Filoli was designed and built between 1915 and 1917 for Mr. and Mrs. Bourn, prominent San Franciscans whose chief source of wealth was the Empire Mine in Grass Valley, California. The formal garden was originally planned and planted as construction of the house neared completion. The lawns and shrubs around the house were planted by the fall of 1917. The woodlands surrounding the estate provide a beautiful backdrop for the garden.
After both Mr. and Mrs. Bourn died in 1936, the estate was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. William Roth, who owned the Matson Navigation company. Under their supervision, the maintained gardens gained worldwide recognition. Mrs. Roth lived at Filoli until 1975. She then donated the house and formal garden to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Today the garden is maintained by fourteen full-time horticulturists, student interns, and over one hundred volunteers.
The house on the estate is worth seeing, but my interest lies in the garden. My sister doesn't enjoy taking "cheese" pics of people; she'd rather catch someone unaware, immersed in their surroundings. Here I am, trying to get a nice shot without visitors traipsing through my photo.
Here I am again in all my glory, surrounded by Mother Nature's perfume and color wheel. Nicky took both these photos with her Nikon D40X. I spent the afternoon coveting my sister's camera. Have I mentioned she's my older sister? Haha.
Filoli has a pleasant but pricey cafe. Since we paid $12 each to enter and $5 to cross the Hayward/San Mateo Bridge, we brought our lunch and ate in the car. (Filoli does not allow visitors to bring food onto the property.) Nicky prepared delicious sandwiches for us made of tri-tip roast and seasoned tomatoes. I brought potato salad and banana bread. We made sure to eat before we started our walk. As baby boomers, we've finally learned to take care of ourselves before our blood sugar takes a sudden dip and we become too cranky to enjoy ourselves. We had a great time.
I took this picture of the "Sunken Garden" with my Kodak EasyShare V803.
My Kodak is a handy gadget that fits in my pocket. I rarely leave the house without it. But, as I said, I love my sister's Nikon that has a rapid shutter speed that will take up to three pictures per second. My poor little Kodak lags so much that whenever I take pictures of my grandchildren, the kids are long gone by the time the shutter releases.
Okay. I confess. After the trip to Filoli, I came home and purchased the Nikon D40X from Amazon. When I get proficient at using it, I'll review it and post a link.
In the meantime, I highly recommend--for anyone living in the San Francisco Bay Area--spending the afternoon at Filoli: (650) 364-8300. And you can read all about Filoli here.
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