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Spring Issue  March 2008

Dear Friend

In this issue…

News from home …

• What we've been up to
• A warm welcome
• God and the Italian railways

Painting holidays…

• Painting tutor of the month: Mike Willdridge
• The 2008 courses and availability
• Everything's included (you get to Pisa, we do the rest)

Creative writing courses…

• Creative writing tutor of the month: Anita Burgh
• The 2008 creative writing courses and availability

Self-Catering apartments…

• Availability this Summer

......What we've been up to

We’re just back from our half-term holidays in London, staying with friends and catching up on city life (a bit hectic for the older members of the family these days): climbing to the Whispering Gallery in St Paul’s (yes, it really works) and flying the London Eye of a sunny, but misty day, so that the Houses of Parliament below looked like that famous Monet picture of 1904 of the sun breaking through the fog.

As well as visiting our favourite museum, the Victoria and Albert (an unending succession of marvellous artifacts) and enjoying the street theatre at Covent Garden and the South Bank, we also took in an extraordinary version of The Magic Flute, the South African way, with 35 singers, marimbas, drums and Township percussion.

We can only echo the words of The Times reviewer: “Packing enough energy to power a couple of national grids, and enough decibels to lift several roofs. Exhilarating and vibrant, exuberant entertainment.”  We loved it, especially Lydia, although the lateness of the hour got the better of Lara, who managed to sleep through the last 15 minutes, despite the climactic decibel levels!

Meanwhile, bookings continue to flood in for this year’s painting holidays and creative writing courses. More than 110 people have enrolled so far, so we’ve only got 25 or so places left.
(See below for availability.)

It really is the time to book to ensure your creative place under the Tuscan sun.

A warm welcome

When we were running painting courses at Castle of Park we had quite few guests who had already been on one of our courses at the watermill. And without exception they were full of praise for the wonderfully warm welcome given to them by Kerstin Rommel, who looks after the mill for us and manages the Italian side of our operation. As well as meeting and greeting guests and looking after their needs, she also organizes all the logistics, from pick-up and drop-off in Pisa, to local transportation and, of course, arranging all the special dinners at local restaurants that our guests enjoy during their week with us.

So fulsome was the praise for Kerstin that we have to confess to being a little jealous. Were we providing the same high standard of warm welcome and efficient service? We hope we were and we are very glad that Kerstin continues to do so at Posara.

Kerstin lives near the mill, in the tiny village of Terenzano, in the hills above Fivvizzano, with wonderful views over the valley and the rugged peaks of the Alpi Apuane in the background. It is a lovely spot and we take our painting guests there on one of their ‘out on location’ days. They either paint in the village itself, or up in the olive terraces, where the undersides of the leaves of the ancient trees flash silver in the sun …

Kerstin is originally from Gifhorne (near Hannover). She trained as a portrait-photographer, then worked with a theatre in Munich before moving to Italy in 1990. She still keeps up her photography and her pictures have been published in several books about Lunigiana, its geography, history and cuisine.

Here are some of her pictures – and you can see more at the watermill. She's been an integral part of the watermil team for many years now and has been intimately involved with the mill since she came to Italy in 1990.

She says; “It is a beautiful part of the world, really unspoilt, and I enjoy living and working here. The mill is a magical spot and I want to make sure that our guests enjoy it as much as I do”.

So when you savour the true Italian lifestyle of Posara and its surroundings, whether on a painting holiday, a writing course or a self-catering let in one of the apartments, you can be also be sure of the warmth of Kerstin’s welcome.

God and the Italian railways 

We had a lovely note from Liz and Tony Mason, who took a self-catering apartment at the watermill last August (and who are coming again this year) , saying how much they enjoyed their holiday at the watermill and added a ‘strong endorsement’ of the rail and bus network: “it really works”.

Liz and Tony took the train from the newly built station at nearby Aulla and they report: “The help and assistance from the biglieteria at Aulla was immense and we are grateful for the young lady’s efforts to get us to our destinations when we had messed up with the scheduled timetables. 

