The Orchard visit Bhaktivedanta Manor

Residents and members of the team at The Orchard nursing home in St Albans enjoyed a lovely day out and visit to the Bhaktivedanta Manor set in Aldenham, in Hertfordshire.Bhaktivedanta Manor is a Gaudiya Vaishnava temple owned and run by International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), better known as the Hare Krishna movement and we thought it would be an interesting place to visit and find out more, which we certainly did.We arrived to discover just how vast the site is as it stands within 70 acres of beautiful landscaped grounds, consisting of lush lawns, flower gardens and even an artificial lake that attracts many type of birds. We agreed that it was a very beautiful location and had a very relaxing and tranquil atmosphere.[gallery columns="2" size="full" ids="27671,27670"]We also learnt about Bhaktivedanta Manor and the movement from Chaitanya Jiuan who is based there. He regaled us with lots of interesting facts and told us about their rich history. We learnt that it was established in 1973 by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and were very surprised to find out that the estate had in fact been donated to ISKCON by the late Beatle, George Harrison…We also learnt that the society performs many charitable deeds including working with and feeding over 850 homeless people. We all enjoyed listening and learning about this beautiful place and religion. It really was a very enlightening visit.To end the trip, we then went on the green to enjoy our picnic in the gorgeous summer weather. We also had some unexpected guests when some ducks chose to join us, which was great and added some humour as they seemed to enjoy the food just as much as we did![gallery size="full" columns="2" ids="27667,27669"]The journey back was full of conversation about the day trip and carried on later on in the day when our residents and team shared their stories, and what they learnt, with our other residents.The Orchard Nursing Home in St Albans, is an attractive purpose-built home providing the highest level of residential, nursing and specialist dementia care for up to 63 elderly residents.If you would like to find out more about life at The Orchard Nursing Home please contact us on 0808 223 5544 or [email protected].