Daffodil Day at the Wadsworth Mansion | April 22 | 1 – 4 pm

Join us for our annual Daffodil Day at the Wadsworth Mansion! This event is free, open to the public, and will be held rain or shine.

A plethora of indoor and outdoor activities include:
• 1:00-3:30 Docent Tours
• 1:00-4:00 Rock painting activity on the terrace

• 1:15 Variety Comedy show with Mr. Bungles in the East Ballroom
• 1:30-3:30 Vernal Pool Exploration with Lisa Liesener 

• 2:00 Guided family nature walk around the Mansion grounds with Lucy Meigs of Everyone Outside
• 2:15 Bubble fun on the terrace with Mr. Bungles
• 2:30 Live music performance with Cash Lane Slim in West Ballroom
• 3:00 Learn how to find Letterboxes – at the Vernal Pool

Chet’s Italian Ice, NoRA Cupcakes, Franks Woodfired Pizza Truck, and Shishkabobalicious will tantalize visitors with delicious food sold from their food trucks. Bring your appetite and grab a bite!

At 1:15pm in the East Ballroom, Mr. Bungles will entertain children with a fun variety show including comedy routines, magic, juggling, music, games, and balloons.  Goody bags will be available for children who attend.  Following the show, a bubble station on the terrace will include a machine that shoots out hundreds of bubbles a minute and wands of all sizes from a stronger homemade bubble fluid that allows bubbles to be 10 feet long!

Lisa Liesner of Everyone Outside (www.EveryoneOutside.org) will be at the Vernal Pool 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, salamanders, insect larvae, and more! Viewing scopes will be available. Come visit the vernal pool any time between 1:30 and 3:30 PM.   At 3:00 there will be a lesson in how to find Letterboxes with Lucy Meigs meeting at the vernal pool. Letterboxing is a treasure hunt type game. You follow clues to find a small box often along a trail in the woods. There are over 100 letterboxes hidden in the Middletown area.

Enjoy live music in the West Ballroom at 2:30 by Cash Lane Slim, Songsmith and guitar master takes you on a trip through the heart of Americana with a blend of folk, rock, blues and ballad; an energizing mix of originals and standards with his unique interpretation and voice. The songs combine into stories of life and love, gains and loss, fall and redemption. His solo acoustic hybrid performance is a dynamic reinvention of the genre; building layers of voice and instrument live on stage. This creates a range in the music from pure and evocative acoustic simplicity to lush soundscapes formed in progressive overlays. At times switching mid-song between six string acoustic, electric, and 4 string bass, there is a kinetic artistry that enhances the live performance.

We’re teaming up with the “Middletown Rocks FB” Facebook group to encourage attendees to paint, hide, and find painted rocks among the Mansion grounds and trails.  Inspired by the Kindness Rocks movement, we want to add some color and inspiration to welcome the spring season.  There will be a rock painting station on the terrace throughout the day (weather permitting), and guests are invited to paint rocks at home to bring with them to hide among the grounds and trails.  Click here for a getting started guide.  Any rocks found, be sure to post onto the “Middletown Rocks FB” Facebook page and tag the Wadsworth Mansion.

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.

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Wadsworth Mansion | 421 Wadsworth St, Middletown, CT 06457