Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

In after Baud. Damn.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – Sister Golden Bear – Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens

On The Road – Sister Golden Bear – Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens

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Sister Golden Bear

Built in 1917, Filoli is considered one of the finest remaining country estates of the 20th century, featuring a 54,000+ square-foot Georgian revival-style mansion, 16 acres of exquisite English Renaissance gardens, a 6.8-acre Gentleman’s Orchard, and hundreds of acres of natural land, located, in Woodside, on the San Francisco Peninsula.

Every holiday season they put up extensive lights in the gardens, and the inside of the mansion is done up in true robber baron style.

BTW, On The Road usually gets posted long before I’m awake — being a West Coast jackal — but I’ll be sure to check in later in the day.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens 8
On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens 7
On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens 6
The main pool

Not the actual moon, but a backdrop for the bench in front. It’s in an outdoor courtyard with booths selling mulled wine, hot chocolate and more.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens 5

I was experimenting with using my iPhone 15 Pro Max for hand-held long exposure shots. This one was about 3 seconds, and the guy stepped into frame mid-exposure I’d hoped he would.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens 4
On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens 3

One of the things I love about photography is how makes me see more when I’m in a photo mindset. I sure thousands of people walked past this without paying any attention to it.

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The smaller of the two pools, with the mansion in the background.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens 1

I’m not sure the Chinese laterns were Christmas related, but they were beautiful. Inside the mansion the grand dinner room had some gorgeous tabletop exhibits about winter celebrations across multiple cultures, Christmas, Hannakuh, Kwanza, Arabic, Chinese, Japanse, etc.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Holiday lights at the Filoli House and Gardens

Again, another low light hand-held shot.

Reader Interactions

30Comments

  2. 2.

    HinTN

    Beautiful! Thanks for the tour. I love the pool with the lighted tree in the background.

    These photographs demonstrate the inadequacy of my poor old S8’s camera. An upgrade is in my future!

  5. 5.

    Rileys Enabler

    Really gorgeous- thanks for sharing! Your photo of the gate with the ghostly guy walking by is stunning.

  6. 6.

    LiminalOwl

    Wow, thank you! Lovely pictures. And I’m kicking myself for never visiting Filoli while I lived in the Bay Area.

  8. 8.

    randy khan

    Thanks for these.  We visited Filoli in the daylight in June, so it’s really nice to see what they do to doll it up (not that it needs dolling up!) for the holidays.

  9. 9.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    I love light displays and I appreciated some of this was outside the standard Christmas fare. Subara Diane was right, these are very well framed.

  11. 11.

    H.E.Wolf

    Thank you for the beautiful photos and the reminder of Filoli. My favorite is the gorgeous time-lapse photo of the person at the gate!

    A friend of mine had a summer internship there as a groundskeeper – everything from operating the power mower to cleaning out bird cages.

    We went on the visitors’ tour a few weeks beforehand, as a sort of reconnaissance mission. :) The estate took its maintenance of the original, formal Italianate landscaping style very seriously.

    The tour guide told us that the name “Filoli” was made up from “Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.”

  17. 17.

    Mike in Pasadena

    The 70’s movie Heaven Can Wait made good use of Filoli. I rewatch every two years.  The logic of the overall plot was weak, but the humor is excellent. Diane Cannon saying, “I should be canonized” was perfectly corny yet well executed in deadpan style, which is how it must be done. Still makes me laugh almost fifty years later.

  18. 18.

    pieceofpeace

    I agree on your keen-eyed picture taking.  These are lovely shots.  Thanks!

    I’m going at some point to their Christmas display, as my home is not too far away.   They have a great gift shop geared toward indoor and outdoor gardening, with many live plants, large to seedlings.  And I believe they have classes regarding sustainable and healthy gardening, plus others, perhaps wreath-making, etc.

  19. 19.

    cope

    Beautiful, thanks.  To me, this time of year (solstice adjacent) it’s all about the lights. I put up lights on our new Colorado home, the first time in a long while I have done that.

    Our last few years in Florida were Christmas lightless except for cheesy laser projectors shining on our house and yard.  I find it much easier to suffer the struggle of choosing and stringing lights when the possibility of snow is greater than 0%.

    Thanks again.

  20. 20.

    way2blue

    @pieceofpeace:

    But of course, evening admission is booked through December.  I’ve never visited Filoli, but have been to Runnymede Farm, just down the road.  The family hosts fundraisers for various causes, and you can walk their 100+ acre sculpture garden.  (I may have submitted OTR photos of them.)  Now I need to visit Filoli…  Thanks for the nudge.

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    These are magical.   I could feel my breathing slow as I was looking at the pictures with tears in my eyes.  So much beauty, just what I needed.

  23. 23.

    StringOnAStick

    You are so right that being in “photo taking mode” means seeing the world is a new way; that photo of the lit up tree trunks is lovely!  The last 3 photos especially speak to me.  Nice work.

    We’ve never put up Christmas lights before but the downsizing neighbor gave us hers and a timer, so I draped them around the mugo pine and holly bush.  I was surprised at how cheerful it felt to do so.

  24. 24.

    Origuy

    Thanks for the pictures. I’ve yet to make it to Filoli, although I’ve lived in the Bay Area for years. I have friends in the Red Thistle Dancers, who get dressed up in Victorian-era outfits and do Scottish dancing every year around Christmas at Filoli.

  25. 25.

    StringOnAStick

    @HinTN: I just upgraded to an 8s a year ago and thought that was a huge improvement, but a friend is going to upgrade so I’ll buy her 13, which should be a real jump up.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Colette

    Lovely pix! And thanks for the reminder that Filoli exists; I haven’t been there in years but I see there are still a few evening visits available in January so I’m going to grab one. Light in the darkness, a good thing regardless of what holidays one celebrates.

  28. 28.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Wonderful pix.  We’ve visited a couple of these kinds of holiday light garden events, and my pictures always end up looking pretty meh.  These are much better at capturing the beauty.  Thanks for sharing.

  29. 29.

    Quicksand

    I haven’t seen it mentioned in the post or comments, so I’ll just note that Filoli was the site of the summit between Biden and Xi Jinping just a few weeks ago as part of the APEC meetings.  A perfect location!

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