WOW!!

(I don't know the name of this piece yet, but I will update this blog as soon as I know)

Our friends from West Mersea were due for Sunday lunch this weekend and Saturday evening we got a phone call.........long story short, "would we like to visit an open garden tomorrow lunch time"? our plans were changed, it was now to be an evening meal and we were going to be picked up and whisked away to visit a garden in West Horndon, where ever that was? I was glad that we were being chauffeur driven by her husband in his very nice car.

How this all came about, Carol had been listening to the local radio heard about the garden, googled it and hey presto we were on our way, an hour from our home we arrived at Barnards Farm Gardens, West Horndon, Essex, home to the largest collection of malus (ornamental crab apple) trees in Western Europe.

This garden is only open to the public on certain days of the year and yesterday was one of those.

We were not being taken to vist this garden for the crab apples!!! although they were very nice, this garden is also home to an amazing collection of sculpture, which was awe inspiring.

All of these works are by the same French artist Nicolas Lavarenne (b. 1953) he is self taught and didn't become a sculptor until he was 33 years old, his work is cast in bronze.

This piece is called 'Grand Passeur'
(large frontier runner)

“I sculpt first of all for myself then I hope that it will touch others, bring me into communication with them. My greatest pleasure comes when others feel touched by my sculptures.”
Nicolas Lavarenne

(I don't know the name of this piece yet, but I will update this blog as soon as I know)

.........Sometimes you actually know that you are blessed with good friends, not because they are always there for you, as these friends are, but because they turn your world upside down for a couple of hours and boy what a couple of hours. We had such a lovely afternoon, one for the memory box for sure. How lucky we are.

I will add more photos of the sculptures including Elizabeth Frink and Monica Youngs when I have more time.

(I appologise for the quality of the photographs ..... not my forte I'm afraid.)