“Even when we were late for the direct train to Firenze, she still got us there for 11.30 am with more than the best part of the day to see the beautiful city. Definitely a case of ‘let the train take the strain'."

You can also catch a speedy train from Aulla to the beautiful seaside villages of the Cinque Terre (of which more in a future newsletter) and a very slow train on the single track railway which meanders through the Alpi Apuane regional park and eventually reaches our favourite Italian city, Lucca. (You can actually catch this train even nearer the mill, at the small village of Soliera, but you’ll have to buy your tickets in the bar/café across the road before board the train.

This is the way we take students on our painting and writing courses on their Wednesday excursion – and the journey itself is well worthwhile, not just for the great scenery, but for observing Italian life. You’ll have plenty of time: although it is a mere 50 miles or so, the journey takes at least two hours and there’s a lot of whistle-blowing, flag-waving, telephone-calling and arm-waving on the way, to ensure that only one train at a time is going down each section of single track.

There seems to be a rather special relationship between Italians and their railways (and God, see below).  Mussolini famously, of course, made the Italian railways run on time, although a centralised fascist state seems a high price to pay -- and the railways, even in today’s somewhat chaotic political system, run pretty efficiently in our experience.

Peter Ustinov, that spell-binding raconteur and observer of the European scene, wrote a wonderful short story called God and the State Railways, which gives great insights into the Italian character (or rather different Italian characters, from a conscientious conductor to an officious Communist stationmaster, to a distainful countess and, of course, an Italian God).  

During a strike, the conductor tries to get an international train out of Italy while the stationmaster, at the last stop before the border, refuses to let the train continue. While they arguing, an ashen-faced porter brings the news that a landslide has engulfed the track on the way to the border. Had the Communist stationmaster not prevented the train form continuing, all would have been killed. It is a miracle.

For the rest of his life the stationmaster is torn between the fame he receives as the instrument of a Catholic God’s miracle and his atheistic political beliefs.

Talking of industrial disputes on the railway, Ustinov says: “Occasionally even the voluble Italians run out of arguments, and then a strike is called. Nobody is ever quite sure who called it, and those who called it are never quite sure if the call will be obeyed. Because the unions are without resources for a prolonged protest, these strikes have only a nuisance value. They are a reminder to the government that unions do exist, but they also remind the government that unions are relatively weak”.

That’s as true today on the nationalised Italian State Railway as it was 20 years ago when that story was written – as a friend of ours discovered when she took the slow train along that single-track railways from Soliera to Lucca a couple of years ago.

Just before noon, after much of that whistle-blowing, flag-waving, telephone-calling and arm-waving, the train pulled into the small station at Pieve San Lorenzo – and there it stopped.

After a few minutes, the conductor came through the compartment, apologizing and explaining that a strike had been called and that the driver, much to his regret, had decided to obey the call stop the train. The stoppage was scheduled to last for two hours. He and the driver were very sorry for the inconvenience, but they knew of a rather good little restaurant only a few hundred metres from the station and suggested that their esteemed passengers might like to take a little lunch while they waited.

So the dozen or so passengers on the train followed the conductor and the driver (and the stationmaster, with his little red flag furled under his arm) to the restaurant, where they all partook of a fine home-made ravioli and a few large carafes of rough red local wine (the railway employees did not drink, since they were on duty). So well did the conversation and the wine flow that time simply rushed by and at a quarter to two, the conductor was forced to suggest that they had better all order their after-lunch espressos and then make their way back to the station, since the strike was nearly over and the train should depart. The crocodile that followed the conductor, driver and stationmaster back to the train was less sedate than that which had left it nearly two hours earlier.

The stationmaster made a telephone call, whistled his whistle, waved his arms and his flag and the little train set slowly off for Lucca.

