Adventurin’ : Patterson House, Ardenwood Farm (pt. 2)

As promised… Part 2 of the Ardenwood Historic Farm visit… discussing the Patterson House tour!

We visited in Mid-December to go on a tour of the Eucalyptus Grove when the Monarch Butterflies spend their time in their Over-Wintering Phase… have a peek at the 1st part blog here :
https://sfonewb.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/adventurin-monarch-butterflies-ardenwood-farm/

After our butterfly tour, we went on the tour of the historic Victorian, the Patterson House.
Originally built in 1857 as a Farm house  in which that last Patterson resided until the mid-1960’s…
thereby housing three generations of the family!!
The home and surrounding land is now a Park!
It is a wonderful setting for picnicking, lovely strolls, interacting with animals and touring the home.
As well, during the ‘active’ Summer season, they have many activities that include little train rides AND an active blacksmith workshop!! I’m very excited to visit during the ‘season’! (That will likely be a part 3 blog post!)

George Patterson came out to California to take advantage of the gold rush… that didn’t work out quite as planned… so after working a bit, in other ventures, he’d gathered enough money to buy a farm and home! The farm was very fertile. He and his wife were able to expand onto the small farmhouse and create a gorgeous white Victorian.

The Docent was super informative and fun, she really took on as much of the persona of the home as possible… and was able to interact with all ages of group!

The land itself is home to chickens, goats, cows, and more which we did not see during this visit. Though there are certainly peacocks… we saw a lovely one milling about the front lawn while were were there!!

Of course, Dano did pull out his EMF meter to take a few readings to see what activity there might be… not really much except for a great old house.

My favorite photos below are of the Exterior of the home itself, an artist’s painting of the home, AND in the kitchen was a a list of foods from Way Back When… I had NO idea Welch’s Grape Juice has been around since 1872!!!!! WOW!!! 🙂

Some other food surprises :
Jello 1897
Animal Crackers 1902
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups 1917

Adventurin’ : Monarch Butterflies, Ardenwood Farm

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Since we’ve moved to the Bay Area my cousin has been helpful in providing us with info about great things to do around here! As, she herself, prepared to move up here after her wedding.

Thanks to her we learned that the Monarch Butterflies have greatly increased in numbers, as counted, during their Over-Wintering phase!
They only lay their eggs in, and subsequently only eat as babies, the plant Milkweed… by adding a plant or two in your yard as an Eco-Friendly measure you would also get these wonderful butterflies visiting your yard during their West Coast Migration!!

We learned that there are a number of locations in the NorCal area to see the beauties in person! One such place, with about 6,000 butterflies at their peak, being the Ardenwood Farm in Fremont… Such a great place! Along with the Butterfly Preserve they many animals and a beautiful old Victorian home (The Patterson House), on the land, which I will write about in an Ardenwood Farm Pt.2 post.

We will also visit another Monarch Butterfly Preserve at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz later this month… this will warrant a separate blog post as well!

We learned that, like me, the Monarch Butterflies enjoy a warmer, sunnier climate in which to frolic! 🙂
They prefer temperatures of above 55degrees and sun… this warms their leaves and bodies enough to allow them to fly… otherwise, they will remain clustered together, for warmth, high above the ground within the leaves of eucalyptus trees.

When we visited Ardenwood Farm on Dec 11th, the weather was just a tad too cool for them at about 53degrees!

We did see a few butterflies in the air… though we mostly just wondered at the beautiful clusters of butterflies in the trees… we were also able to see a little, tiny baby butterfly egg!  It was all truly amazing to see!!

Please enjoy the accompanying photos… as we enjoyed taking them!