In life, there are magical introductions.
Introductions that seem to happen by chance, during a floral art course: a training event lead by master floral designer Giovanni Raspante. Immediately we can sense connections that go beyond the profession, a feeling deep in the soul that can only be called Love. While under the watchful eyes of the teacher marvelous arrangements are composed out of flowers and greenery, friendships also bloom as common interests are shared, everyone begins to joke around, to laugh together.
Our eyes meet and shine in front of the beauty we have created. Giovanni opens up a world to us perfumed with flowers and harmony. Saying goodbye after the course is difficult but technology helps us out: we create a Whatsapp group and we write to each other daily for a year, sharing our projects, successes, disappointments and joy.
Work and daily life intertwine and everyday we welcome the morning together. The need to see each other grows, to embrace each other again and share that deep love for Mother Nature in a place that is secluded, reserved only for us – and why not? A nest in the forest. Deep in the secret heart of Tuscany, in the “Colline Metallifere,” the perfect opportunity awaits: a spacious old stone farmhouse overlooking a valley surrounded by majestic hills and a few steps away a creek, immersed in the forest, sings its joys.
A date is set – the last weekend of January 2019, and the weather forecast is filled with tiny white stars: snow, snow, snow! Everything is immaculate. The farmhouse “Salcerini,”surrounded by an unmatched silence, opens its doors to us as fires are lit and food is kept warm on the stove. Hugs.
Eyes shine like those of children on Christmas morning. The spirit is so pure that there is only laughter and spirited games. Our walks outside become a source of floral abundance: branches, mosses, ferns and lichens are all ready to pass througb our hands. This time we’re decorating for us. There aren’t any clients to satisfy, it’s our creativity within that pushes outward like the green shoots that anounce the arrival of spring.
Immediately it’s like a fairy tale.
We start our project: the idea is to bring the house out into nature and to allow nature to enter the house.
We decorate a table outside in the snow, with flowers growing from a frozen white runner, from candlesticks thin branches of hazelnut are woven together allowing glowing balls of glass to hang fro them in the crisp, cool air: small floral treasures. A dormant cherry tree is dressed up, from its branches hang bunches of beath-taking white flowers. Our guests arrive, awed into silence by the beauty before them.
Our videos on Facebook have reached 22,397 views
The beauty of it all affects everyone and there is an ongoing flood of messages and calls from friends, strangers, journalists and planners all expressing their appreciation, telling us that what we have created is powerful, transcendent and bigger and stronger with every video we post. It’s an emotional avalanche, a clear and simple message that extends from the screen and goes straight to our hearts.
The Maremma reacts. The mayor of Montieri, the municipality hosting us, challenges the snow and arrives on foot. Project proposals open up between entrepreneurs who begin to understand, collaborate and believe in a common goal. A new window of opportunity in the world of weddings opens up in this quiet area. They call us from Switzerland, Panama and Canada.
They ask us to make Flowerhouse a format that can be exported!
Flowerhouse is our home where the heart lies, full of perfumes, with the doors always open. A house that we carry with us every day and that takes us wherever there is Love, wherever the desire to create Beauty exists, to work together in Harmony, to live with Integrity, to grow.
Flowerhouse is us, tiny little elves with blossoming hearts.
Photo: Matteo Serpi
