Filoli and beyond

It seemed so appropriate that the first thing I saw at Filoli was a field of bluebells, like the one in the romantic film "Bright Star", since we had decided to spend our 19th wedding anniversary visiting the estate.

Amazingly, this was our first visit to the garden and house, but we knew right away that we had found a "low door in the wall" that would lead us to a magical place that we would want to return to often.

There was more beauty around every corner.

And flowers beckoning us to explore further.

We only took a few moments to record our presence.

Because we were so eager to see more.

Fauns were calling us into the garden.

And we were intoxicated as if by opium by the beauty that surrounded us.

However, the beauty didn't stop just with the garden, because the house promised even more.

It was as if we had sailed to a land forever frozen in time.

I was tempted to bake some teacakes.

And enjoy them in this quiet corner of the diningroom.

I fell in love with this lovely display table.

And was enchanted by this sconce.

Oh, so intriguing, even moreso because it was forbidden.

I wanted to sit at this desk and write all my friends about this wonderful place.

But had to rush off to the ball.

Finally, hunger called us and we dined in the courtyard with little Flora.

But soon we're off again to explore deeper in the garden.

It was hard to believe that some of the flowers were real.

And even in death, they held their beauty.

This apple tree was so full of bees that their buzzing was the only sound that could be heard.

It was so tempting to refresh ourselves in this pool.

But we decided to return to our favorite building, the Orangerie.

And spend a few minutes relaxing.

While we did, the doves softly cooed to us (follow the link to a brief video).

And a little bird splashed in the fountain outside.

Sadly, the clocktower warned us that it was almost time to leave, so we bid farewell to our now beloved Filoli.

Just up the road, we stopped at the Pulgas Water Temple to thank the gods for blessing us.

And giving us such a lovely day.

We made our way home via the coast, stopping in Half Moon Bay to visit a forgotten cemetery and lucked upon Half to Have It, an antique store full of wonderful things with a very sweet proprietress.

A little violet followed me home from the Filoli gift shop.

We finished off our celebration with champagne and souffle.

Sorry for such a picture heavy post. The fact is that I took over 200 pictures, but to save my poor friends, I uploaded the majority of them to my Flickr.