On Saturday, the First Born and I decided to go take a look at Filoli House.

‘A historic estate in Woodside, tucked into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains,’ the description went at one place. ‘A stunning Georgian Revival estate that reflects a bygone era of luxury living,’ said another.

In addition, the descriptions spoke of a sixteen-acre English Renaissance garden, lush flower beds and yew-lined avenues. It brought to mind the settings in books by Wodehouse, one of my most favourite authors.

If all this was not enough, there were two hiking trail loops too.

That did it. I simply had to go take a look.

It was a lovely day, bright and sunny, the skies as blue as one could imagine. The warmth of the sun was considerably reduced by the cool winds that blew. In short, it was quite a pleasant day to be out and about.

After purchasing the tickets, we went in and saw the ground-floor rooms open to the public. Once again, I was reminded of the characters from a Wodehouse novel inhabiting the space and, in my mind’s eye, saw many a story unfolding.

By the way, here’s an interesting fact that ChatGPT told me about the story behind the name Filoli.

William Bowers Bourn II—the house was completed in 1917 for him and his wife, Agnes, by San Francisco architect Willis Polk—created the name Filoli from his personal credo:

FIght for a just cause
LOve your fellow man
LIve a good life.

Other interesting trivia, for those interested: the house has been featured in Dynasty and the movie Heaven Can Wait.

Next was the turn of the extensive gardens to be explored.

The flowers were exquisitely beautiful. There was one part devoted exclusively to roses. When I came upon a sundial in the garden, it was all I could do not to look around for Lord Emsworth, Gally, Baxter, Aunt Agatha, Madeline Bassett, Stephanie Byng…

The sundial in the gardens figures as an important feature in many of Wodehouse’s novels, where-sometimes mysterious and other times romantic—rendezvous happen. But unfortunately, no one except a few of the visitors could be found anywhere in the vicinity.

After enjoying the various flowers, we walked past rows and rows of fruit trees in the Gentleman’s Orchard, walked through a quaint gate and on to the hiking trail.

The First Born wanted to know if I was up for it. He knows that I have been unwell and am only recently back to my original—almost original—state.

I was all for it.

I am always up for an opportunity to walk.

So up the path we went, not knowing how high or how long it went. (Now I know it was about a mile long.)

While walking the trail, I saw colourful birdhouses on trees. They looked so cute. Birdsong could be heard high up in the trees among the foliage. Unfortunately, I saw no birds.

Soon, we were done. We took a selfie of ourselves and walked back to the car.

I had officially ‘passed’ the test for the First Born to take me to other places where I would need to walk.

And only later did I discover that, somewhere along that little walk, I had actually crossed the San Andreas Fault.

Apparently, there is a little bridge called the Fault Creek Bridge on the California Trail, and crossing it takes you from one tectonic plate to another.

And there I was, happily walking along, looking at birdhouses and listening to birdsong, completely unaware that I had just walked across one of California’s most famous geological features.

Typical.

I go to see a historic house and its gardens and come away having crossed a fault line.

Not a bad day out at all.

And now for some pictures:

©️ Shail Mohan 2026