well. We have made and filled bird containers for the bird tables, as we have a great variety of bird life around us. We have picked the dry lavender and made lavender bags. We have had an abundance of flowers and we have picked these, made them in to flower arrangements, to decorate our rooms and social areas.

Taste it Tuesday we have been transported to China, Spain, Greece, Italy, France, Japan, India, Germany and Australia. As usual the catering staff have excelled themselves, it was all very delicious.

Fizzy Friday we had Pimms, raspberry fizz, grape and rhubarb fizz, cherry lemonade, ginger beer, fruit punch, lager shandy and our old favourite gin and tonic. We have crated our own smoothies, cooked delicious cakes and biscuits and had two cheese and wine tastings, sampling British and Italian produce. Stella music for health, Glenda and Hollys Dramatherapy have entertained us, great fun was had by all.

We have tested ‘the little grey cells’ by playing scrabble, snakes and ladders, Ludo, call to mind, draughts and animal bingo. Outside games included hoopla, skittles and tin can ally. We have taken trips to St Margaret’s Bay, Preston coffee shop, Gibsons farm shop, Ivy Barn coffee shop, Manston Spitfire and Hurricane museum, Ramsgate garden centre and Pegwell bay.

We have followed Wimbledon, the commonwealth games, and watched a variety of films at film club. Other activities include the Church service, quizzes, manicures and hand massages, chair yoga/exercises and the Befriending Service. It doesn’t seem possible that we are not far off autumn. The nights are already shorter and the shadows in the garden are getting longer. I wonder what’s in store for next month.

Well July and August have passed this year and what a summer. I don’t think we have had a good dousing of rain since February? It’s been a very long, hot summer but that hasn’t stopped us from being active. 

In gardening club, we have planted pots of basil, parsley, mint, chilli peppers and yellow tomatoes and different varieties of red tomatoes, of which one is candy striped. We planted sun flowers and they are coming on well. We have made and filled bird containers for the bird tables, as we have a great variety of bird life around us. We have picked the dry lavender and made lavender bags. We have had an abundance of flowers and we have picked these, made them in to flower arrangements, to decorate our rooms and social areas.

Taste it Tuesday we have been transported to China, Spain, Greece, Italy, France, Japan, India, Germany and Australia. As usual the catering staff have excelled themselves, it was all very delicious.

Fizzy Friday we had Pimms, raspberry fizz, grape and rhubarb fizz, cherry lemonade, ginger beer, fruit punch, lager shandy and our old favourite gin and tonic. We have crated our own smoothies, cooked delicious cakes and biscuits and had two cheese and wine tastings, sampling British and Italian produce. Stella music for health, Glenda and Hollys Dramatherapy have entertained us, great fun was had by all.

We have tested ‘the little grey cells’ by playing scrabble, snakes and ladders, Ludo, call to mind, draughts and animal bingo. Outside games included hoopla, skittles and tin can ally. We have taken trips to St Margaret’s Bay, Preston coffee shop, Gibsons farm shop, Ivy Barn coffee shop, Manston Spitfire and Hurricane museum, Ramsgate garden centre and Pegwell bay.

We have followed Wimbledon, the commonwealth games, and watched a variety of films at film club. Other activities include the Church service, quizzes, manicures and hand massages, chair yoga/exercises and the Befriending Service. It doesn’t seem possible that we are not far off autumn. The nights are already shorter and the shadows in the garden are getting longer. I wonder what’s in store for next month.

September 8th 2022, will be remembered, as the day we lost our sovereign HRH Queen Elizabeth II. She has been a main stay in all our lives and we thank you for your life of service to our nation and beyond. We watched, on television, the Queens state funeral and many of us remember watching her coronation.

September is also the month that we remembered the the ‘Battle of Britain’. We enjoyed an afternoon tea, with various cakes and refreshments, including Ale and Prosecco, followed by a quiz.

Taste it Tuesday took us to Jamaica, Hungary, Poland and Greece. All very delicious food as usual by our catering staff. Fizzy Friday we sampled white grape and elderflower fizz, pimms, gin punch and orange and mango fizz and last but not least rose spritzer and orangeade. We were entertained by ‘Stella’s music for health’ and ‘Java jive’.

We have had our usual board games inside and outside, weather permitting. We have had our film club and in our gardening club, we had a sensory game, guessing different herbs that we had planted. We all enjoyed smelling and tasting them with our eyes shut. We’ve had arts and crafts, which took on an autumnal feel as the leaves are turning to reds, gold and brown, a really colourful time of year. And, we have baked lots of delicious cakes that we have enjoyed eating.

We have enjoyed trips out to Gibsons farm shop, Coppers bistro, Algar coffee shop, Ivy Barn and the Spitfire museum, remembering all those brave airman. And lastly we’ve enjoyed the church service, manicures/hand massage, chair yoga and exercise class and our residents meeting, a time to discuss future outings, menus and other business. 

September 8th 2022, will be remembered, as the day we lost our sovereign HRH Queen Elizabeth II. She has been a main stay in all our lives and we thank you for your life of service to our nation and beyond. We watched, on television, the Queens state funeral and many of us remember watching her coronation.

September is also the month that we remembered the the ‘Battle of Britain’. We enjoyed an afternoon tea, with various cakes and refreshments, including Ale and Prosecco, followed by a quiz.

Taste it Tuesday took us to Jamaica, Hungary, Poland and Greece. All very delicious food as usual by our catering staff. Fizzy Friday we sampled white grape and elderflower fizz, pimms, gin punch and orange and mango fizz and last but not least rose spritzer and orangeade. We were entertained by ‘Stella’s music for health’ and ‘Java jive’.

We have had our usual board games inside and outside, weather permitting. We have had our film club and in our gardening club, we had a sensory game, guessing different herbs that we had planted. We all enjoyed smelling and tasting them with our eyes shut. We’ve had arts and crafts, which took on an autumnal feel as the leaves are turning to reds, gold and brown, a really colourful time of year. And, we have baked lots of delicious cakes that we have enjoyed eating.

We have enjoyed trips out to Gibsons farm shop, Coppers bistro, Algar coffee shop, Ivy Barn and the Spitfire museum, remembering all those brave airman. And lastly we’ve enjoyed the church service, manicures/hand massage, chair yoga and exercise class and our residents meeting, a time to discuss future outings, menus and other business. 

June Newsletter 

June, we are half way through the year. The 21st sees the days start to become shorter.

We have been busy though with trips out in the mini-bus to Gibsons Farm Shop for coffee and cake, Cliffs End to the Viking Ship and where the Hovercraft used to take off to France all those years ago, and lastly Ramsgate sea front for an ice cream. We have baked biscuits and iced them, shortbreads, vanilla cupcakes and almond cake. Of course we eat what we make. We have tasted, on ‘Taste it Tuesday’ Thai, Australian, Argentinian and Belgium food, which the catering staff always make interesting. Fizzy Friday we sampled Pimms, ginger beer, lager shandy, zesty lemonade and the ole favourite, gin and tonic.

