One of the many frustrating aspects of the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic has been the way in which many of the daily habits and routines that add the sum total of human health and happiness have been put on hold, I was reminded of this reading an article by Patrick Browne in The […]
Time to look forward to a creative New Year
The guy above is Janus, the two-faced Roman god of beginnings, gateways and departures. He gave his name to January, of course, and is depicted here as an old man looking back and a young man looking forward. Here at the Watermill, we are firmly looking forward, both to our continuing interactive online painting sessions […]
“Who sent you to me? God?†Puccini on Caruso’s singing
Sharing a Facebook post a couple of days ago on a remastered recording of Enrico Caruso singing Holy Night prompted me to revisit a blog I made some time ago of another extraordinary recording of the renowned tenor. It was Che gelida manina, from Giacomo Puccini’s La Boheme, made in 1906. The story is that Puccini […]
The Italian festive cake battle: panettone or pandoro?
I don’t know whether you are aware of the great Italian Christmas cake debate: the battle between panettone (left above) and pandoro (on the right)? Bills a panettone man, but Lois and Lara favour pandoro. Guess which one was purchased and graced the Breckon’s Christmas table? Bill is hoping that a gourmet friend will bring […]
The future is rosy…
Yesterday’s picture of a rose bravely blooming here on a chilly December day prompted me to reminisce about the pleasure that roses have brought to the Watermill over the years. So, I thought I’d make a little gallery of rosy pictures to remind us in this gloomy greyness that colourful times will surely come again, […]
The olive oil team: bringing in the harvest for next year’s Watermill supplies
Here is Lois, with our friends Vivienne and Nick White, with a tin of ‘liquid gold’, this year’s olive oil for the Watermill: hand-picked, cold-pressed, environmentally friendly, virtually food-mile-free, ready for your delectation during our creative courses in 2021. Vivienne and Nick have some 600 olive trees surrounding their beautiful house in the village of […]
Another sighting of our Japanese nightingale
Here’s another fine picture of that beautifully coloured visitor to the Watermill walled garden. It’s what the Italians call an Usignolo del giappone, a Japanese nightingale. A bit of a misnomer really, because these birds are native to southern China and the Himalayas, although there’s been a small population in Japan since the 1980s. The […]
Why our Italian roast pork is all Greek to me
Our friend Freya Middleton, who runs the best tour agency in Florence (see http://www.freyasflorence.com/), recently published a blog about the wonderful Tuscan roast pork called arista, a classic Italian dish we serve at the Watermill. It reminded me of my own research into the history of this tasty dish, particularly in the pages of Pellegrino […]
An exotic visitor enjoys our golden fruits. Surround yourself with nature on a Watermill creative course
You may recollect that a couple of weeks ago we told you about the harvest of our cacchi, persimmons, golden orbs of delicious fruit. Lois picked 100 or so of them, which we’ve enjoyed for breakfast and given to our friends here in Florence, to brighten their locked-down days. We are not the only ones […]
A new winter guest in the Watermill garden
Our Watermill gardener Flavio Terenzoni has just sent me an email with the title ospite in giardino, guest in garden, with the charming picture above. He tells me he was doing the winter tidying and cutting yesterday, when he discovered an old bird’s nest with this little chap inside. He’s a riccio in letargo, a […]