Larks Leas Rest Home

02/09/2025

Larks Leas residents have been competing all summer in a big team quiz tournament, with the Buttercups battling the Daisy team. There have been questions on general knowledge, cryptic clues, specialist subjects, true/false, word play and quick fire rounds which have seen eager hands at the ready.
The tournament has been a really close one from start to finish, culminating in an exciting finale. Ultimately the Buttercup team triumphed, just one point ahead of the Daisies.
Congratulations to Sylvia, Liz, Irene, both of our Joans, Sybil, Gordon and Valerie.
We are now looking forward to a Grand Autumn Quiz tournament, in which we will mix up the teams.

08/07/2025

Last week at Larks Leas we celebrated a very special day with our star resident and his guests. Gordon achieved the wonderful age 105 years!
We all enjoyed a fun packed day, starting with musical entertainment by the very talented Andy Hague with his accordion and songs. Then for lunch we all had proper fish and chips, which is Gordon’s favourite meal.
During the afternoon Gordon’s family joined us, along with a visit from Hugo Mieville, mayor of Blandford. There were presents and cards to open, including a very special one from King Charles and Queen Camilla. This card will now join his 100th card from Queen Elizabeth II, quite a collection!
Our celebrations continued with glasses of bubbly or Pimm’s, a toast to Gordon and a tasty buffet. By the end of the day Gordon had posed for hundreds of photos, and had really enjoyed being a VIP.
Gordon puts his long life down to a daily tipple of whisky, a cooked breakfast, a full and happy life with his family, and his life-long enjoyment of ballroom dancing. We all at Larks Leas feel blessed to have his company.

02/07/2025

Larksleas residents are enjoying our wonderful English summer, and making the most of our beautiful garden! In June we held a garden party and invited our friends and relatives. The weather really was perfect, and so was the musical entertainment, courtesy of the Shroton Ukulele Band.
One of our residents, Peter, took the opportunity to present a very special birthday present to fellow resident Joan. To her absolute delight, he had painted her family's beloved dogs, Willow and Bubbles. What a talented painter he is!

14/05/2025

Our friendly & dedicated team provides 24/7 residential care. Short, long & respite stays available.

Rated 'Good' by CQC in all areas.

13/05/2025

May has already proven to be an especially busy month at Larks Leas. Last week we celebrated the 80th anniversary of VE day. A couple of our residents are wartime forces veterans and it was fascinating to hear their stories and memories. Another of our residents was a wartime nurse, and others had childhood memories of air raids, evacuees and rations. Highlight of the week was a big wartime singalong when we were joined by singer Richard Gracie, followed by a delicious teatime treat with china cups and saucers and fabulous cream cakes.
Our cook has also been kept extra busy this month as we have already celebrated 4 birthdays, so all our best wishes go to Joan, Valerie, Jean and Sylvia who together make up 369 years, and are all still looking fabulous!
We have also managed to fit in a couple of May minibus outings, to see the bluebells in beautiful bloom, and to enjoy lunch at a Garden Centre.
We are making the most of the sunny May weather, enjoying our garden and making plans for a June garden party.

09/01/2025

Well, Christmas is long over and we are properly into the new year. Christmas was a busy and fun packed time for us at Larks Leas. Highlights included a Mother Goose panto, a christmas carol service, a garden centre outing, a visit from Santa and his elf, and a Christmas party. The party saw us entertained by singer, Mike Sidaway, and a sketch by the activities staff and managers. Christmas day was greatly enjoyed, with presents to open and a delicious lunch. We saw the new year in with cocktails and mocktails. Oh, and we also celebrated a few birthdays.

27/11/2024

Over the past few months we have been running a Larks Leas team quiz tournament, with the Ladies and the Lords fiercely competing against each other. The ladies were very well led by their Captain Lady Sylvia, whilst the Lords were in safe hands with Captain Lord Peter. The scores have been close throughout and today saw the teams competing in a Captain's Mastermind and a an exciting team quiz finale. Sylvia impressed us with her knowledge of classical music but Peter managed to gain a small lead with his art knowledge. Both scored well in the general knowledge round. In the event the Lords team battled to victory with a one point lead.

