My daughter Lara Breckon has recently acquired a posh new camera and is using it to capture life at the Watermill. Here are a few images of some of the wildlife that abounds in this unspoilt corner of rural Tuscany – a reminder of one of humankind’s most important endeavours, wine-making!
We grow the artichokes (above) not for eating, but rather to enjoy their magnificent mauve/purple flowers. The bees love them, too. And here’s another regular visitor to the Watermill walled garden, the graceful swallowtail butterfly.
The magnificent ‘creatures’ below are damigiane, demijohns, nestling under the orange floral trumpets of our bignonia. These elegant vessels were used in wine-making and storage, but have now fallen into disuse and many people in the area are throwing them out in favour or stainless-steel vats. O tempora! Or mores! Our gardener Flavio Terenzoni collects them from the wayside and we arrange them in the courtyard as fiendish drawing subjects for our artist guests.
Come and see all this and more on one of our world-famous creative courses.
We’ve had a lot of interest in our course NEXT year, even though we’ve started on our 2017 season, so to meet that demand, we’ve a remarkable offer for those who want to book a year or so ahead.
We won’t actually be publishing details of our 2018 courses on our website until 1 September this year –it is too confusing. But for those who want to book before that, our offer is: you can have a place on any of our 2018 creative courses at 2017 prices. Please email me at bill@medialliance.net if you would like to reserve your place.
Here’s the list of courses so far:
28 Apr-5 May 2018 Painting course Paul Talbot-Greaves
5-12 May 2018 Knitting course Sarah Hatton 1
12-19 May 2018 Knitting course Sarah Hatton 2
19-26 May 2018 Painting course Maggie Renner Hellmann 26 May-2 Jun
Looking forward to meeting you in the Watermill courtyard
Painting course 2018 Sandra Strohschein 1
2-9 Jun 2018 Painting course Sandra Strohschein 2
9-16 Jun 2018 Painting course Sarah Yeoman 1
16-23 Jun 2018 Painting course Sarah Yeoman 2
23-30 Jun 2018 Yoga course Dina Sheldon
7-14 Jul 2018 Painting course Terry Jarvis
14-21 Jul 2018 Knitting course Marie Wallin
18-25 Aug 2018 Sculpture course Jason Arkles
25 Aug-1 Sep 2018 Yoga course Claire Murphy
1-8 Sep 2018 Painting course Rebecca Mendonça
8-15 Sep 2018 Painting course Mike Willdridge
15-22 Sep 2018 Painting course Claire Warner
22-29 Sep 2018 Writing course Jo Parfitt
29 Sep-6 Oct 2018 Knitting course Lisa Richardson
6-13 Oct 2018 Painting course David Taylor
Most artists, yoga teachers and authors have their own websites, so you can see what they do by Googling them!
And if you want to see what we are doing in 2017, please go to www.watermill.net.
You can see details of our bedrooms and their 2017 prices at http://watermill.net/painting-holidays/painting-holidays-costs17.php. The costs for knitting, writing and yoga weeks are the same.
Be an extra-early Early Bird and spend a year dreaming of your Watermill holiday!