Keeping our feet tapping, we have been entertained by Java Jive music and Glenda who always sings our old favourites. We have kept the little grey cells active playing scrabble, draughts, snakes and ladders, call to mind and garden games such as hoopla, skittles and tin can alley. We’ve had a variety of films in Film Club. Ladies in Lavender, The Great Escape, Some like it Hot, the African Queen and many more.

We also watched the Queens Jubilee celebrations on the TV. We have been busy in the Greenhouse planting tomatoes, chillies, basil, thyme, geraniums and lobelia. We enjoyed our platinum Jubilee party in the garden. We had a cream tea with Pimms, various cakes and refreshments. We followed tea with a quiz all about the Queen and her reign. She has seen and witnessed so much world history and events over the years. We stood and sung God Save The Queen at the end of our celebrations. After all our celebrating, eating and drinking we have kept fit with chair yoga and exercises.

We always enjoy hand massages and manicures and our church services and befriending group. Looking forward to next months agenda never a dull moment. 

We love May. Everything bursting in to life, it’s the month of rebirth. The garden at LBH is looking exceptionally good and our gardeners work really hard to keep it looking that way all year round come rain or shine.

Sunday 8th was VE Day and we celebrated this by making and decorating cupcakes in the morning to have with our special afternoon tea and Pimm’s party,  followed by a 40-50’s sing along. We have also baked a vanilla birthday cake, chocolate chip tray bake, jam tarts, pizzas and shortbread. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ saw us sampling food from Japan, Mexico, Sweden, France and Germany. They were all very interesting and very tasty. Fizzy Friday was interesting with Plum and Sloe presse, melon and ginger sling with soft fruit, lemon presse and summer fizz fruit and sangria with fresh orange juice. We have had Stella with her music for health, Mandy’s musical entertainment and Holly telling us stories.

We have been out on the mini-bus to Copper’s Bistro twice, Pegwell Bay, Deal, St Margaret’s Bay and the Curzon Cinema in Canterbury to see Downtown Abbey 2, which was really good. We watched Sense and Sensibility, War Horse, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Dunkirk, The Sound of Music to name but a few at film club. We have played games. Scrabble, giant snakes and ladders, ludo, call to mind, draughts and animal bingo. When the weather is good we have garden games such as hoopla, skittles and tin can alley.

In gardening club we potted up pots of red, white and blue flowers that we sold at the fete in honour of the Queens reign of 70 years Jubilee celebrations. In arts and crafts we painted tulips and roses, still life of flowers picked from the garden, we made Union Jack bunting and flags for the fete. We have had two church services, several seasonal quizzes, lovely manicures and hand massages, made our own smoothies and our friends from the Befriending service came in to visit. This is a charitable organisation who make time to come in to chat to individual residents who need a little support and spiritual guidance.

On the 29th May we held our fete. We haven’t had one since 2019 due to Covid. We had over 120 guests plus staff and residents. The weather was kind to us and the rain held off while we were enjoying the Hog Roast, Pimms and delicious deserts. Once again the catering staff put on a fabulous spread. All the staff worked hard to ensure everyone had a great time. We had a bouncy castle for our younger guests and stalls selling the Gardening Clubs pots plus bottle stall, guess the weight of the cake, cake stall and other attractions.

It was a very enjoyable day and everyone had a great time. What will June have in store I wonder? 

March & April News 2022

It’s been a busy two months for us. March we celebrated St Patricks Day and the catering department made Irish stew and soda bread all washed down with Guinness and Irish whiskey, followed by an Irish quiz. Shrove Tuesday we enjoyed pancakes with various fillings and a staff pancake race.

On Red Nose Day we enjoyed musical entertainment in the morning with Jasmine and her through the years show. In the afternoon we had a tea party with Prosecco and a cake sale to raise money for comic relief.

In April we celebrated Easter.  On Good Friday we had a quiz, followed by Prosecco and hot cross buns and a sing a long session in the afternoon. Easter Day the easter bunny delivered Easter eggs to us all and on easter Monday we painted and decorated our own Easter egg to keep or give to a family member.

We have had trips out to Preston garden centre, The Fifth trust vineyard, Ivy Barn cafe, Coopers Bistro and Gibsons Farm shop. We have savoured on ‘Taste it Tuesday’ food from Mexico, Portugal, China, America, India, Israel and Poland. Fizzy Friday we had a rather delicious ginger beer and vodka fruit punch also raspberry fizz gin, white wine spritzers, Prosecco and many more.

With the weather improving we have played games in the garden, large snakes and ladders, draughts and in doors we had skittles, scrabble and tin can ally. In arts/crafts and painting we decorated easter bonnets and eggs, made pictures of sunflowers using mesh, felt and paper and still life paintings of daffodils. Our usual activities of quizzes, bingo, manicures and massages, church services, film club, musical entertainment, smoothie day and our befriending service have also kept us active.

We are looking forward to what’s in store for May.

February 2022 News

So the month of Love, February. Arts and crafts had a hint of romance about it. We made heart shaped valentines wreaths and painted pictures of roses. We made trees and rainbows out of coloured tissue paper, which we stuck to paper, we painted daffodils and spring inspired landscapes and painted what our dream garden would look like. Although the one we have is rather lovely.

We created smoothies from a selection of fruit and vege and baked choc chip cookies, brownies, rice crispy cakes, jam tarts, my favourites, rocky road and Pepperoni/vegetable pizzas for Italian ‘Taste it Tuesday’ accompanied by sausage and ham rigatoni that the catering staff made. We had Spanish chicken and chorizo paella, olives and cold meats. Turkish lamb kofta, salad, stuffed vine leaves and pitta bread and finally German cold meats, cheeses, frankfurters and German breads. This was followed by ‘Fizzy Friday’ and our taste buds were awakened with Morello cherry lemonade, ginger beer, raspberry fizz cooler, rose spritzer, dandelion and burdock fizz and finally the good old Gin and Tonic 🤪

Films and TV had a varied variety for us to view. To catch a thief , with lovely Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. Pride and prejudice, Mr Tom, with Jon Thaw, Guys and Dolls, the Kings Speach and many more. We have had two church services, and our befriending service once a week. In door games, such as skittles and hoopla and hand massages and manicures which are so relaxing.

Looking forward to what’s in store for March as the nights are getting longer and we are moving in to Spring and hopefully warmer weather.

So here we are in 2022 and January already at an end, but we have been busy as usual. Java Jive music entertained us which was great and Jasmines music put on a show ‘Through the  Years’ with all the old songs that we could sing along too.

We have baked all sorts of goodies, including pizzas, brownies, sausage rolls, chocolate chip cookies and a birthday cake to name but a few. In Arts and Crafts we have painted the fireworks from New Year’s Eve , our garden here and gardens we remembered through our lives, we painted the Scottish flag for Burns night and poppies and we made flowers out of paper.

Taste it Tuesday we visited China, America, Hungary and Scotland. We sampled Hagis, neeps and tatties accompanied with Scotch Whiskey. American hot dogs and burgers accompanied with American pale ale. Hungarian beef goulash and Chinese sweet and sour chicken and rice, vegetable stir fry, prawn toast, spring rolls and prawn crackers. We enjoyed a French cheese and wine evening with roule, Brie, port Salut and caprice des dieux, helped down with Cuvee Prestige red and Coe’s De Gascogne white.

