RESIDENTS at Colten Care homes in the south have knitted, sewn, crocheted, painted and sculpted thousands of poppies as heartfelt tributes for Remembrance season.
Many of the handmade works feature in outdoor hanging displays designed to prompt visitors and passers-by to stop and reflect.
As well as poppies, homes have held arts and crafts sessions in which residents – including many service veterans – have painted pictures on the theme of wartime sacrifice and shared their thoughts and memories with each other.
Residents at one home, Amberwood House in Ferndown, spent two months preparing an exterior floral ‘waterfall’ made entirely from the ends of recycled plastic bottles.
In Salisbury, the finished display at Braemar Lodge in Stratford Road numbered more than 1,900 handcrafted poppies.
While most were made by residents, families, staff and close community contacts, the home also received donated poppies from as far afield as Scotland.
St Catherines View in Winchester collected nearly 1,500 poppies after it reached out to the community to help with a display.
In the New Forest, team members at Belmore Lodge in Lymington filmed residents sharing their wartime memories.
Belmore Lodge also invited residents to make clay poppies and produce their own paintings on the subject of Remembrance.
Among activities at other Colten Care homes, residents at Bourne View in Poole painted poppy images on pebbles for distribution in the neighbourhood, Whitecliffe House in Blandford held a poppy-themed colouring competition with local schoolchildren and Newstone House in Sturminster Newton welcomed the Shroton Ukulele Band to play at a British-themed Remembrance afternoon.
All 21 Colten Care homes hold annual services of Remembrance in line with wider Armistice Day commemorations.
