Communities rally round to support care home residents

Kind-hearted communities served by Colten Care’s 21 homes in the south have been doing their bit to cheer up residents separated from loved ones because of coronavirus.

As movement restrictions from the government have tightened, the family-owned care home provider, Colten Care, has moved from advising relatives to ‘think twice’ about coming in to halting non-essential visits altogether. Friends, families and community contacts have immediately responded by sending in letters, postcards, emails, photos and drawings.

Team members at Colten’s Chichester home, Wellington Grange, say they have been inundated with goodwill wishes after a Facebook message by Healthcare Assistant Natalie Agate received more than 2,200 shares, 200 likes and around 150 comments.

Natalie wrote:

Covid-19: Home schooling across the New Forest

Useful resources and advice for parents from the British Psychological Society

School's out! Except it's not. Schools in the UK are now closed for an undefined period of time for all but the children of key workers, leaving parents to follow school guidelines and home educate their children - whilst at the same time having to work from home too.

A recipe for disaster? Or precious family time together? Locally we're fortunate to live with the New Forest National Park and the Solent shore within easy reach - do make time to get outside to get fresh air and exercise daily if possible.

We've gathered here some useful information that could help...

Useful to know - resources…

Covid-19 prevention and preparation in Lymington and the New Forest

A few hopefully helpful tips for self preservation from our medical friends and own experience

First a reminder of:

• The official Government advice  
• The official NHS advice  

What follows is a rather more personal article we've compiled (and to which we can add as relevant) containing advice being sent in to us by medical friends and other authorities in their fields, and including new information coming to light which relates to the experience of people we know personally.

We are not attempting to be the experts, simply to share some sensible sounding advice, a lot of which we haven't seen elsewhere. 

Trying to stay healthy in the first place…

Covid-19: staying sane during self-isolation in the New Forest

With weeks of social distancing, home-working, home-schooling and empty diaries ahead of us, guidance on how we can find mindfulness and positivity...

The whole world has turned upside down and inside out in little more than a week, yet as the excellent Anne Atkins demonstrated in her lovely Thought for Today on Radio 4 this morning (NB last week’s was brilliant too https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p086vsdp ), the ability of humankind to adapt positively to crisis seems to know no bounds.

500,000 people of all ages and from all walks of life immediately volunteering to help the NHS through the crisis is simply amazing.

As our beautiful and beloved New Forest itself changes too with

Covid-19: New Forest businesses offering delivery

Many New Forest businesses are offering local delivery to help those in self-isolation during the coronavirus situation.

Dining at home like royalty with no shopping, prepping or cooking, and practically no clearing up.

A silver lining to social distancing?

A number of local businesses in the hospitality sector from hotels to restaurants to pubs to caterers have enterprisingly and swiftly got their acts together to provide home cooked meals delivered to your doorstep....

Please find here a list of New Forest businesses offering local delivery to help those in self-isolation.  See also our guide on local community groups helping during the coronavirus situation . Get in touch on This email address is being protected from

Covid-19 and self-isolation in the New Forest area - Local Help

Preparing for coronavirus in the New Forest area - community and volunteer groups - useful local information

In response to a number of requests for information, we have created this guidance page. If you know of any special voluntary help that has been set up to help people in Lymington and the greater New Forest area during the coronavirus crisis, please get in touch and we will add to the page. This page will be shared regularly on our social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and in our free Weekly What's On direct email to subscribers (subscribe here: lymington.com/subscribe)...

Covid-19 Guidance and Updates

Great ideas for Mothering Sunday in the New Forest

10 ideas for Mother's Day 22 March in the Lymington and New Forest area, including ideas if staying home with Covid-19.

Mothering Sunday began as a religious event in the 16th Century, with in fact no connection to mothers at all! The word "mothering" referred to the "mother church", the main church or cathedral of the region. It became a tradition that, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, people would return to their mother church for a special service. This pilgrimage was apparently known as "going a-mothering", and became something of a holiday event, with domestic servants traditionally given the day off to visit their own families as well as their mother

Escape to a half day cruise on the Solent with Escape Yachting

Sail with Lunch or Dinner trips on the Solent out of Lymington  

We can really recommend this trip - been there and done it and it proved a brilliant instant unwind and rather a magical experience in fact including seal sightings.

In the current climate this has simply got everything going for it - easy access at Lymington Yacht Haven and instantly far from all your concerns...

As the icing on the cake there's a special discount for Lymington.com readers. See below for details. You can even escape to far flung destinations and a luxury “Escape" - see also below.

The breeze in the sails and your hair, what better tonic for…