WATER BALL WITH ROSES

This could be the ultimate flower + water picture, but it probably isn't I first saw a water ball like this in Wales at the house of a woman called Hippo Prothero-Bynen. She was called, and called herself Hippo, not because she was fat, but because she collected hippopotamuses. They were all over the house. There was even a moldy chocolate one.

The flower ball was in the centre of the table and inasmuch as it was spring, it had primroses in it. Little bubbles of air stuck to the soft yellow leaves. It was beautiful. I was stricken with envy. I asked her where she got it, of course, and she said it had been a wedding present and was quite old. She didn't think they were made any longer. I searched but nobody had heard of them. Then one day in an old-fashioned iron monger's shop in Scotland I saw this one sitting alone on a shelf, covered in dust. I almost had a heart attack.

So, here it is in Italy, sitting on a terracotta window sill. There is always an air bubble on top. It is not exactly a breeze to get the flowers to stay in place but I treasure it.