LA's Answer to Downton Abbey

I've spent the last weekend sick at home with a cold, but it's been time well-spent: catching up on season 4 of Downton Abbey!

Highclere Castle / Downton Abbey

It's not just the frequent sudden deaths of main characters and the various injustices that Mr. Bates can suffer that keeps me watching. Just a few episodes of the show can inspire a pretty bad case of house envy for those of us design-obsessed.  I am now full-on lusting after those British floral living room wallpapers and lush green English landscapes. My desert succulent garden looks boring after seeing Grandmama's roses.

Apparently, in the English countryside, you can visit Highclere Castle, where they shoot the show [putting it in my Google calendar as I type], but for now I'll have to do with LA's answer to Downton Abbey: Greystone Mansion.

Greystone Mansion has a long and storied past (including gold prospecting, old money, and good ol' fashioned murder-suicide), but it's now become a public park and events location for the rich and famous.

For us plebes, it's just a place to stroll around after brunch when you've got an extra hour to kill.

It's not this...

...but I'll take it. For now.

ps. Speaking of the English, I played a Brit last week on CBS's new sci-fi show Intelligence  (starring Josh Holloway). Shoine ye' shoes, guvnah? (B