Here is the knitting group on the last evening of Lisa Richardson’s fun-filled week posing in the Watermill sitting room wearing some of the products of their week’s work, lovely green berets.

As well as the knitters, you can see our manager Karsten Muller joining in the spirit of things. Thank you very much, Lisa and all our guests for a week full of laughter and bonhomie. We really enjoyed your company and we look forward to seeing many of you next year, as you are already booked into knitting, creative writing or painting courses in 2019. Our thanks for all your support.

And thanks too, to Lea Marissen for the picture above. And for the one below. Our guests Shelley and Tim Ellison were celebrating their 22^nd wedding anniversary so we ensured it was properly commemorated, with 22 candles and best wishes in the Watermill dining room.

We now have more than 160 bookings for next year’s creative courses, so if you’re keen to come now is the time to get your booking in, especially as we have an enticing Early Bird discount offer: £75 off any one of our 2019 creative courses, if you book your place before the end of December this year. If you have a favourite tutor or a special time of year, now is the time to reserve your place. We look forward to welcoming you here.

Jumping for joy on a Watermill painting course!

Steve Rutherford, a non-knitting partner on Lisa Richardson’s fun-filled knitting course this week has been enjoying walking in the mighty Apennine mountains above the Watermill. Here are a couple of his atmospheric photographs as the mists and clouds gathered in.

Thank you Steve for sharing these with us.

Picture: Lea Marissen

Here’s our lovely Girl Friday Annabelle Scott setting the table on the vine verandah ready for lunch for those of our guests who didn’t go off on the excursion to Lucca or the Cinque Terre.

We’d love to welcome you to the Watermill for one of our creative courses next year: the perfect combination of unspoiled Italy and inspiring tuition. For details of all our courses – painting, creative writing, knitting, Italian language – please click here.

There will be plenty of sunshine and plenty of smiles.

Our thanks to Patrizia Morgan, a guest on Lisa Richardson’s knitting course here this week, for the wonderful photograph above of the view from her bedroom last evening. It has been a dark and stormy night, but it looks like we’re going to have a brighter and sunnier day for our visit to the weekly market in the nearby walled mediaeval town of Fivizzano.

Patrizia says: “I’m having a wonderful time in Tuscany on my knitting retreat. The Watermill in Posara is an amazing place !  Lisa from Rowan is teaching us how to knit cushion covers in Fair isle. Highlight of my holiday! Fabulous people, fabulous food, just magical here… I can’t get enough of this place and the surroundings…”

Patrizia has proved her point by taking a series of marvellous photographs during her first day or two here. There are a three of them here and I have made them, and others, into a Facebook slideshow, which you can see by clicking here.

Thank you for sharing your stunning pictures with us, Patrizia.

They remind me to remind you about the Watermill Photo Competition (the closing date is the end of this month): Portray the unique ambiance and fun-filled atmosphere of The Watermill during our inspiring creative courses, whether it’s painting, creative writing, knitting or Italian language — and win a week-long holiday here!

The competition is open to anyone who has stayed at the Watermill, this year or in previous years. 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 runner-up prizes, of £GBP200 off a Watermill creative holiday at The Watermill in 2019, subject to availability.

• To enter you can submit up to five photographs. They should be sent electronically as high-resolution JPG files, with a minimum size of 1mb.
• You should send your pictures to Bill Breckon via WeTransfer.

Their website is https://wetransfer.com. Bill’s contact email for this process is bill@medialliance.net.

• The closing date for this year’s competition 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.
• The competition is not open to professional photographers.
• If other people are in the picture, the entrant should have asked their permission to photograph them.
• The Watermill reserves the right to use these pictures, with due acknowledgment, for publicity purposes.

Please send us your best photographs: would love to see them and give you the chance of a free holiday at the Watermill.

Yes, we’ve just published our 2019 Watermill website, with details of all our creative courses – painting, creative writing, knitting and Italian language – for the coming year. You can see it all by clicking here or simply by typing or copying watermill.net into your search engine.

Our remaining courses for 2018 are completely booked up, although there may well be cancellations and if you’re keen to come this year, please scroll down on the opening page of our website where there are also details of the final courses in 2018. We’d be happy to put you on a waiting list.

We have a wonderful line-up of tutors for 2019, some old friends and others, exciting artists new to the Watermill. We’ll be introducing them to you in a series of blogs over the next few weeks.

