Sunken Garden @ Filoli House, originally uploaded by mslaura.

Today I took my hiking group to Filoli House and Gardens in Woodside. It was lovely. Not really hiking, per se, but many members are currently gimpy or pregnant, and not up for strenuous hiking.

We met in the cafe there, then toured the house and gardens. Very impressive. Wow, those people really knew how to live…ballrooms, drawing rooms, fruit orchards, cutting gardens, libraries, even a Men’s Lounge (where children and women were not allowed). Hrrrumpf.

The swimming pool is magnificent, and I love this sunken garden with reflecting pool. I am tempted to turn our underused bocce ball court into a water tank like this. At least part of it. The rest can be a glassed-in office for Dan/workroom for me and the kids. It would be especially nice in winter when the house gets dark and cold.

I’d like to get the guided tour of Filoli sometime…the self-guided tour was much more sparse on details, but as it was I think I’m the only one who did it all the way, the rest of the moms just wandered wherever. But their babies are smaller and fussier.

The photo at right is of the study at Filoli. The oak floor is gorgeous. It looks like it was burned with hot metal, but actually it was etched with the pattern and then stained, that’s what makes the crosshatch design.

Wow, the Bay Area has so many cool places to visit. I’m trying to cram in outings before it starts getting cold. The weather right now is perfect..warm but not too hot. So much to see and do.

I just found this website:

Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible ’70s by James Lilek, a brutal examination of the unlovely, unattractive, unlivable and unforgivable homes of the 1970s. All eras have some bad taste, of course – but it took the 70s to make bad taste triumphant and universal. It took the 70s to convince everyone to stick foil wallpaper on the wall, paint the bathtub purple, smother the floors in shag so deep it tickled the tops of your ankles, and hang art that managed to clash with everything, including itself.

Total crackup. I bought the book and can’t wait to get it. I definitely remember some silver foil wallpaper in a bathroom growing up. It was silver foil with…was it an intertwined light pink velvet pattern? I thought it was pretty interesting at the time. Wish I had a photo of that now.
Hey Mom, remember that time I came home from boarding school and you had painted every single item in my room hot rosy pink? Hot pink with light pink accents. That was pretty crazy. I had a mostly white room before that, with a few yellow accents and natural wood, but after that it was ALL pink, all the time! Quite shocking. Literally *everything* in my room was painted. Too funny. With a muti-shaded pink braided rug too. Ha!
Too bad this James Lilek guy’s apparently a venemous right-wing neocon nutcase in real life. But this stuff is funny, so oh well.
He also has a book on “Regrettable Food”, but you know, I think nothing can possibly beat the Weight Watchers Recipe Cards from 1974, most entertainingly annotated by Wendy McClure.
Snappy Mackerel Casserole, yum yum. And Jellied Tomato Refresher, served in a brandy snifter! Or the goodie at left, which was described as a “prolapsed anus” by one reader, and described using the term “bukkake” by another. Priceless!
Laughs, just laughs. And don’t forget to read the page titles for each recipe, at the top of your browser.