15/11/2024

Residents at Larks recently proved themselves to be both curious and brave as they were introduced to a variety of wild creatures during a visit from Zoolabs. The lovely Anna put everybody at ease as she answered questions and gave lots of interesting facts.
We look forward to inviting ZooLabs back again next year. Meanwhile we are looking ahead and planning for Christmas, starting next week with a pantomime production by Tickled Pink Productions. Watch this space!

07/08/2024

Larks Leas held a very enjoyable summer fayre yesterday when we were blessed with sunny weather and were able to enjoy our beautiful garden, along with our invited friends and relatives.
Our celebrations began with a sumptuous roast chicken lunch, followed by fruit trifle. Then we assembled in the garden to enjoy some musical entertainment by the Shroton Ukulele Band and, later on, a sea shanty singalong with singer Richard Gracie, accompanied by our very own Sky Larks choir and our activities coordinator.
We held a grand raffle, with some wonderful prizes, and a guess the cake weight competition.
We were also treated to a tasty cream tea with Pimm's, punch and tea, with much debate about the merits of jam on top of cream or vice versa.
It was a fabulous day, enjoyed by all.

02/07/2024

Today we had a very special birthday at Larks Leas, where Gordon celebrated his 104th birthday along with his family and got a special visit from the Mayor of Blandford Forum! 🎉🎉🎉

03/04/2024

We hope that you all had a happy Easter, as we did at Larks Leas.
March was a busy month for us, with lots of opportunities for fun and enjoyment.
We saw the month in by marking St David's Day with Welsh songs, poetry, flags and dragons.
We celebrated a couple of birthdays.
Mothering Sunday saw posies and poems delivered to all of our resident mothers.
St Patrick's Day was celebrated with Guinness, Irish coffees and Irish blessings, and we adopted out handyman Jim as our own Irish pixie.
We enjoyed musical entertainment by singer Mike Sidaway who sang many of our favourite songs.
We welcomed Spring with lots of flowers, expertly arranged by some of our residents.
We held our own Easter Hymn service and some of our residents delivered wonderful readings.
We celebrated Easter Saturday with a party. There was a giant rabbit and chocolate egg to raffle, and a Grand Easter Bingo with lots of prizes.
We also have kept busy with our regular group activities, including morning tai chi and exercises, quizzes and reminiscence. We enjoyed looking through the contents of a memory box which contained a large pair of knickers which produced a lot of laughter.
We are now looking forward to the possibility of some lovely spring weather and the prospect of getting out into our garden and enjoying some outings.

09/01/2024

Larks Leas residents and staff would like to wish all our friends a happy new year. We are now busy planning some exciting activities and events for 2024.
Looking back over the past year we enjoyed some very happy occasions. Here are a few of our 2023 highlights:
We enjoyed not one, but two pantomimes! These were Aladdin, and The Wizard of Oz, both performed by Tickled Pink Productions.
We celebrated Burn's Night with Scottish music, singing and Robbie Burns poetry from Richard Gracie, haggis and a homemade Dundee cake and we didn't forget the all important tots of whisky.
We marked St David's Day with Welsh songs and poetry, and made our own Bara Brith (Welsh tea bread).
Easter was celebrated with Gill, folk musician, and Alan McIntosh, lay preacher, who travelled out from Weymouth to give us a wonderful Easter Hymn Service. They came again in October and December to give us a Harvest Festival and a Christmas Carol Service.
The Coronation of King Charles gave us good reason to celebrate with all sorts of royal themed activities, barbeque, a cream tea party and music from the Shroton Ukulele Band.
We made the most of flaming June, spending time in our beautiful garden.
In July one of our residents, Gordon, had a big birthday as he became 103. We had a visit from the Mayor of Blandford and a big buffet party.
We had several outings, to Garden Centres, Compton Abbas Airfield, a local art exhibition, and to a couple of orchestral concerts, performed by the Sturminster Newton Community Orchestra, which out activities coordinator Ellie plays in.
Musical entertainment has been a regular event and we have enjoyed performances by Andy Hague with his songs and accordion, singers Mike Sidaway, Debbie Butterworth and Steve Linn; and folk music from Rainbarrow. We have enjoyed weekly singalongs and must say a thank you to fiddler Lorraine Tillbrook who had lent us her musical support.
All in all it was an enjoyable and busy year at Larks Leas, giving us some wonderful memories and a lot of laughs along the way.