Here I am, putting up a new shed in the garden.
Actually it is my little hideaway, a small summerhouse free from all distractions where I can write without any interruption. Writing creatively,
I hope. There is the Trust’s newsletter ‘Bright Eyes’ as well as ever-changing factsheets and any grabbed moment to dive into my book writing.
My little shed will prove so crucial in the research, concentration and never ending pen and ink. Every word will be written by hand. There is no place for computers, screens and phones in my secret world.
The only interruption, and always welcome, is the constant supply of cups of tea by Sue.
My existing shed had to be consigned to ‘the knackers yard’.
It never was much good and always leaked onto my precious books and papers.
The nail in its coffin was the floor collapsing and the doors refusing to shut.
The new shed is much more reliable even though we did not take to galvanised hinges and door furniture.
Time to paint them with red primer then hammered black. Giving me primer that was red became a struggle as I am red-green colour-blind which was to prove a problem.
Off I went. Then came the disaster. My pot of red primer flew off my bench splattering paint in all directions.
Quickly I hosed off the new shed, the garden wall, various toolboxes and the patio stones.
I thought nobody would ever notice but Sue came around the corner aghast at, what she called, “A river of blood”.
Red staining everywhere. My colour-blindness must have been the reason that I could not see anything. Sue guided me to scrub out the invisible red horror until she was satisfied. I still think she was pulling my leg.
This photograph above is the original Tiggywinkles shed opened in 1984 by Susan Hampshire.