Dear Friend,

I don’t know what the weather has been like with you recently, but the end of January here in Tuscany was mild, almost Spring-like. Bill’s been walking about without an overcoat, receiving strange looks from Italians, who dress according to the date, not the temperature, and are still wrapped up like Arctic explorers, with quilted coats and, if you’ll forgive a spreading of the simile geographically, with scarves like boa constrictors, endlessly coiled about their necks.

Come May, when even the Italians will have removed at least a layer, we can promise you sunshine during our creative courses. And if it does rain, you’ll have the personal services of an Umbrella Man (see story below) to ensure that raindrops don’t keep falling on your head.

In this month’s newsletter there are also stories on:

• A phabulous Watermill photographic competition, with a phantastic phirst prize
• An outstanding new yoga course: ‘Connection – to yourself, to others and to nature’
• The opening-up of another week of another week for Jo Parfitt’s Writing your Life Stories course
• Why you can throw yourself like a fish into our Italian language courses, confident that we know our chickens.

We’d love to welcome you here this year for one of our sun-filled, fun-filled, inspiring courses and there are more details below about all of them. Booking are continuing to flow in, many from people who have been with us before and want to come again (thank you, thank you). We already have nearly 200 firm bookings for 2018, which means we only have 40/50 places left.

If you’ve a favourite tutor, a specific week, or a special bedroom that you like, please get in touch as soon as you can, and we’ll set aside a place for you. Just click here, select the type of course you are interested in (painting, knitting, writing, yoga and or language), find out more about your tutor, then go to the Booking Enquiry form, fill in as appropriate and send it to us.

The two pictures above show some of guests enjoying painting in the walled garden, while below are knitters in the sitting room and writers under the vine verandah.

Together
at the Watermill

Bring a partner: there’s plenty for them to do

Why not bring your friend or partner? They don’t have to participate in the course, but they will be able to enjoy the wonderful hospitality of the mill and, whenever they want, to come out with you to our beautiful locations. We also offer a range of Alternative activities for partners on all our 2018 courses, as well as a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.

A phabulous Watermill photographic competition, with a phantastic phirst prize!

Many of our guests arriving at The Watermill say: “It’s so beautiful and peaceful here. The photographs just don’t do it justice!”

Yes, it is difficult to portray the unique ambiance and fun-filled atmosphere of The Watermill during our inspiring creative courses, whether its painting, creative writing, knitting, Italian language or yoga.

So, we thought, who better to capture the spirit of The Watermill than our guests, and we also thought, why not encourage them to do so by inaugurating an annual Watermill Photographic Competition? And why not have a cracking First Prize of a week’s free holiday at The Watermill on one of our week-long creative courses?

And we’ve done just that with a competition that is open to all our guests coming on creative courses in 2018*.

It’s simple really: first prize goes to the photograph we judge to be the one that most reflects the ambiance of the mill. We are particularly interested in shots that show our ‘students’ in action, both at ‘work’ and play, although we’d also like to see great photos of the Watermill, its grounds and the surrounding countryside, and of the flora and fauna that abound in this environmentally protected area.

The winner will be offered a free week-long creative holiday at the Watermill in 2019, of his or her choice, subject to availability. There will be five runners-up prizes, of £GBP 200 off a creative holiday at The Watermill in 2019, subject to availability (and not in conjunction with any other offer).

• The competition is open to anyone who has stayed at the Watermill, this year (or *in previous years)
• The competition is not open to professional photographers
• The closing date is 31 October 2018
• The winners will be notified in the first week of January 2019
• The judges will be Lois and Bill Breckon, Maggie Renner Hellman, Sandra Strohschein, Mike Willdridge and Tim Wilmot
• The judges’ decision is final If other people are in the picture, the entrant should have asked their permission to photograph them
• The Watermill reserves the right to use any of these pictures, with due acknowledgment, for publicity purposes.

• To enter you can submit up to five photographs. They should be sent electronically as high-resolution JPG files, with a minimum size of 1 mb.You should send your pictures to Bill Breckon via WeTransfer. (Please use our contact form and we will send you Bill's email address for you to complete the process on WeTransfer.)

Please join in the fun and submit the best photos taken during your visit. We look forward to seeing them all.

An outstanding new yoga course: Connection – to yourself, to others, and to nature

We are delighted to welcome two amazing young American yoga teachers to the Watermill this Summer,Amy Rogg and Joanne Brohmer.

With their students using words like ‘joy’ and ‘magical’ about them, Amy and Joanne will help you to awaken and restore your true passion and self-worth. We are sure this is going to be one of our most inspiring retreats –a sun-filled, fun-filled week where we’ll nurture your mind, body and spirit.

Amy and Joanne’s week will run from Saturday 25 August to Saturday 1 September 2018. The theme of the retreat will be ‘Connection’ – to yourself, to others and to nature.

Amy Rogg is a yoga teacher and movement facilitator working on transforming the human spirit through holistic arts. She is based in San Francisco, California, USA.

Amy helps people to awaken and restore their passion and self-worth, inspiring them to move towards their vulnerability and authenticity.

She brings people back into their innate knowledge and wisdom, through a deeper connection to their body, breath, and personal expression.

As a healer, Joanne Brohmer offers a range of modalities that helps others enter into their own depth and set their anchor deeper, where they can begin to claim and feel what has been hard to reach. She helps bring what has been blocked forward into the safe home of acceptance and embrace. She facilitates bringing others to that soft, open, vulnerable place in a way that feels safe.

Participants on our yoga retreat with Amy and Joanne enjoy SEVEN nights at the Watermill, with full board. Everything is included in the cost of the retreat: workshops, accommodation (including all linen and towels), tours, pre-dinner aperitifs, all meals and wines (including outings to charming local restaurants) and all local transportation (including transfers to Pisa airport and an excursion by train to Lucca). You get to Pisa, Italy, we do the rest! You can see a draft itinerary by clicking here.

Come and practise your yoga and meditation in the tranquil heart of rural Tuscany and let us nurture your mind, body and spirit.

Umbrellas delivered to your door

When we announced the Watermill Photographic competition, one of our previous guests, Lani Chaves, quickly sent in her five entries, the first we have received. She also sent me the photograph above. As I said, it won’t rain much in your week (we hope), but if it does you’ll have Umbrella Man (Bill) setting out to help. Lani says: “This is not for the photo competition, but here is one of you kindly delivering umbrellas to each room one rainy morning. So symbolic of the amazing care you take toward all your guests!”