Filoli

tulips

I took these shots a few weeks ago at Filoli, an estate about thirty miles south of San Francisco.

 

Festina

Festina Lente.  I think that means “make haste slowly”, or maybe it means “your navel lint is festering”. If I’d bothered to study Latin in college, or if I’d gone to a high school whose primary goal wasn’t preparing people to work at the local trash can or potato chip factories, perhaps I’d know. In any event, it sounds pithy and profound, like the sort of thing which should be cast into a garden plaque.

 

face

This poor fellow seems unhappy. I guess hanging out on the base of an urn for years on end will have that effect.

 

mist

So, yeah. Filoli. Lovely estate. Tons of gardens and flowers, great place to stroll and take photos and maybe see some deer. I think some TV shows and movies have filmed there, although who keeps up with that stuff? If you’re in the area, it’s well worth a visit.

I’m actually in the mood to visit someplace else, someplace which isn’t in California or even the continental U.S. I’d like to hop on a plane and head to Paris or maybe Rome. They’re nice at this time of the year. But that isn’t in the cards right now, so over the winter break I grabbed a couple of cameras, handed one to my son, and drug him up the peninsula to walk among the posies.

 

gryphons

Whee! Concrete gryphons! That’s how you know you’re at a classy joint, when they have gryphons rather than garden gnomes.

 

entrance

This entranceway is lovely when the wisteria is blooming. Right now it isn’t blooming.

 

knocker

Rather sweet door knocker. I think it’s brass. The lighting wasn’t wonderful, alas.

 

gourds

This is neat, some birdhouse gourds attached to willow or vine arches in the middle of a field of daffodils.

 

lawn

Yep. Horrible place to have to visit. Fresh air, flowers, misty hills.

 

clockTower

For some reason this reminds me of The Village in the old TV series The Prisoner.

 

building

vase

arch

keystone

That reminds me: I need to see about getting more pore-cleaning strips.

 

 

pool

purple

Trees

TheBoy

There’s the boy, my partner in photography. Bless him for hanging out with me that day. (Although I’d still prefer for all of us to be jetting off to Paris.) I know he’d rather be hanging out with friends or playing video games, but now and then he takes pity on me and accompanies me on a minor adventure.

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