A watercolour by one of our new painting tutors, Jude Scott

We’ve had so much interest in our creative courses that we’ve already taken some 150 bookings for our 2019 courses already! So, if you’re keen to come next year, now really is the time to make your booking and reserve your place.

And there’s a special Early Bird offer: £75 off the cost of every creative holiday if you book before the end of this year.

We’d be delighted if you could join us for one of our sun-filled, fun-filled, inspiring creative courses. We look forward to meeting you here. Pop over to watermill.net and dream your 2019 dreams!

Write…

Our energetic and enthusiastic tutor Mike Willdridge took this picture of a dried-out sunflower wearing his floppy painting hat. He asks: “Have I spent too long under the Tuscan sun?”

I don’t think so Mike. You’ve been as inspiring as ever during this week’s course. We’ve all been enjoying your wonderful tuition, so much so that five members of the group have already booked to come back in 2019. Here’s Mike (below left), looking a little fleshier than in the photograph above, demonstrating to some of the group in the sun-filled Watermill courtyard.

Mike will be with us again next year and you can find out all about his course, and about all our other creative courses at the watermill in 2019, by clicking here.

And there’s a special offer for people who book before the end of 2018. Our ‘Early Bird’ offer gives you £75 (£GBP 75) if you book before the end of the year. But we recommend that you reserve your place as soon as you can. We only have 250 or so places on our painting, creative writing, knitting and Italian language courses, and we already have some 150 bookings in! So, if you have favourite tutor, a particular time of year or a favourite bedroom, you will need to get in quickly so as not to be disappointed!

We be delighted to welcome you here. In sunshine and shade…

Here are three ladies from Nell Whatmore and Rebecca de Mendonca’s pastel course at the Watermill posing, like Juliet, in the windows of the Tuscan House. I think the bell must have rung and it was time again for an aperitivo! Our thanks to non-painting partner Chris Davies for the photograph.

We had a lovely week with Nell and Rebecca and our guests and we are now looking forward to another great painting week with Michael Willdridge.

A lovely watercolour by Mike Willdridge of the mill stream bubbling under one Flavio’s famous wooden bridges.

All our courses until the end of the year are completely booked up, but there may be cancellations so if you’re keen to come this year, please click here for a list of our courses in 2018.

We are already taking bookings for 2019 and so far, we have some 130 reservations, so if you’d like to come on one of our sun-filled, fun-filled, inspiring creative courses now is really the time to book. And we still have a very tempting offer which will last for another week or so: if you book a 2019 creative course before 15^th September 2018 you can enjoy your course at this year’s prices. Some of our most popular tutors are already more or less full, but we do have spaces almost all our courses. So, we would be delighted if you could join us. Please click here for more details of all our 2009 creative courses.

Mike’s sketch of market day in the town of Fivizzano, near the Watermill

Indulge yourself! Please click here and sit yourself down for a good read of our September newsletter and, if you haven’t done so already, decide which course to choose here at the mill in 2019. But don’t linger long because we’re already more than half full!

And we have extended our 2019 at 2018 prices offer for another week or two, while we finish the details of our 2019 website. So now really is the time to book!

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

• In a café chantant with Dad
• A reminder of the Watermill photographic competition
• More intriguing Watermill sketches from Robert Christopher
• A gift from the heart from a painter to a writer
• Exiting yarns. Not tales of derring-do but tempting to knit
• A preview of our 2019 creative courses (Please click here for more details.)

Happy reading… and make that’s 2019 booking so you can enjoy happy anticipation for the autumn winter and spring. We love to welcome you here!

This picture of the evening light coming into the Watermill vine verandah, as we sipped our aperitivi before dinner, was taken by Chris Davies, a ‘non-painting partner’ on Rebecca de Mendonça and Nel Whatmore’s pastel course here this week

Thanks for sharing it with us, Chris and sharing your cake, too (it was his birthday).

We’d love you to join us here, but all our creative courses, for morning, afternoon and evening light, and superb tuition, and delicious meals, and glorious scenery… are fully booked this year! And bookings are already flowing in for next year: We’ve already taken nearly 130 bookings for 2019, out of a potential total of 240 or so. Now’s the time to grab your places, especially as we have extended our enticing offer for another week or two. If you book before 15 September 2018, you can enjoy a 2019 creative course (painting writing, knitting, Italian language) at 2018 prices.

Please click here for more information.

Chatting in the Watermill Walled Garden. Picture: Sandra Strohchein