Impromptu Salviati

 In terms of actual gardening, work is going well. Some warmer and sunnier weather is upon us, at least for the time being, and although the floods are receding, there are still huge areas underwater.

Of course, with the sunshine comes all of the bad gardening practices that one associates with an early warm spell, as people for some bizarre reason think that it's summer already. I have seen some companies putting down spring lawn food, when it should really wait for another month at the earliest. Also, on a recent visit to a large and well known garden centre nearby, we turned up with ten minutes to go until closing, as we had to quickly get two climbing roses for a customer, only to see staff fleecing over the summer bedding plants already on sale. It's far too early to even contemplate this, and they were still so vulnerable that this measure was being taken, AND they were already on display under cover! The poor and unsuspecting customer will no doubt arrive the following day to unfleeced plants, unaware just how wrong it is to have them on sale right now. It frustrates me to distraction, and reminds me of the way in which supermarkets are pushing sales earlier and earlier against the competition, by selling Easter eggs alongside Christmas baubles and halloween regalia. Gardeners should lead by example, not follow a trend that is getting worse.

Anyway, rant over, the gardening I am doing is good, and also being good for my soul.

 

This brings me to this post, and Wednesday, which was a particularly glorious day.

It's no secret by now that I am a bit of a Salviati glass enthusiast, and collect goblets and glasses by this world famous Italian. What a lot of people don't know though, is that he was also famous for producing mosaics, some of which are adorning famous buildings worldwide. St. Pauls Cathedral dome, Westminster Abbey, the list is quite huge.

 

I had planned to work all day, but also had a Salviati itch to scratch so to speak, and so decided to take the afternoon off. Whilst I worked all morning on a property in Mudeford, Amanda strolled along the quayside in Christchurch, and as soon as I had finished, I drove down the road to pick her up, and we then made the half hour drive to this location of a hidden Salviati mosaic, located within the grounds of the rather special Canford School. It was a delightful river walk to our final destination, and on crossing the river via a narrow suspended footbridge, we came to Canford Magna Church.

 

 

About half the building is made of sandstone, which gave a warm and rusty glow in the sunshine.

 

The bank running along the entrance path was a mass of daffodils and crocus, so beautiful in such a peaceful setting.

 



 

Amanda took her time taking photos of the outside, and I became more and more impatient, and so just had to go ahead and find my mosaics. To think that similar works are in such large and famous places, and yet also in this little church tucked away in a quiet little spot in rural dorset, it's really quite exciting!

 

And there they were, the Salviati angels, either side of the alter.

 



 

The light wasn't great at this end of the church, and so I had to use a flash to highlight the wonderful richness of the colours.

 

 

And close up, one can appreciate the detail and workmanship that went into them.

 

 

We stayed here in the peace and quiet for quite some time, and it was now time to leave my angels behind. It was only 2.30pm, and so did we go home?

 

Nah!...we drove the extra twenty minutes to Cranborne Manor, where Amanda found this chair, but that's another story.

 

 

I hope you all have a great weekend