Fizzy Friday had us sampling a Rose spritzer, cream soda orange and mango fiz, white wine and orange spritzer, Tropical fruit punch and Vanilla Coke. Film club saw a variety of old films including, Fiddler on the Roof, Gone with the Wind, Carry on Doctor, Oliver, Some like it Hot, Calamity Jane, The Pyjama Game and High Society plus quite a few more.

We had hand massages which are always a real treat. We got active with indoor hoopla and skittles but with all the eating and drinking, we really should of gone for a jog but armchair yoga was easier. We had our weekly befriending services and the church service fortnightly. Looking forward to February as it’s the month of Love.

So the festive month is over for another year. We were blessed that this year was better than last year. Father Christmas managed to get us in person, as did our families.

We started the month decorating the three Christmas trees. We made Christmas cards, bunting and decorations for the tree. We created a Christmas tree made out of decorated paper plates and created still life pictures of decorated Christmas trees and robins. We had a Christmas tea party with lots of festive goodies to eat. On the subject of food, ‘Taste it Tuesday’ had us visiting Scotland, France, Greece, Italy and Egypt. ‘Fizzy Friday’ had the Christmas feel with mulled wine, eggnog, Prosecco, Irish coffee and festival fruit Prosecco punch.

Over the Christmas period we were entertained by Mandy Reynolds, Jasmines music, Anna who played pieces from ‘The Nutcracker’, staff lead us in Carol singing and we had a treat from the Simon Langton girls school who sang carols for us on a Zoom connection.

We managed to venture out on the Mini-bus to Tadpoles tea room, Preston garden centre and Gibsons cafe, which was really enjoyable, even though the weather wasn’t always good but it’s just lovely to get out and blow the cobwebs away. We have had productive cooking sessions, creating delights for those that are unable to to join in. We made shortbread, gingerbread men, cupcakes, Rocky road and a birthday cake. We had a variety of films in our Cinema club. A Wonderful Life, My Fair Lady, Ladies in Lavender, A Christmas Carol, Fiddler on the Roof and the Nutcracker Ballet to name but a few. We have created Smoothies which we always enjoy, exercise classes twice a week and our old favourite Bingo along with quizzes and board games.

Thankfully our Church Services are back to some normality every two weeks and this year we had a Boxing Day service which was very special. Christmas dinner was a delight and as usual we all sat down together staff included and a good time was had by all.

Once again our catering staff excelled themselves in making our day so enjoyable. New Years Eve we enjoyed a quiz and we sang and for those who enjoy dancing got up and did a jig. Not many of us managed to stay awake till midnight so we had a glass of bubbles on New Years Day.

We wish all our families, residents and staff a very healthy, happy and safe New Year.

November News 2021

Well we have had a busy month. We have had a couple of trips out to Preston garden centre, Ivy Barn coffee shop and Tadpoles tearoom cafe. It’s just lovely sitting and people watching.

We have had baking sessions and made fruit cake, vanilla cupcakes some rocky roads and two birthday cakes.  We visited Japan, Germany and Asia on our ‘Taste it Tuesday’ We we experienced different types of Sushi, various German sausages, cold meats and cheeses and Asian delights, such as, Chow Mein, spring rolls and prawn toasts. Fizzy Friday’s tipple, had us sipping, tropical Bellini’s, Sherry Cobbler, Rum and Coke and Gin and Tonics. We also had a coffee/hot chocolate morning, adding various liqueurs to our hot drinks. It all went down very well.

We celebrated Bonfire night with fireworks, it was a great display. In arts and crafts we made poppies for remembrance Sunday and painted picture’s of poppies and soldiers. We also painted pictures of firework night and autumn scenes, these were displayed on our art wall. We had musical entertainment by Mandy Reynolds and Java live music.

We are back to having the Church service every two weeks, which is lovely, getting back to our pastoral needs. We have had some really good films on, in cinema club. Charade, Top Hat, Carry on Doctor, Singing in the Rain, The King and I to name but a few.

The catering staff put on a special Remembrance Day Tea, which made us all reflect on the Sacrifices that were made during the wars. We celebrated Thanks Giving and St Andrew’s Day. We have had quizzes , board games, exercise classes, sing along’s, befriending services and the guessing box, this is where items are placed in a box and you have to guess what it is just by touch.

We are now on count down to Christmas and are all hoping that this year will be better than last year. We wish everyone a Happy Christmas and Safe, Healthy New Year. 

September/October News 

So we have a combined September and October account of activities, someone had a grey moment I wonder who. In two months we have achieved quite a lot. We started September with the 80th Anniversary of the outbreak of World War 2. This co-insided with National Nutritional Week, a coincidence in respect of the years of rationing that our parents and grandparents had to injure.

Which leads us to ‘Taste It Tuesday’. We have covered many countries over two months. Vietnam, Cuban, Indian, Spanish, Italian, Polish, French, and Asian. And as usual our catering staff made a huge effort to ensure we all enjoyed the delights of their labours. We had a create your own Smoothie, and Sandwich afternoon and they were excellent.

Gardening Club we potted up bulbs ready for next year. We had to clear the allotment and greenhouse ready for planting next years crop. We had a gardening club Sensory Game, Guess the Smell, that was interesting as it wasn’t all flowers that we were smelling!

We celebrated World Alzheimer’s Day and in baking we celebrated World Apple Day. Brogdale near Faversham has one off the biggest collection of Apple trees in the world, it was started by Henry VIII. He sent out a group of men to find as many varieties of apples that they could find and bring them back, where they started to graft different varieties together, which gives us the varieties we have today. As Kent was a good area for growing and its proximity to London, it became ‘The Garden Of England’.

We have carved pumpkins ready for Halloween and in Arts and crafts the theme was very much autumnal and spooky. We have had several befriending services and we have managed to get Holy Communion in the summer house which has been wonderful. We had a residents meeting to discuss matters arising and to put forward ideas, for up and coming events, that we we would like to see on the agenda. We have had exercise classes, 80’s and rock and roll karaoke's, trips out, sing alongs, games of Bingo.

Finally we had a delicious French cheese and wine afternoon. We are looking forward to next month to see what is in store for all of us, to keep us out of trouble.

This Month we celebrated Zia's 107th birthday.

View some pictures here : Galleries

We have celebrated some bizarre ‘National Days’, including, National Doughnut Week, National Vanilla Ice Cream Day and National Cheesecake Day.

Our ‘Taste it Tuesday’ took in food from Italy, Australia, Hungary and the Republic of Czechoslovakia. We followed the tasting with a quiz on the said country.  Some of us enjoyed creating our own sandwich and smoothies, and then sharing the end product with each other.  ‘Fizzy Friday’ had us sampling Sangria, Strawberry Gin Fizz, Coca-Cola and Strawberry Vodka. We also had Italian wine with our Italian Taste-it Tuesday dishes.

We look forward to our French Cheese and wine club, as there are so many French Cheeses and wines to get through. We have made Rocky road, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Almond cake in our cookery club. We had trips out to the Preston Garden Centre for coffee, Ramsgate for ice-cream, Minnie Bay for a cuppa, Cliffsend nature reserve and St Margaret’s Bay.

