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.