We can’t promise you so Italian an adventure, but we can promise you a delightful journey past glistening rivers, sleepy villages and towering crags -- and a gentle arrival at Lucca station, just outside the city’s ramparts. All in good time, of course. There really is no hurry.

Painting tutor of the month: Mike Willdridge

In our newsletters we like to highlight the talents of each of our tutors at the watermill. This month’s featured tutor is Mike Willdridge.

There are still 4 places left on his course, which runs from 31 May-7 June. Mike will be giving tuition in watercolours – and in oils and acrylics for those who prefer those media. He will also help students to improve their drawing techniques, one of his passions: “Drawing has always been my greatest love as a visual artist,” he says. As a sympathetic and experienced teacher, Mike tries to encourage each student to develop his or her own style.

Here’s what one previous student had to say: “Mike’s classes are inspirational! He challenges and excites in every project he presents. Working in a variety of media he guides and encourages the student to look in new ways at the work being done …  Even the most mundane ideas turn into something satisfying … the result is to take the student out of the comfort zone and produce work hitherto never dreamed of”.

Mike is now a full-time artist and teacher, having had a varied past that includes being a designer (graphic), soldier (infantry) and teacher (art). Since retiring from school-teaching, he spends significantly more time on his own work. Mike works in a wide variety of media both ‘on location’ and in the studio. He works in a loose and free painting style.

Here’s a lovely watercolour of morning light in Siena.

Mike says: “This watercolour was painted rapidly (and before breakfast) on location. After a warm night, I tried to respond to the relative coolness of the early morning light touching a group of buildings some distance away”.

In a completely different mood, here’s an acrylic called ‘Café Meletti, Ascoli Piceno, Italy’, painted in 2006. Mike says: “This painting was completed in my studio in acrylic, working from a photograph taken of my wife. Having spent many years encouraging my younger students to beware using pure black, I now find that I have discovered my tube of black paint!”

See our website www.watermill.net for more of Mike’s work and details on how to book on his course. (Or simply call Bill or Lois now on (UK number) 01888 568 375.)

The 2008 painting courses and availability

Here’s the list of all the 2008 painting courses at the watermill and availability at the beginning of March 2008:

Annelise Pio Hansen
(1 or 2 places available  at the mill, 1 place in the village )
(Saturday 10 May to Saturday 17 May 2008)
Watercolours

Annelise's colours are soft but bright, just like the light reaching the sandy beaches and the soft hills not far from where she lives just outside Copenhagen.
For more about Annelise and her paintings, visit her Tutor's page

Mike Willdridge
(4 places left at the mill)
(Saturday 31 May to Saturday 7 June 2008)
Watercolours, oils, acrylics, pastels

Mike works in a wide variety of media both ‘on location’ and in the studio. He works and teaches in a loose and free painting style.
For more about Mike and his paintings, visit his Tutor's page 

Patricia Johnston
(5 places left at the mill)
(Saturday 19 July to Saturday 26 July 2008)
Watercolours and oils

Patricia loves painting on location, to produce exciting, vibrant work. Her tutorials are fun and encouraging, both to beginners and more experienced painters.
For more about Patricia and her paintings, visit her Tutor's page

Frank Halliday
(1 or 2 places left at mill, 1 place in the village)
(Saturday 26 July to Saturday 2 August 2008)
Watercolours

Frank’s dry Yorkshire sense of humour makes every class or course that he runs a perfect delight, and you will have fun learning. Frank ran a fun-filled course at the castle last year; this is his first trip to Posara.
For more about Frank and his paintings, visit his Tutor's page

Jennifer Branch
(2 places left at the mill)
(Saturday 30 August to Saturday 6 September 2008)
Watercolours, oils, acrylics

Jennifer is a modern impressionist bringing her subjects to vibrant life on paper. While she prefers to work in watercolours, Jennifer is also skilled in oils and acrylics and is happy to teach in those media, too.
For more about Jennifer and her paintings, visit her Tutor's page