We have been getting on in the greenhouse, those of us interested in the gardening club. We have re-potted the tomatoes out in to bigger pots and look forward to enjoying our crop when ready. On days when the weather has not been great,  we have had film club and watched a variety of films, including, The Cowboy and The Lady, Anastasia, Sabotage and Raffles to name but a few.

In the art club some of us have been busy painting the Garden View, still life, painting fruit and the sea and beach from memory on our trips out. We have been lucky enough to have a Church Service, which we have missed due to lockdown.

We held a residents meeting at the end of July to discuss any worries or concerns we may have and what we would like to do on future trips and entertainment.

June News 2021

Well, June started fairly wet, great for the gardens though. In ‘Gardener’s Club’ we have planted up troughs and the hanging baskets, we have also planted some seeds in pots for later in the year.

In our Arts & Craft class we have drawn summer flowers, the river Stour, the garden and also Wild Orchids. We made thank you cards for members of staff that have helped us and gone over and above to keep us safe through the last eighteen months.

We have managed trips out to Deal, Preston garden centre, Westgate-on-Sea, Ramsgate and Cliffsend nature reserve. Needless to say all destinations where you can have ice cream. On days that we we couldn’t get out, ‘Film Club’ presented The Red Baron, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, A Star is Born among others.

On Cupcake day, we baked in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society and combined it with a Rock & Roll Karaoke, which was enjoyed by all. International Children’s Day coincided with International milk day so we celebrated both by creating our own milkshakes and sandwiches.

Taste it Tuesday and Fizzy Friday had us travelling to Argentina, Thailand, Jamaica, Peru, France and Italy. We combined this with a travel the world quiz on those countries. This was all helped down with Italian wine, Ginger beer, Gin punch, Shandy and Vodkas and lemonade. Apart from baking cupcakes we have made almond cake and vanilla cakes.

In our sensory activities we had guess the taste and smell of items of food and drink, we included English wine tasting day in with this. We recognised the Carer’s Week with the staff who take care of us. All Carer’s, all over the country, have been exceptional over the past eighteen months. We have held several befriending services along with a Church service and residents meeting. The poetry club got together to read and discussed poetry.

John Betjeman is a favourite and Pam Ayers as they can be very funny. We celebrated Fathers Day on 20th June and a lot of our gentlemen were really spoilt, lots of chocolates. We have had sing alongs with the staff and played some Bingo.

All in all June has been a busy month. Looking forward to seeing what July holds for us.

Well the last couple of months have been quite strange weather wise. The variety of flowers and buds in the garden have taken their time to appear and snow showers and frost has not helped.

We have been warm and cosy in doors and kept busy watching, making and doing. We have celebrated three saints days, St Patrick of Ireland, St George of England and St David of Wales.  The Saints days were celebrated with quizzes and an art class on all things Irish, English and Welsh.

Easter came at the beginning of April and we decorated bonnets, eggs and cakes. We have been lucky to have an Easter church service and befriending service. April Fools day we had an afternoon of telling funny stories, jokes and singing.

We have baked fruit cake, St Patricks day cup cakes, coffee cake, cheese straws, vegetable pizza, sausage rolls, vanilla and chocolate biscuits, Victoria sponge and almond cake all very delicious. We have had a variety of films during the last two months. Anastasia, mystery at Wentworth Castle, Battle of Britain, The Pride and the Passion to name but a few.

We celebrated International Women’s Day and Mothering Sunday with a cream tea and entertainment with Drago Music.  Red Nose Day we had a quiz and an 80’s music karaoke. We played a sensory game where we had to guess the smells which was great fun. We quizzed on International Women’s Day and painted what we thought represented Earth Day.

We had a Sunday poetry day and discussed poets and their work. We celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s birthday with a quiz about her long life and events within that time.  Needless to say we have had ‘Taste it Tuesday’ and ‘Fizzy Friday’ with delicious treats from Poland, India, Japan, Turkey, Germany, Spain, France, Algeria and America. Fizzy Friday had us sampling Moscow Mule, Whisky Sour, Mimosas, German Hock and lots more. Arts and crafts we made daffodils to place on a painted background and created an Easter Chick from decorated napkins.

We have managed the gardening club between showers so we are a bit behind with our planting. Finally we had a residents meeting to discuss any concerns we may have about our home life, activities, food and anything else that comes up.

Looking forward to warmer weather so we can get in the garden.

Here we are at the end of May.

Things are beginning to bloom but it’s all a bit slow this year. We have managed to get out and about, at last, in the mini-bus. We’ve been to the Cliffsend nature reserve, Ramsgate Beach, Ramsgate harbour and Minis Bay. It’s always ice cream all round on these occasions.

We have baked chocolate biscuits, almond cake, vol-au-vents, ham and cheese puff pastry parcels, sausage rolls, carrot cake and Victoria sponge.

‘Taste it Tuesday’ had us tasting the food of Canada, Vietnam and Indonesia. There may be a travel ban but we are managing to taste the culinary delights of far flung countries while still at home, the imagination runs riot. This was all washed down with Pimm’s, lemon and lime fizz and raspberry coolers.

In Arts and Crafts we painted a May Pole for May Day and attached ribbons. We also painted pictures about VE Day, Bluebells, Ducks and things found on the Beach. We have been busy in the green house potting plants, a variety of flowers, ready for the garden.

We have played a sensory smelling game with herbs and fruit, which was great fun. We had an afternoon creating our own sandwich’s and smoothies which was interesting.

We had a VE Day Anniversary tea party with an 80’s music theme. All in all a great time was had by all.

Well the last couple of months have been quite strange weather wise. The variety of flowers and buds in the garden have taken their time to appear and snow showers and frost has not helped.

We have been warm and cosy in doors and kept busy watching, making and doing. We have celebrated three saints days, St Patrick of Ireland, St George of England and St David of Wales.  The Saints days were celebrated with quizzes and an art class on all things Irish, English and Welsh.

Easter came at the beginning of April and we decorated bonnets, eggs and cakes. We have been lucky to have an Easter church service and befriending service. April Fools day we had an afternoon of telling funny stories, jokes and singing.

We have baked fruit cake, St Patricks day cup cakes, coffee cake, cheese straws, vegetable pizza, sausage rolls, vanilla and chocolate biscuits, Victoria sponge and almond cake all very delicious. We have had a variety of films during the last two months. Anastasia, mystery at Wentworth Castle, Battle of Britain, The Pride and the Passion to name but a few.

We celebrated International Women’s Day and Mothering Sunday with a cream tea and entertainment with Drago Music.  Red Nose Day we had a quiz and an 80’s music karaoke. We played a sensory game where we had to guess the smells which was great fun. We quizzed on International Women’s Day and painted what we thought represented Earth Day.

We had a Sunday poetry day and discussed poets and their work. We celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s birthday with a quiz about her long life and events within that time.  Needless to say we have had ‘Taste it Tuesday’ and ‘Fizzy Friday’ with delicious treats from Poland, India, Japan, Turkey, Germany, Spain, France, Algeria and America. Fizzy Friday had us sampling Moscow Mule, Whisky Sour, Mimosas, German Hock and lots more. Arts and crafts we made daffodils to place on a painted background and created an Easter Chick from decorated napkins.

