“Wa alaykum e-sala, Omar,” she said, using one of the handful of greeting phrases she’d learned so far. She hoped that if he realised she knew his name, he might feel no need to question her. “I’m Maya. I come to see Leila,” she said as simply as she could. Omar nodded gravely, walked to the gate , and opened it, before standing back ad allowing her to pass. She drove in and parked next to the black Mercedes she knew belonged to Leila and began to relax. This was such a magical spot. For a while she drank in the sights, the sounds, the smells of the place: the lawn, as immaculate as ever; the birds singing their familiar ha-ha ho-ho ha-ha; and the distant salty tang of the sea. A green parrot swooped in front of her before rising to settle in the leafy branch of the Indian bean tree. She was so lucky. Now she had to make sure she didn’t blow it.

Life as an expat wife can be pretty empty and, for Maya, it was her passion to keep her identity in Dubai - and to cook - which helped her make firm friends and to save her marriage.

Jo Parfitt’s ‘Sunshine Soup’ (published by Summertime Publishing) explores the mesh of different cultures in this overheated overseas posting, not just between the expats themselves but also with the Muslim world. With a twist of fusion cooking and a dash of new ingredients in familiar recipes, Jo transports us to Maya’s new home where, as always, FOOD nourishes love and happiness. (All Maya’s recipes are provided in an appendix, so you can try them out for yourself!)

Jo Parfitt is running a new course at the watermill next year, 15-22 September 2012, on ‘How to write your life story’.

(Imagine a lovely picture of Sharon here, leaning out of a bedroom window at the mill, looking every bit the romantic Juliet!)

It’s that time of year again, when we are telling all our friends about the great creative writing course and painting holidays we have planned for the watermill in 2012. There are lots of new tutors, from all over the world, but many familiar faces: tutors who have already run successful weeks with us at the mill in the past.
We’d like to introduce them all to you, one-by-one. And we thought the best way to do so over the next few weeks is to present them to you in chronological order of their 2012 courses.
First up is a ‘Writing Romance’ course, with our lovely tutor, best-selling author Sharon Kendrick, which runs from 5-12 May 2012.
The Watermill is the ideal place for an inspirational writing course, providing the perfect environment for focusing on your writing without the distractions of everyday life. And after a hard day’s on the vine verandah discussing plots, dialogue and characterisation you can slip into holiday mode with wonderful food, good company and relaxing surroundings.
>(Imagine a picture here of Sharon’s group sitting on the vine verandah, hard at work!)
Our intimate creative writing courses (for 10 or so students) are designed to help both enthusiastic beginners and more experienced writers. Sharon will also read some of your work beforehand and discuss it with you in one-to-one tutorials during the course.
After your creative efforts, you’ll need a break and our private gardens, verandahs and mill-stream walks are all yours to explore. And you’ll enjoy mouth-watering meals at the watermill and in traditional local restaurants. Above all, you’ll have FUN: previous guests use words like: ‘magical’, ‘fabulous’ and ‘inspiring’.
This is Sharon’s fourth visit to the watermill: “One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited.” She adds: “Last year’s course was even better than before. The chemistry of the group was excellent and everyone worked - and played - together really well“.
Sharon has written more than 80 books for Harlequin Mills & Boon and regularly tops the Waldenbooks list in North America as well as selling well all over Europe, Asia and South America. She loves interacting with other people and, in particular, nurturing the talent and passion of new writers. 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.

You can learn more about Sharon and her work here.

To reserve your place or talk to us more, use our secure Contact form, by clicking here

Well, the orto tondo, the new round vegetable garden at the mill, is paying dividends. As well as beautiful fresh basil for our home-made pesto (and fresh green beans to add to small slices of boiled potato for a proper pesto Genovese) it’s also giving us parsley for our garnishes – and tomatoes like they’re going out of style.

We’ve big fat beef tomatoes, ordinary red round tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and, my favourite, tiny sweet plum tomatoes, delicious with salt, pepper and a drop of olive oil.

Here’s just one day’s pick: just as well the mill is full with guests enjoying Summer lets, so they can share in our consumption …

We’re staying at the mill through the Summer, enjoying the new pedestrianised courtyard and looking at the new dining room/kitchen with the Courtyard bedrooms above.

Lots of friends have been sharing our Summer days, eating under the vine verandah, exploring the millstream and river and generally chilling out. 

Among them was an old friend, Italian photographer Leonardo Ferrante who took some pictures during his stay, including the above-mentioned dining room etc. complex. We thought you might like to enjoy it too.

Fabio Cembranelli’s second course this year at the watermill is in full swing and a good time seems to be being had by all. Most of our guests went to the seaside – the fabulous Cinque Terre – yesterday. Earlier in the week they painted at locations in Lunigiana, including the view down the valley to Posara from the Medieval walls of Fivizzano.

Our pictures show the scene in the Piazza Belvedere (it means beautiful view), looking over Fabio’s shoulder and his interpretation of the scene in a demonstration for his students.

This is a rather stylish old-fashioned black-and-white photograph posted on Fabio Cembranelli’s Facebook page. It shows some of his students concentrating on Fabio’s demonstration during this week’s watercolour painting course at the watermill.

Very atmospheric!

Our Brazilian tutor Fabio Cembranelli started his first watercolour course on Saturday, with a great mixture of students: four from Brazil, one Aussie who lives in Hong Long, a German, a Spaniard, two Scots ladies and an Englishman. Truly an international group!

Fabio’s famous for his flower paintings, of course, and by popular demand his first demonstration in the watermill studio was of flowers. Here’s his inspiration – picked along the riverside and in the mill gardens:

 – and Fabio’s rapid interpretation :

I was sending Lois an email about an Introduce a Friend promotion that we are planning for the watermill and in the message Subject section I typed ‘frined’ instead of ‘friend’ – and then all hell let loose!

I couldn’t send or receive any emails on Outlook and when I went to my service provider, Everyone, they told me (online) that I had been suspended (and restricted) for ‘violation of terms and conditions of service’.

“What have you done?” asked Lois. “Nothing,” I replied, “honest.”

After several emails to Everyone, it transpired that their security system, ever alert for strange goings-on, had stopped me in my tracks. Seeing the strange word ‘frined’, they thought somebody was using my email. Apparently I also used a weird combination of words, like ‘introduce a frined body copy’ and they didn’t like the string of strange nouns. Anyway, I am back on and watching my spelling from now on!

Hope you like this picture from the long-runnig American comedy series ‘Frineds.’

One thing you can’t help noticing about Italy these days is how good the food is: in shops, restaurants, cafes, in people’s homes.
I was reading a column by Alison Wolf in The Spectator recently. She has a property near us, in Liguria. She wrote: Why has the food become so fantastic? As a relief from talking to builders and filling in forms, I ate out; small restaurants, regional dishes with a twist, all wonderful.”

We couldn’t agree more. The Italians seem more passionate than ever about their food.
This San Ambrogio market, close to where we live in Florence, and the produce there is to die for, especially the meat, hams and cheeses – oh, and the bread, fish, cakes, sauces, vegetables …

And we are continuing the tradition of good food at the watermill, with our local cooks producing delicious meals using fresh local ingredients (some so fresh they’ve just come from our garden!)

Buon appetito!

We had torrential thunderstorms in Tuscany this weekend, but the sun soon shone again on the painters in Liz Seward’s group. Here they are in the walled garden, learning more about drawing with Liz.

And here’s a mother and daughter (on their second visit to the mill) in rapt concentration on the flowers growing on the wall.