Dear Friend,

The Watermill is now a truly international venue. On Keiko Tanabe’s painting course at the end of May, for example, we had no fewer than 8 different nationalities: Japanese, Portuguese, Israeli, American, Canadian, Swiss, Italian and British. Our reputation is spreading! A few years ago, we calculated that people from 70 different countries had visited the mill. We haven’t done a count recently, but it must be many more nationalities by now. As you can see from the pictures above and below, the Watermill is also a great place for making friends.

A great place to make new friends:
a writing group
on the steps of a nearby castle

More fascinating figures: Another tremendous number is that our bookings for 2019 have reached a record 250, beating the previous total of 232. So, our heartfelt thanks to everybody for supporting the Watermill. We enjoy your company and would like to meet many more of you in the future.

We only have a few places left on our 2019 courses: the latest availability is detailed below and, as we have also said before, don’t be too disappointed if you find that a course you really want to come on is fully booked: there are often cancellations. Let us know when you would like to come, and we’ll put you on a waiting list.

But if you’re a painter, to be sure of a place this year, how about coming on Sue Ford’s or Jude Scott’s courses where, at present at least, we still have a few places; and if you’re a writer, why not learn the secrets of writing for television and the screen with Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran?

Our final fascinating figure at the beginning of June: 25, the number of people who have already booked for our 2020 courses. That’s not least because of the wonderful tutors who are coming next year, but also because we have a special offer: if you book one of our 2020 creative courses before this September, you can enjoy it at 2019 prices.

For a preview of next year’s courses and the link for you to reserve your place, please click HERE.

In this month’s newsletter there are stories on:

• Irises and other flowers
• Bronzino sets the pace, bedroomwise
• Elvis is alive and well and living in Posara!
• Electricity from the sun
• Enjoy painting in the garden with Jude Scott
• Write by the clock, like Anthony Trollope
• An inspiring language course with Francesca la Sala
• Availability on all our 2019 Watermill creative courses

Happy reading...

The pictures at the top are of people making friends at the Watermill, while at the bottom left, we see a sunny conversation in the walled garden and, bottom right, students on Mike Willdridge’s painting week showing it’s not necessary to take life seriously all the time.

‘Blow this pirating lark, Orlando.
Let’s head for the Watermill.’
Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom
in Pirates of the Caribbean

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 courses, as well as a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.

Irises and other flowers

Our thanks to Julie Jordan, a guest on Carol Meldrum’s knitting holiday here last week, who sent us the picture (above centre) of one of our irises, which are now in full bloom at the Watermill. The wild flowers in the orchard and the campi by the millstream are look particularly fine at this time of year.

Among our favourite flower pictures from the Watermill are these two (above left and right) taken a couple of years ago by Watermill guest Ron Ploeg, of a bee enjoying the nectar from one of our passion flowers, and of the extraordinary hummingbird moth, which can be seen from time to time in the Watermill courtyard in the summer months. It looks just like a mini hummingbird and can even fly backwards.

Bronzino sets the pace, bedroomwise

As part of our efforts constantly to improve our offering at the Watermill, we are slowly working on re-styling our bedrooms, to give each of them a distinctive motif and ambiance. Here are some pictures of the newly decorated Bronzino bedroom: we are aiming for a mixture between sophistication and fun, to say nothing of quirky. We’ll show you some of the other bedrooms we’ve been working on in later newsletters.

But why not come and see for yourself? As we said, we still have a few places on our 2019 creative courses, and we are already taking bookings for 2020. For a preview of next year’s courses and the link for you to reserve your place, please click HERE.

Elvis is alive and well and living in Posara!

This Easter our friends Helen and Pasquale Glave gave us a small tortoise which they had nurtured in their back garden in Florence ever since he was an egg. His name is Elvis, but when we introduced him to the wonderful Watermill walled garden, he took one look at the wintry weather and scuttled (well, up to a point, let’s say he ambled) into the undergrowth, no doubt to nestle down until it became warmer. Now he’s out and about, looking very sprightly with his shiny shell: as neat as any Florentine gentleman setting out for the evening passeggiata. Welcome, Elvis, we’re going to enjoy your company.

O Sole mio: looking forward to free electricity at the Watermill

This (above left) is the newly renovated South-facing watermill façade, basking in the early morning sun. Once the scaffolding had come down, we were amazed how large an area the façade is. It is the last-but-one major piece of restoration that we will undertake here. Next year we move to the frantoio , the old olive press (above right,, suitably in the shade in the early morning when we took this photo), where Lois has plans to create a new inside sitting area, with a terrace overlooking the millstream as it gushes down to the river.

Meanwhile, in the picture of the façade, you may just be able to spot the new photovoltaic cells which we have installed on the roofs of the restored 19th-century mill and on the studio. We’ll be using the sunny days to produce our own electricity.

You will notice that we been able to save all the old tiles and replace them on the rebuilt roof. Now we are waiting for the Italian electricity company to connect our photovoltaic system to the National Grid. Once we are up and running, we think we’re going to be more than self-sufficient in electricity and hopefully, as well as saving the planet, we will also have no electricity bills. We’ll wait and see whether that plan becomes reality: we’ll have monitoring systems in place to assess just how much electricity we are making.

As we get photovoltaic electricity generation under way, we will also be slowly extending our air-conditioning system, which provides warmth as well is coolth. We already have units in the studio, which proved useful in the unseasonably chilly weather in May, and in the dining room where, one night, we needed to cool down! And we are keeping the cooks cool and calm in the kitchen. There are also units in The Lippi Suite and in the Brunelleschi and Donatello bedrooms. It will be disruptive to try and do more during this season, but from next October onwards we'll move to putting air conditioning in all of the bedrooms. In the meantime, we will keep you cool as necessary with our highly efficient, good-looking, retro-design fans.