We have managed the gardening club between showers so we are a bit behind with our planting. Finally we had a residents meeting to discuss any concerns we may have about our home life, activities, food and anything else that comes up.

Looking forward to warmer weather so we can get in the garden.

Here we are at the end of May.

Things are beginning to bloom but it’s all a bit slow this year. We have managed to get out and about, at last, in the mini-bus. We’ve been to the Cliffsend nature reserve, Ramsgate Beach, Ramsgate harbour and Minis Bay. It’s always ice cream all round on these occasions.

We have baked chocolate biscuits, almond cake, vol-au-vents, ham and cheese puff pastry parcels, sausage rolls, carrot cake and Victoria sponge.

‘Taste it Tuesday’ had us tasting the food of Canada, Vietnam and Indonesia. There may be a travel ban but we are managing to taste the culinary delights of far flung countries while still at home, the imagination runs riot. This was all washed down with Pimm’s, lemon and lime fizz and raspberry coolers.

In Arts and Crafts we painted a May Pole for May Day and attached ribbons. We also painted pictures about VE Day, Bluebells, Ducks and things found on the Beach. We have been busy in the green house potting plants, a variety of flowers, ready for the garden.

We have played a sensory smelling game with herbs and fruit, which was great fun. We had an afternoon creating our own sandwich’s and smoothies which was interesting.

We had a VE Day Anniversary tea party with an 80’s music theme. All in all a great time was had by all.

February started very wet and windy, we are waiting for the time we can get into the garden and a bit more normality to our lives. We have been busy with our arts and crafts club. We have been drawing Daffodils in a vase along with other spring flowers and winter trees coming in to bud.

In the cookery club we have made Nutella Butterfly cup cakes, cherry cake, chocolate chip cakes, vanilla and chocolate biscuits and banana cake. We celebrated Shoves Tuesday with blueberry ( the healthy option), chocolate, honey and chocolate spread and the original lemon and sugar pancakes.

The staff had a pancake race which was very entertaining. Still on the subject of food, ‘Taste it Tuesday’ saw us enjoying Peruvian, Chinese and Turkish food, as usual the catering staff excelled. ‘Fizzy Friday’ we had coconut rum and coke, orange and white wine spritzers, Coca Cola and raspberry mohito’s. In the entertainment department we all got singing to an 80’s karaoke and an Abba music karaoke which is always a favourite.

We always enjoy our film afternoons watching classics like the 49 Steps, Where Angels fear to tread, The Desperadoes and many more and the popcorn always goes down well. The clocks go forward next month, which means having those wonderful long and hopefully warm evenings.

Well after one of the strangest and challenging years we have experienced so far as a community we have entered 2021 with the hope of returning to some form of normality . There is light at the end of the tunnel as we continue with our vaccination programme of residents and staff.

It has been, for us all, a period of unknown and few certainties but the residents have shown their resilience and determination through this time and our amazing team have not let us down in their dedication and commitment and for this we thank them.

In less than 5 weeks, it will be March. Daffodils, sunshine and warmer longer days greet us and we can once again celebrate the small joys together when we can get in to the garden and our outdoor activity programme can get back into full swing.

In the meantime we continue to enjoy our varied programme of games, singing and food!! Although there is a way to go, till some form of normal returns, we all feel very positive about 2021. We wish you all a happy safe New Year.

Well here we are in December and Christmas is only round the corner. We have two months worth of activities to get through and we have been really busy. We have baked, indulging in shortbread biscuits, apple crumble, Polish cheesecake, fruit sponge, vanilla cupcakes and Halloween decorated cakes.

‘Taste it Tuesday’ had us visiting Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Asia, Argentinia, Japan, Germany and Romania. It was very delicious and a wide and varying range of flavours.

To wash it all down ‘Fizzy Friday’ had us sampling Watermelon Juice, Orange Prosecco, Banana Milkshakes, Strawberry Lemonade, Coconut infused Rum and Coke and lastly Pimms. It seems we spend our entire days eating and drinking.

We have recently started a new club which involves, yes more food, Cheese and Wine from different countries. So far we have sampled French and Italian cheeses and wines. We celebrated Halloween, you can see the pictures on the Website, which was great fun and we played games.

In arts and crafts we have been creative making leaf decorations from salt dough. We made a group picture of Halloween pumpkins from a potato stencil. Our stain glass window of a tree was very good, using tissue paper as the glass. We individually made autumn leaf pictures and Halloween pictures and decorations.

We watched several movies over the last couple of months in Film Club, Goodnight Mr Tom with John Thaw, Seven Brides for Seven Brother with Howard Keel and Jane Powell, The 39 Steps, Camelot with Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero and Robin Hood to name but a few. We had a church service which we always appreciate.

We celebrated Kindness Day and of coarse Remembrance Day and watched the service at the Cenotaph on the television. We had some fantastic fireworks to celebrate Guy Fawkes night with lots of whizz bangs. We put our brains to the test with two November related quizzes. One was to celebrate The Prince of Wales Birthday and the other a St Andrew’s Day Quiz. And to end the month we had a residents meeting to express any concerns we might have and discuss new ideas to keep us busy and food we might like to try. I expect we will be just as busy this month.

A fantastic donation has been made to The British Legion on behalf of the residents and staff at Littlebourne House of £150

We know we are nearer to autumn as the mornings are getting chilly And the leaves are turning in to those beautiful warm golden colours.

We have all been busy this month. In our baking club we have made cakes, sausage rolls and scones. We have been on trips out to Ramsgate Beach and Minnis Bay. It’s lovely to see a change of scenery and the coast takes on a different prospective each time we go. On good days we can see the French coast really clearly.

There are always plenty of ships and tankers to look at. The catering staff have given us a real Asian journey with ‘Taste it Tuesday’. We have visited 🇻🇳 Vietnam 🇨🇺 Cuba 🇮🇳 India and China 🇨🇳. It was all very delicious.

Fizzy Friday had us sampling watermelon/raspberry lemonade, coconut rum and coke, lime soda, straight rum and coke and spiced rum and coke. We felt as if we were in the Caribbean with the sun shinning.

We have watched a variety of 🎥 films in film club Ladies in Lavender - The Victors -  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang -Sherlock Holmes and the 49th Parallel to name but a few. We have had our usual hand massages and pampering sessions which we all enjoy. What delights will October bring?

Well here we are, at the end of August. The summer almost over, nights drawing in and that autumnal chill in the air. We have been busy this month with a variety of activities.

We have been out on the mini-bus to Minnis Bay, St Margaret’s Bay and Pegwell Bay, really lovely to blow the cobwebs away. Taste it Tuesday had us visiting 🇷🇺 Russia, 🇯🇲 Jamaica, 🇹🇷 Turkey and 🇬🇷 Greece. We sampled beetroot soup, Hot Chicken and Rice, lamb Kebabs and Greek Yogurt and Honey just a few examples of the menu. Fizzy Friday we tried Passion Fruit Martini’s, Non Alcoholic Tropical Fizz, Classic 1940 Moscow Mule and a Sea Breeze.