Laraine Simpson
(full at the mill; 1 place in the village)
(Saturday 6 September to Saturday 13 September 2008)
Watercolours, oils, acrylics, pastels

Laraine is highly regarded as a perceptive, patient and encouraging tutor working with beginners and advanced students alike. She works in oils, pastels, watercolours, and a variety of drawing materials.
For more about Laraine and her paintings, visit her Tutor's page

Terry Jarvis
(full at the mill; 1 place in the village )
(Saturday 13 September to Saturday 20 September 2008)
Watercolours, oils, acrylics, pastels

Terry is one of Australia’s leading watercolour artists. He also works in oils, pastels and acrylics. He also loves drawing and helping his students to develop their drawing skills.
For more about Terry and his paintings, visit his Tutor's page

Charles Sluga
(4 places left at the mill)
(Saturday 4 October to Saturday 11 October 2008)
Watercolours

Charles is a highly respected and sought after artist and watercolour teacher in Australia. His friendly and enthusiastic approach, and eagerness to impart his wide knowledge, is reflected in his popularity as a tutor, and the waiting lists for his regular classes.
For more about Charles and his paintings, visit his Tutor's page

Everything’s included (you get to Pisa, we do the rest)

Don’t forget that everything is included in the cost of your course: accommodation (including all linen and towels), pre-dinner aperitifs, all meals (including dinner with wine at charming local restaurants), local transportation (including transfers to Pisa airport; the excursion by train to Lucca) and tuition.

All you have to do is to get to Pisa and we do the rest.

You will stay in bright, well-decorated bedrooms with traditional features in an elegant Tuscan house complex around a courtyard. There is a large communal sitting room with an open fire and a dining room for leisurely breakfasts. Dinner (included in the cost of the course) will be at several small and friendly local restaurants and will include regional Italian dishes and wines. We can cater for vegetarians on request. Non-painting partners are welcome (at a small discount), but you’ll have more fun if you join in and dabble!

Prices depend on which room you choose (see www.watermill.net for details). They start at £665+IVA (Italian VAT) per person per week (based on two people sharing), with a discount of £25 for a non-painting partner. Single rooms start at £715+IVA (Italian VAT). Italian IVA is currently 20%.

It is very easy to join a Watermill at Posara painting course. We pick you up at Pisa airport between 11am and 2pm (unless you decide to drive to Italy, in which case we’ll give you full directions).

You can book your own flights (there are good connections from Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, East Midlands, Birmingham, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Bristol and Exeter) or, to make life easier, you can use the services of our Personal Travel Adviser, Ann Carter, who will fix everything for you at very competitive prices. There is absolutely no obligation to use her, but if you would like her help, her phone number is 01886 889000 and her email address is ann.carter@tarsc.net.

Creative writing tutor of the month: Anita Burgh

Best-selling author Anita Burgh will be taking a week-long course on Novel Writing: ‘release your potential’ from Saturday 27 September to Saturday 4 October.

The course is aimed at those of you who want to write a novel, but need help with work in progress or simply don’t know where to begin. There are 5 places left.

Anita came late to writing, starting at the age of 46 and being first published at 50. But she’s caught up fast: she’s written 23 novels - modern, historical and comic - and has just embarked on another trilogy.  All of her novels have more than a touch or romance.

Having been a student nurse, worked in cancer research, the pop industry and run a hotel, she has a wide experience on which to draw for her novels - and has done so!  Of her life history she says: “I was born in Gillingham in Kent. I have lived in Cambridge, Devon, Cornwall, Scotland, Greece and France. Otherwise my biography is contained in the novels I have written”.

Anita now lives in Gloucestershire and notes: “I'm happier than I have been anywhere else. I feel at home, contented and although the cottage we live in is very small and not very convenient I wouldn't want to be anywhere else”

She adds: “Recently I was playing about on the Internet and went to the 1901 Census site. I've never had the patience to research my family but, this time, up popped my grandfather at my first try. I was hooked and off I went adding people, generally snooping about. And then I discovered the oddest thing. A great uncle had been born in this very village where I live so happily. And so, it would mean, my grandfather lived here too. Is that why I'm so content? My paternal family genes have come home so to speak. It's a nice idea”.

