
The Italians have a word for it, that feeling of being fed up, sick and tired of the situation, which I guess many us us have been feeling for many months now. And Italy being Italy, you can also make an expressive gesture while saying it, breathing out first syllable in exasperation: “stoof-o.”
Sono stufo or Sono stufa: I’m fed up. (It depends on whether a man or a woman is talking.)
Stufo (masculine) or stufa (feminine), comes from the verb stufare, to stew, and you may have seen a stufado, a stew, on a restaurant menu. We serve a delicious stufatino alla romana, a little Roman beef stew, on one of our Watermill creative course outings to a local trattoria. As a noun, a stufa is a stove.
We are grateful to Jessica Phelan, editor of The Local Italy, our online English language newspaper, for reminding us of the word, which seems particularly apposite after months of our lives being curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

But now we are beginning to see a vaccinated light at the end of the gloomy tunnel, there is no need to be stufa or stufo anymore. Now is the time to cast off those coronavirus blues, booking a glorious release in a creative course at the Watermill. We promise you inspiring tuition, stunning surroundings, warm hospitality delicious food and the convivial company of like-minded people on a week you will remember with pleasure for years to come.

The Watermill is planning a ‘grand re-awakening’ of sun-filled, fun-filled courses in painting, creative writing, knitting and Italian language, starting in the middle of June and we would be delighted if you could join us.
Our inspiring painting courses:
Here is the complete list of our painting tutors for next year. You can find out more about each of them by clicking on their Profile page link in their entries below.

Mike Willdridge
12 – 19 June 2021
Watercolours
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page

Paul Talbot-Greaves
19 – 26 June 2021
Watercolours
To learn more about Paul and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page.

Rebecca de Mendonça
26 June – 3 July 2021
Pastels and Mixed media
To learn more about Rebecca and her course at the mill, please visit her 2021 Profile Page.

Vicki Norman
3 – 10 July 2021
Oils and watercolours (and other mediums)
To learn more about Vicki and her course at the mill, please visit her 2021 Profile Page.

Carl March
10 – 17 July 2021
Drawing and watercolours en plein air
To learn more about Carl and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page.

Randy Hale
21 – 28 August 2021
Watercolours
To learn more about Randy and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page.

Mike Willdridge
28 August – 4 September 2021 x places left
Watercolour and drawing (also gouache and acrylics)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page.

Mike Willdridge
4 – 11 September 2021
Watercolour and drawing (also gouache and acrylics)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page.

Milind Mulick
11 – 18 September 2021
Colourful watercolours
To learn more about Milind and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page.

Brienne M Brown
18 – 25 September 2021
Watercolours
To learn more about Brienne and her course at the mill, please visit her 2021 Profile Page.

Tim Wilmot
2 – 9 October 2021
Watercolours
To learn more about Tim and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page.

Ali Hargreaves
9 – 16 October 2021
Watercolours
To learn more about Ali and her course at the mill, please visit her 2021 Profile Page.

Grahame Booth
23 – 30 October 2021 x places left
Watercolours
To learn more about Grahame and his course at the mill, please visit his 2021 Profile Page.
Our enabling writing courses:

Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran
24 – 31 July 2021
Scriptwriting
To learn more about Laurence and Maurice and their course at the mill course at the mill, please visit their 2021 Tutor Profile Page.

Jo Parfitt
14 -21 August 2021
Writing your life stories
To learn more about Jo and her course at the mill, please visit her 2021 Tutor Profile page.
Our relaxing knitting weeks:

Knitting retreat
17-24 July 2021
Knitting and la Bella Vita To learn more about our knitting retreat, please click here

Louisa Harding
7 – 14 August 2021
Knitting and la Bella Vita
To learn more about Louisa and her week at the Watermill, please visit her 2021 Profile page.
Our enhancing language week:

Francesca La Sala
16-23 October 2021
A novel approach to learning Italian
To learn more about Francesca and her course at the mill, please visit our Language Programme Page