We picked apples and lavender in our Gardening Club to use in our craft and cooking group. Our baking group made apple crumble, cheese scones, rocky road, jam tarts, fruit cake, cheese straws and mini-pizzas. After all that baking and eating we managed to fit in a couple of exercise sessions. In Arts and Crafts we made lavender bags and bouquets to use to raise money for Breast Cancer Day. We painted still life of flowers and sat in the garden to paint trees. We replicated the wall paper in the Brighton Pavillon and Prepared and painted Birthday cards. Cinema Club we watched The Kings Speech, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Guys and Dolls,  Mumma Mia and Hello Dolly to name but a few. In between all these activities we have had a crafty nap.

We have had some wonderful weather during June, really hot days. We have been in the garden making the most of the sun and soaking up that vitamin D. The gardening club planted up pots with sage, mint and lavender, hopefully the kitchen will make use of them once they are established.

We have baked cakes, coconut, chocolate cornflake cakes, Rocky road and fruit cake. Our art classes were inspired by the sea this month. We painted Pictures of dolphins and jellyfish on paper plates, which made a wonderful display in the lounge. The cinema club showed a mixture of films such as, Samson and Delilah, Return of the Musketeers, 49th Parallel, Anastasia to name but a few.

We sampled Whisky punch, white wine spritzer, fizzy apple and orange, beer and fizzy blackberry on ‘Fizzy Friday’. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we visited France🇫🇷 and and had French cheese selection with baguette, grapes and French wine. We had Jamaican 🇯🇲 jerk chicken, rice, crackers and super malt beer. Across to Asia for a Thai 🇹🇭Red curry, rice and Singha beer and lastly back to Italy 🇮🇹for spaghetti bolognese, pizza and Italian chianti. It was all very tasty and enjoyed by all of us. We had a trip out on the mini-bus to Ramsgate which was most enjoyable. For those of us who can’t get about as much we had hand massages and seated exercise classes that help keep us going after all that food and drink.

We kept the ‘Little Grey Cells’ active with quizzes and board games as we know it’s important to keep the brain active as well as the body.

What a wonderfully hot July we have had. It’s been glorious, just a shame we can’t go anywhere. But that does not mean to say we have not been busy.

We have travelled afar on our   ‘Taste it Tuesday’. We took in Australia, Czeck Republic, Peru and Hungary. We sampled the delights of these far flung countries and again the catering staff excelled themselves. Not only did we taste the food but we discussed the country’s and then had a quiz to see how much we had absorbed. We have been entertained by the staff. We had a Karaoke, staff members singing ABBA songs for us and we joined in. We have had our usual arts and crafts and quizzes to keep the brain active.

We had a Church Service, for which we are always grateful, as we know how stretched our church is, not having a village Vicar and we appreciate the time that they give to us. We had a residents meeting, a chance to discuss matters that may concern us and to put forward ideas that we would like to see implemented in the future. We have had trips out on the Mini-Bus which blows the cobwebs away.

We have a new Summer House which is much larger than the old one and can accommodate more people. Fizzy Friday had sampling cocktails of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety. Really it’s all go, and it’s wonderful that we are kept on our toes.

We have had some wonderful weather during June, really hot days. We have been in the garden making the most of the sun and soaking up that vitamin D. The gardening club planted up pots with sage, mint and lavender, hopefully the kitchen will make use of them once they are established.

We have baked cakes, coconut, chocolate cornflake cakes, Rocky road and fruit cake. Our art classes were inspired by the sea this month. We painted Pictures of dolphins and jellyfish on paper plates, which made a wonderful display in the lounge. The cinema club showed a mixture of films such as, Samson and Delilah, Return of the Musketeers, 49th Parallel, Anastasia to name but a few.

We sampled Whisky punch, white wine spritzer, fizzy apple and orange, beer and fizzy blackberry on ‘Fizzy Friday’. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we visited France🇫🇷 and and had French cheese selection with baguette, grapes and French wine. We had Jamaican 🇯🇲 jerk chicken, rice, crackers and super malt beer. Across to Asia for a Thai 🇹🇭Red curry, rice and Singha beer and lastly back to Italy 🇮🇹for spaghetti bolognese, pizza and Italian chianti. It was all very tasty and enjoyed by all of us. We had a trip out on the mini-bus to Ramsgate which was most enjoyable. For those of us who can’t get about as much we had hand massages and seated exercise classes that help keep us going after all that food and drink.

We kept the ‘Little Grey Cells’ active with quizzes and board games as we know it’s important to keep the brain active as well as the body.

What a wonderfully hot July we have had. It’s been glorious, just a shame we can’t go anywhere. But that does not mean to say we have not been busy.

We have travelled afar on our   ‘Taste it Tuesday’. We took in Australia, Czeck Republic, Peru and Hungary. We sampled the delights of these far flung countries and again the catering staff excelled themselves. Not only did we taste the food but we discussed the country’s and then had a quiz to see how much we had absorbed. We have been entertained by the staff. We had a Karaoke, staff members singing ABBA songs for us and we joined in. We have had our usual arts and crafts and quizzes to keep the brain active.

We had a Church Service, for which we are always grateful, as we know how stretched our church is, not having a village Vicar and we appreciate the time that they give to us. We had a residents meeting, a chance to discuss matters that may concern us and to put forward ideas that we would like to see implemented in the future. We have had trips out on the Mini-Bus which blows the cobwebs away.

We have a new Summer House which is much larger than the old one and can accommodate more people. Fizzy Friday had sampling cocktails of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety. Really it’s all go, and it’s wonderful that we are kept on our toes.

Well we are well in to Spring now. We are still in lockdown though but at least the weather has been wonderful and we can make the most of the beautiful garden that we have.

With no visitors coming and going we have been kept occupied with an array of activities. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ has seen us visiting Canada, Cuba, Vietnam and Indonesia, very different flavours and unusual food from Canada, bacon and pancakes?  Fizzy Friday we tested Pimms’s with lemonade, Sangria with lemon and lime and gin with a choice of tonic, lemon or orangeade. Film Club saw some old favourites and some new arrivals but the popcorn was the same.

We celebrated VE Day, which we all remembered. At 10.30 we had a briefing on the days activities. We started with a VE Day quiz, just to make sure ‘Those Little Grey Cells’ we’re working. This was followed by a Fish and Chip lunch for us and staff. After lunch we were entertained by Mandy Reynolds and at 3pm we all sat down for afternoon tea a great day was had by all and many memories came back to a lot of us. 

Those that could, took part in the Residents meeting to discuss any worries that we might have, especially at these uncertain times. We are continuing to Face Time our families and phone them, which we all feel is very helpful and keeps us close. In our baking club we made vanilla cup-cakes, rice crispy cakes, coffee cake and scones. As the weather has been so good we have had many garden games. Hoopla, giant naughts and crosses and dominoes, croquet and numerous seated ball games. The gardening club were in action repotting their carnations and placing them out for all to see. And the art class got us painting a sunflower field and using balloons as flowers, we painted a vase of balloons.

We used potato stencils to make pictures of butterflies and dandelions. For those of us who can’t join in with activities, we had hand massages and manicures, there is never a dull moment. We look forward to the day that the world comes back to some normality.

