02/01/2026
✨ Happy New Year from all of us at The Orchards! ✨
As we welcome 2026, we’ve been looking back on all the wonderful moments that made 2025 such a special year for our residents, staff, families, and community.
We began the year with a magical visit to Ely Cathedral’s Illuminate, followed by a colourful celebration of Chinese New Year—tasting new foods, learning about the culture, and even discovering our names in Chinese and their meanings.
🎬 Our film afternoons were a huge hit, with favourites including Paddington Bear, Mary Poppins, and The Thursday Murder Club. We also had great fun finding out who our residents’ classic Hollywood heartthrobs were… Mary’s love for Bing Crosby certainly made us smile!
We were lucky to welcome so many wonderful community groups and entertainers throughout the year—thank you for filling our home with music, laughter, and joy. Our residents loved dancing the days away!
🎶 We enjoyed uplifting mornings with the All In Sound Choir, kept active with ball games, and took time to appreciate our remarkable staff who make everything we do possible.
We celebrated St Patrick’s Day, St David’s Day, Diwali, Eid, and many more special occasions with themed activities and plenty of fun. Our beautiful garden—especially our new pergola—became a favourite spot, and we’re so grateful to our maintenance team for creating such a lovely space.
🚐 We ventured out on trips near and far: peaceful riverside walks, visits into town, and days out to South Angle Farm, Sunny Hunny, Newmarket Races, and the Cambridge Botanical Gardens.
Birthdays are always special here, but one truly shone—Hilda’s incredible 103rd birthday, celebrated during our summer fete. What a day! Thank you to our volunteers, staff, the brilliant Banjo Man, and everyone who helped make it unforgettable.
We proudly supported Dementia UK and Macmillan Cancer Support with coffee mornings, and marked Mental Health Day by wearing green. We also honoured VE and VJ Day—80 years on—with heartfelt celebrations.
Our themed days, including the Wild West, brought so much laughter, and we loved welcoming children from Isle of Ely School, The Lantern Preschool, and King’s School.
One of our proudest achievements of 2025 was being awarded the Gold Standards Framework—a testament to the dedication and compassion of our entire team.
And finally, we wrapped up the year with a magical Christmas and gathered together on New Year’s Eve to sing Auld Lang Syne as we welcomed 2026 with a cheer.
💛 Thank you to every single person who helped make 2025 such a fantastic year.
We wish you all a joyful, healthy, and wonderful 2026!
