Sage's Visit to Casa San Ysidro

Casa San Ysidro is a historic adobe home owned

by the Albuquerque Museum.

It frequently has scheduled guided visits by the docents.
Visitors call the museum to arrange for their visit.

But, they have events on the second Saturday of the month

for free, and also have events like participating in the community

Harvest Festival.

I had brought Sage to this location at the end of February.

She stood outside when the historic home was not open.

The tree was still a winter tree without leaves in February.

I attended a Saturday event to take photos of her inside

the courtyard area.

We waited for the guest speaker at 1:30,

about 20 minutes after my arrival.

The guest speaker spoke on the history of New Mexico

and what an affluent couple owned around the time period

of Josefina. She spoke in the room behind Sage in the

below photos.

It has a high ceiling with church ceiling beams. Visitors are not

allowed to take photos inside, but this is a public photo.

There were chairs set up in the room instead of the table in the middle.

The speaker was at the other side of the room and a projector

was used to visually support her talk with a PowerPoint presentation.

The below photo is the location near the room,

but facing the opposite direction.

 Down the portal outside hallway, there is another set of white doors.

Those doors are to the main hallway.

Near the front door and window is the kitchen on one side.

This is another public photo.

The below trunk is in the hallway.

The below photo is of the parlor across the hallway

from the kitchen. The curtain with the light behind it

is also in front of the casa. This photo was used by the

organization to advertise this event on Facebook!

There are also two bedrooms that visitors can see in this hallway.

After the talk by the guest speaker, I talked to a docent

I know outside of the door. He saw Sage and I asked

him if the blacksmith building in the back was open.

He had the keys! He opened both doors.

One side has the blacksmith area on one side.

On the other side, there is a cabinet with educational items

and a table and benches for events or school field trips.

Their Josefina sits on the cabinet. Her oldest set of books

are with her, telling me that they have had her since she was released.

They also had her cookbook on display.

Their Josefina, being in an outside building, was dusty.

Her clothes were dusty and she was dusty.

She did not have her braid in, but she had the blue ribbon

and yellow flowers in her hair.

I later had an odd interest. El Rancho de Las Golondrinas

is a historic rancho that is a museum. It is south of  Santa Fe.
It was a main area used by the author to research where Josefina lived. 

They have a Josefina on display in a clear box in a bookshelf
in their gift shop. They sell books and the mini Josefinas. 

They tend to have the most recently available merchandise from American Girl

in the Josefina books and mini dolls they have for sale.

The photos below were taken in Taos at the Martinez Hacienda.

It is another historic adobe home owned as a museum.

I took these photos last year. They have a room in the back

of the hacienda as a play area for children.

This is another example of where there are Josefina dolls

and items for people to learn about New Mexico history.

After we visited Josefina in the back area, we walked back

into the main courtyard of the Casa San Ysidro.

It has lanterns hanging along the portal like Josefina's lanterns.

I really wanted Sage to be photographed standing up,

which became an other learning experience. In my first round

of photos, the background was visible and in color,

but Josefina was darker and not as clear.

In round 2, I waited for some clouds to pass over the sun.

Sage was more visible in the photo, but the background

became bleached out.

The tip I received from and experienced photographer

was to use the flash in bright sunlight. The below picture

is not ideal. I took it in round 1 with a flash. The

photographer recommended using a white cloth cover over

the flash to lighten it up. I also normally back up when using

my flash on smaller dolls, but was not too far away in this photo.

Another experiment in how to get good photos.

While I was there, I photographed a frog in the middle

of the courtyard garden.

They also had crab apples growing on the trees.

I then chatted with the docent supervisor. The wonderful thing

about this event is that the people who came to listen to the speaker

were older and left after the talk. I was on the property with a few

docents and no other visitors. From my point of view, it was

a wonderful opportunity to take photos of my dolls without other

visitors! From the docent supervisor's point of view...maybe I should

be a docent at Casa San Ysidro!

I thanked the docents, and it was time to go.
I love the history of New Mexico, and it was a great day

for me to use my Josefina knowledge to understand an adult

point of view on the topic of history here.

*NOTE: My AG Sage will not go out frequently. 

When she does, there may be periodic "guest" 

blog entries. She is not taking over for Ella,

Autumn, and Amaya in this blog.

Summer is Hot!

July is here and summer is HOT!!!

It is SO HOT that we don't go outside as often

as when it was more comfortable to go outside in the spring.

It is so HOT that this is what we did 2 days ago,

and have not even bothered to write about it yet!

We did manage to go to the Open Space Visitor Center

for a quick visit on Thursday.

The seasonal pond had no geese or birds on it.

It had green grass along the edge, but since they cleaned it

in April, the pond was visible.

The green was bright and well grown,

and the blue sky was nice to see.

Okay, going inside seemed like a good choice in the heat!

Inside has much cooler air!!!!

It also has pieces in the collection from our local history.

We found out last time we visited that area was about

an excavation site right next to the Open Space Visitor Center!

These pueblo buildings were pretty much on this property!

I decided to look through the pottery pieces.

Wow! These excavated pottery pieces are so interesting!

Also, the longer we hang out here, the longer we are inside

where the air conditioning is!

Outside again! I did talk to the property custodian.
Geese and cranes spend late fall through the winter

on this field. I found out that the land owner grew

alfalfa and it was time to harvest it. Good deal!

The garden was not as full as we had seen last year.

There were three business people talking to the side.

I did not photograph them, but I was surprised that they

were not holding their informal meeting or chat time inside!

But yes, it is still pretty cool to have a "river" in the tiles

and the volcanoes to represent our history!

There is an adobe doorway leading to a path that people

use to walk, jog, or exercise on as it is not on the side of the road

and not on a large hillside.

The yellow flowers are pretty!

But did we mention,

if we are outside and it is hot, it is time to stand under a tree

in the shade!!!