In the meantime you keep safe as we will.

Well we are still in Lockdown but keeping busy. The weather has been lovely so plenty of time spent in the garden. We have taken up reading the newspapers together, just so we can get an idea of what the rest of the world is doing during these extraordinary times.

We are still ‘Face Timing’ family members and talking on the phone. We have had our usual mix of arts and crafts, baking, bingo and quiz’s. Our exercise classes with Tony, Georgia and Pattie have kept us moving.

Our singing voices were put to the test with an ABBA karaoke. We have had film afternoons, with some old favourites and treated to manicures and hand massages. We have been in the garden with the gardening club and the greenhouse is coming on a treat with tomatoes. We have had a church service but because of Lockdown it was conducted by Home Staff.

We do pray that everyone keeps safe. All of the staff are doing a wonderful job and let’s keep our fingers crossed that ‘The Virus’ is soon no longer with us.

Well, here we are and March already behind us. We have been busy, even with the restrictions on the home with the Coronavirus. We managed to get two trips out to the ‘Tulip Tea Room’ and Deal Sea Front before we went in to self isolation. All the staff are working incredibly hard to keep our minds and bodies active in these uncertain times.

The alcoholic drinks on ‘Fizzy Friday’ are certainly doing the trick to keep ‘our spirits’ up. We have sampled Vodkas and tonic, red wine, Prosecco and orange fizz, beer, fruit punch and banana milkshake’s to name but a few.

Even though we can not leave the home we have visited Asia, Poland, Ireland, Japan and Turkey on ‘Taste it Tuesday’. This included St Patrick’s day, which we celebrated in fine style. As usual the catering staff excel themselves to give us the delights of food from different countries.

We have had exercise classes to keep us moving and our usual creative art, games and gardening activities.

Film club presented us with a variety of movies including, Gallipoli, The Inn if the Sixth Happiness, How to catch a Thief and many more. We have missed our singing entertainment, from our usual talented artists of the area but I’m sure they will be back when when everything is back to normal.

Meanwhile keep safe everyone.

COVID - 19 Update:

Due to the risk to our residents we are no longer having external entertainment, however for the foreseeable future we will be increasing our in house entertainment.

Coming soon our weekly blog

Well here we are the start of a new decade. With the Christmas and New Year festivities out of the way it’s  business as usual. Our old musical friends Jon Beetham, Tom Abraham’s, Chris Field, Jasmine, Geoff Stephens, Stella and ole favourite Glenda have sung and played in the start of the year. We enjoyed, as always, the Church service,  conducted by the village elders, which we appreciate very much as we haven’t, at this time, a permanent Vicar.

We have been out and about on ‘Tony’s Tours’, weather permitting. We visited Preston Tea Gardens, Gibson’s Farm Shop, The Tadpole Tea room and MamaFeelGood’s. We ventured further a field with ‘Taste It Tuesday’. Tasting the delights of Algeria, Greece, The Czech Republic and the United States of America. Fizzy Friday we toasted Sangria, Fruit Smoothie, Wine, Lemon and Lime Bellini, Shandy, Prosecco and White Wine Spritzer.

We had all our usual arts, crafts, baking, hand massage and bingo, which keeps us all busy. We are looking forward to getting back to the gardening club when the weather improves. We finished the month with a residents meeting to plan what we would like to do in 2020.

Well February was a wet one. We kept an eye on the river and the cellar to see if we needed to hand out life jackets. Joking apart it’s been quite miserable on the outside but inside we have been very busy to make up for the weather. We have visited Peru, Russia, and Jamaica on ‘Taste it Tuesday’ and off coarse we celebrated Pancake Day and the staff raced each other while tossing their pancakes. ‘Fizzy Friday’ had us tasting Bucks Fizz, Shandy, Prosecco, Strawberry-lemonade and Guineas.

Even with the rain we managed to have trips out when the sun shone. We took trips too the Elam Valley vin yard and the valley itself is very beautiful. Preston garden Centre is always a favourite and they do very good tea and cake. We also tried the Tulip tea rooms in Bridge and I’m sure we will revisit in the coming months.

The Film afternoon saw some old favourites. The Kings Speech, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Top Hat and many more. We have been entertained by Chris Field, Geoff Stephens, Jon Beetham, Jasmine, old favourite Glenda and a special Valentines Day sing along with Mandy Reynolds. We joined the over 60’s club at Littlebourne village hall for a Bingo afternoon with a very delicious tea.

We had a residents meeting to discuss any concerns, things we would like to do in the coming months and menu changes. Once again we are grateful to the Church elders who give their time up to come in an hold a service for us. We can only hope the weather improves and we can, in the coming months, get out in to the garden with our gardening club,  roll on summer.

Well here we are the start of a new decade. With the Christmas and New Year festivities out of the way it’s  business as usual. Our old musical friends Jon Beetham, Tom Abraham’s, Chris Field, Jasmine, Geoff Stephens, Stella and ole favourite Glenda have sung and played in the start of the year. We enjoyed, as always, the Church service,  conducted by the village elders, which we appreciate very much as we haven’t, at this time, a permanent Vicar.

We have been out and about on ‘Tony’s Tours’, weather permitting. We visited Preston Tea Gardens, Gibson’s Farm Shop, The Tadpole Tea room and MamaFeelGood’s. We ventured further a field with ‘Taste It Tuesday’. Tasting the delights of Algeria, Greece, The Czech Republic and the United States of America. Fizzy Friday we toasted Sangria, Fruit Smoothie, Wine, Lemon and Lime Bellini, Shandy, Prosecco and White Wine Spritzer.

We had all our usual arts, crafts, baking, hand massage and bingo, which keeps us all busy. We are looking forward to getting back to the gardening club when the weather improves. We finished the month with a residents meeting to plan what we would like to do in 2020.

Well February was a wet one. We kept an eye on the river and the cellar to see if we needed to hand out life jackets. Joking apart it’s been quite miserable on the outside but inside we have been very busy to make up for the weather. We have visited Peru, Russia, and Jamaica on ‘Taste it Tuesday’ and off coarse we celebrated Pancake Day and the staff raced each other while tossing their pancakes. ‘Fizzy Friday’ had us tasting Bucks Fizz, Shandy, Prosecco, Strawberry-lemonade and Guineas.

Even with the rain we managed to have trips out when the sun shone. We took trips too the Elam Valley vin yard and the valley itself is very beautiful. Preston garden Centre is always a favourite and they do very good tea and cake. We also tried the Tulip tea rooms in Bridge and I’m sure we will revisit in the coming months.

The Film afternoon saw some old favourites. The Kings Speech, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Top Hat and many more. We have been entertained by Chris Field, Geoff Stephens, Jon Beetham, Jasmine, old favourite Glenda and a special Valentines Day sing along with Mandy Reynolds. We joined the over 60’s club at Littlebourne village hall for a Bingo afternoon with a very delicious tea.

We had a residents meeting to discuss any concerns, things we would like to do in the coming months and menu changes. Once again we are grateful to the Church elders who give their time up to come in an hold a service for us. We can only hope the weather improves and we can, in the coming months, get out in to the garden with our gardening club,  roll on summer.