Anita’s favourite novels are Middlemarch, A Handful of Dust and Bleak House and one of her favourite movies in the Laurence Olivier version of Rebecca.

While Anita loves to write, she also enjoys motivating others to do the same. She says: “One of the things I like most after writing is taking courses on novel writing.

“Now,  I don't believe that you can teach anyone HOW to write - writing is a gift - but I can help people hone their skills, give them confidence, tell them what is required and how to present their manuscripts. “It is fun and I learn from it too and I always return full of renewed enthusiasm for my own work. I have made real friendships with some of my pupils”

Anita has run a number of successful writing courses at our old home, Castle of Park in Scotland, but this is her first trip to the watermill. We are sure her course at Posara this year will be as inspirational and fun-filled as the Scottish one.

Here’s what one student said about one of Anita’s Castle of Park courses: “A wonderful week: generous hosts, stimulating fellow participants, a warm and witty tutor and a relaxing setting. Brilliant”.

The 2008 creative writing courses and availability  

We are running just two exclusive creative writing courses this year. The tutors and the format are based on the highly successful courses we ran at the Castle of Park in Scotland.

These are the courses:

Sharon Kendrick
(1 or 2 places left at the mill, 1 place in the village)
(Saturday 3 May to Saturday 10 May 2008)
‘Writing romantic fiction’

Sharon will pass on the benefits of her vast experience in writing romantic fiction and her intimate knowledge of what publishers like Harlequin Mills & Boon are looking for in a romantic novel. For more about Sharon, visit her Tutor's page

Anita Burgh
(1 or 2 places left at the mill, 1 place in the village)
(Saturday 27 September to Saturday 4 October 2008)
Novel writing: release your potential’

For those of you who want to write a novel, but need help with work in progress or simply don’t know where to begin.  While Anita loves to write, she also enjoys motivating others to do the same.
For more about Anita, visit her Tutor's page

Writing courses: what’s included

As with our painting courses, we should emphasise that everything is included in the cost of your course: tuition, accommodation (including all linen and towels), pre-dinner aperitifs, all meals (including dinner with wine at charming local restaurants) and local transportation (including transfers to Pisa airport; the excursion by train to Lucca). All you have to do is to get to Pisa and we do the rest. (See Getting there in painting courses above.)

We welcome couples, even if one of you will not be taking part in the course. There is a small reduction for non-participating partners.

Prices depend on which room you choose (see www.watermill.net for details). They start at £665+IVA (Italian VAT) per person per week (based on two people sharing), with a reduction of £25 for a non-writing partner. Single rooms start at £715+IVA (Italian VAT). Italian IVA is currently 20%.

Availability this Summer

When the mill is not busy with painting and creative writing courses it easily reverts back to self-contained apartments which are available for self-catering lets for a week or more.

The five spacious and elegant apartments are arranged around the courtyard.  All have comfortable living rooms, well furnished bedrooms, a well equipped kitchen and modern bathroom.

Two apartments are in the three-storey Tuscan house in the mill courtyard, with views over the gardens and the mountains beyond; two others are set above the older watermill, with river and valley views; the fifth is set beside the olive press and the artists’ studio and looks out over gardens and the river.

There’s more information and plenty of pictures on our website at www.watermill.net.

We still have availability in April, June, one week in July, the second half of August and one week in September. Please call us for more details.

Anything more you’d like to know?

If there is anything more we can tell you about our activities, and the true Italian lifestyle, please call us on +44 1888 568375 or use our secure Contact Form. And keep up with our website at www.watermill.net.

In the meantime, with very best wishes,

Lois and Bill, Lydia and Lara, Bella and Rosa (the Labradogs)
- and Blaze, the guineapig.

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