Daffodil Day
The Wadsworth Mansion will host their annual spring event: Daffodil Day on Sunday, April 21st, 2024 from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. at the Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate, 421 Wadsworth Street, Middletown. This family event will be held rain or shine and is free to the public, although donations are welcome and appreciated. If you wish to donate online, click here!
In the front of the Mansion circle Franks Woodfired Pizza Truck, and Skyscraper Sandwich Truck will tantalize visitors with delicious food sold from their food trucks. Inside the Mansion, The New England Coffee Guy will be providing providing high quality/locally roasted coffee of various types. Bring your appetite and grab a bite!
From 12:30 to 2:30 enjoy live music with Anna May Music in the West Ballroom. Originally from Connecticut, before becoming a western transplant, Anna May is a singular artist whose songs bear a placelessness that lends to their timeless nature. The deep exploration of heartbreak and trauma has been an ongoing quest throughout Anna‘s work. Her lyrics have been heavily textured by a lonesome whimsicality that finds itself most at home in the vastness of the American West. Anna‘s music honors the nomadic spirit with memory, meditation & fresh interpretations of folk music and jazz influence. She honors a hope to enhance connection, humility, healing, and joy among people in the process of parting with typical genre rules.
Everyone Outside staff will offer a nature exploration at the vernal pool located on the east side of the mansion to show the amazing creatures found in vernal pools at this time of year including frogs, salamander eggs, tadpoles, insect larvae, and more! Viewing scopes will be available. You can also learn about letterboxing or pick up a fun scavenger hunt. Come visit the vernal pool any time between 12:00 and 3:00 PM.
At 2pm we welcome Blue Moon Raptors, who will be bringing 4 birds of prey; the Red-Tailed Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Great-Horned Owl, and Eastern Screech Owl. Blue Moon Raptors mission is to rehabilitate ill, injured, and orphaned birds of prey to return them back to their natural habitat where they will continue to enrich the environment. Along with rehabilitation, Blue Moon Raptors goal is to share the important role these raptors have in our ecosystem to help maintain the balance of nature with educational programs. They will discuss what we can do to make a difference to preserve the environment so raptors may continue to enrich our planet. In doing such programs they hope to educate, and promote the protection of wildlife and our environment for future generations.
Meet with representatives from Middletown’s Pollinator Pathway organization to learn about their efforts in the community. The Pollinator Pathway movement seeks to reconnect our fragmented landscape by creating and connecting pollinator habitat right in our own communities–starting in your yard or neighborhood park. If we begin to manage our own yards organically and with native plantings, we can use them to connect parks and preserves, creating crucial corridors for wildlife. That is the idea behind the Pollinator Pathway. At their table, they will be offering free seeds to attendees and a chance for children to plant some seeds!
Ongoing throughout the afternoon, docents from the Friends of Long Hill Estate will lead guided tours of the Mansion providing a narrative that details the history of the estate. Furniture donated by the Wadsworth Family will be on display in the History Room.
Guests are encouraged bring a kite to fly on the vista, enjoy independently the 103 acres of parklands and view the daffodils that will bloom sometime in April assuring us all that spring has finally arrived.