We entered the Christmas month with a choir who sang beautifully and we all joined in which got us in to the ‘Festive Spirit’. We enjoyed parties throughout the month. We were invited to join the children at Littlebourne CofE Primary School for their festivities which was wonderful. And of course or own home party in which relatives and staff enjoyed a splendid buffet and entertainment. The catering staff always put on a great feast for us and work really hard to ensure we enjoy ourselves. Jasmine entertained us with her singing and we joined in with the songs, we also had a fabulous raffle with lots of prizes. It was especially lovely watching residents grandchildren enjoying the time with us.

Our usual ‘Taste it Tuesday’ had us visit France, Greece and Egypt. Our Fizzy Fridays where mainly Prosecco based as it was Christmas so we had a lot of bubbles. At the cinema club, we watched Festive based films such as, Miracle on 34th Street, The Snowman, Meet me in St Louis along with many others. The months musical entertainment saw Glenda, Geoff Stevens, Tom Abraham’s, Jon Beetham and Chris Fields singing Carols and the Littlebourne Brownie Group came in to see us as well.

Christmas dinner was delicious, and we were joined by staff and residents relatives so as you can imagine there were lots of us and again the kitchen staff excelled. Santa Claus came and we all had a bag of goodies, distributed by Santa’s little helpers. We now look forward to 2020, a new decade, a new year with different challenges.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

Well November started with a ‘Bang’. The fireworks were wonderful and we all really enjoyed them and we had the added musical entertainment of Glenda, who is always a favourite. We have carried on the musical theme this month with a Staff/Resident Karaoke and entertained by Geoff Stephens, Alan Harry, Tom Abrahams and Jon Beetham, who always get us singing and dancing. We had a church service, which is always appreciated, that our local Lay Preachers take the time to fit us in.

We also reflected the past conflicts on Remembrance Sunday. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ we travelled to Argentina, Japan, Belgium, Romania and Germany, which our German residents loved. ‘Fizzy Friday’ had us tasting gin and tonic, raspberry lemonade, fizzy mango, sparkling rose and grapefruit, pina coladas, passion fruit martini, fruit punch and sparkling lemonade and lime. We have had a variety of films to watch on our Cinema afternoons. The King and I, Top Hat, Sherlock Holmes and many more.

‘Tony’s Trips Out’ took us to Mama Feel Goods coffee shop, Preston Garden Centre, always good for a cuppa and Chatham garden centre. We were entertained by a very agile Belly Dancer and some of us attempted to replicate the moves. We finished the month with a residents meeting to discuss any concerns that we may have and projects we would like to see in the future. We are looking forward to the Festive Cheer of December

October, the Witching month and what fun we had carving our pumpkins and the designs were amazing. It’s been rather a wet month and the garden is looking really autumnal now even though there are still patches of colour where the last of the flowers are still in bloom. We have had our arts and craft days and been very creative in our work. Our usual musical entertainers have been in. Tom, Chris, Glenda, Jon, Geoff, Jasmine and a new comer called Alan, they were all very good and we always enjoy a sing-a-long. Tony has taken us out on the mini-bus to visit the Spitfire museum at Manston airport, the Chillingham tea rooms, Preston Garden Centre and the Tadpole Tea room, which sounds like something out of Harry Potter. We have visited China, Italy, Poland, France and Asia on our ‘Taste it Tuesday’ all very delicious from our catering department. Fizzy Friday had us sampling Long Island iced Tea, pink Majito, cloudy Lemonade, Expresso martini’s, sparkling apple and raspberry lemonade with Bacardi, white wine spritzer’s, red wine and ice cream sodas. We watched Charlie Chaplin, Dr Zhivago, Norman Wisdom, Camelot, The 39 Steps and The Kings Speech to name but a few. We visited the village hall for bingo and afternoon tea, always lovely to catch up with our friends. Zoe held our gardening club and we discussed what we needed to do in the coming winter months in and out of the greenhouse. We held a residents meeting and had a church service where we gave thanks for the Harvest and the local farming community. We are looking forward to next month and Bonfire night. Before you know it The Festive Season will be upon us.

We are now at the end of the summer months and that autumnal nip is in the air.

The garden is still in bloom though and we are still managing to get out amongst the flowers during the day when it’s warm. We have had another busy month with visits to the Staple vineyard, Weatherspoons for fish and chips, Tadpole Coffee Shop, Mama Feelgood Coffee Shop and two trips to the village hall for an afternoon tea and bingo session. Further afield we have visited Vietnam, Cuba, India and Spain on our ‘Taste it Tuesday’ treat, all very flavoursome and once again the catering staff did a great job.

We have been entertained by our usual wonderful singers. Jon Beetham, Geoff Stephens, Chris Field, Glenda and Jasmine and her 60’s Divas, we always have a sing along with them. Our cinema club had some classic films on offer. Brief Encounter, Rebecca, The Man With The Golden Gun, and many more. We have had our usual ‘Arts and Crafts’, manicures, exercise classes, cooking and one-to-ones. Fizzy Friday had us sampling Mojitoes, Passion fruit Mojitoes, Pina Coladas, Passion Fruit Martinis, Pink Lemonade and for those who prefer not to have alcohol sampled non-alcoholic raspberry Mojitoes.

The staff, visitors and residents enjoyed fund raising for Macmillan by holding an afternoon tea and cake event. We ended the month with a residents meeting to air  any concerns we may have and to discuss what we would like to do in future months. Looking forward to what’s in store next month with Halloween high on the agenda.

The month of August, when the surrounding country side is waiting for the farmers to bring in the harvest. Our own gardening club have been busy in the greenhouse and on the raised bed bringing in our produce. We have had an abundance of tomatoes, rhubarb, runner beans and plants. We have been out and about with Tony on the Mini-bus to various destinations around the coast, a favourite is Deal where we have ice-creams along the beach.

The village hall has entertained us this month with afternoon tea and a Bingo afternoon which was really enjoyable. It’s lovely to meet residents of the village. We have had our usual musical entertainers. Jon, Tom, Glenda, Mandy, Geoff and Chris for a sing-song. The Arabic dancer returned to give us all another display of agility on the dance floor and we joined in with the percussion instruments. ‘Taste it Tuesday’ had the delights of the catering staff getting us to taste Thai, Italian, Pakistani and Australian Food which were all very delicious.

‘Fizzy Friday’ is always a treat. Gin and Tonics, Bucks Fizz, Shandy’s and Ice cream sodas. We have had cinema club, arts and crafts, painting, chair aerobics, quizzes and dance sessions, we do seem to cram in so much, keeping us on our toes. Our resident meeting went well, these are always useful for both residents and staff to put forward suggestions and concerns that may arise.

We had the Church Service for those who wished to attend and we are always grateful that they make time to come in to the home to allow us to have this service. Here’s looking forward to September, which I’m sure will be as full and entertaining.

This month on the 5th of April our lovely Resident Peggy turns 100 , she had a lovely cake and plenty of birthday cards, including a birthday card from the Queen to mark her centenary.

We would like to this opportunity to wish Peggy a very happy 100th birthday and heres to many more!