After

Work in progress-a shed as just a frame with no roof.

I did this part. I used the rest of the Sterling board-or OSB board-Oriented Strand Board-I had no idea what it was-just looked it up-which was used for the roof to make panels, so I can hang tools. I used my hand drill and a power tool! An electric screwdriver my Dad bought for Andy a while ago. It was great!

Lots of painting went on in there today-using up all the old tins, and one completely new tub of emulsion I didn't realise I had.

Cassie loves the shed. The other two have not been in there at all yet.

A crow who is nothing to do with this post, but was being strangely noisy yesterday evening-not normal crow noise but a kind of throaty chirruping. I think it was talking to its mate.

Replaced boards at the bottom.

After painting.

The two pictures I took of the outside were blurry for some reason, but these of Cassie on the roof will do. It looks so neat! I have done three more coats of outside paint and will keep going until it runs out. It goes on very thinly.

Someone asked in the post the other day if it was going to be my studio. Wouldn't that be fun? I would love to have a little retreat in the garden to go and listen to the radio and do something or other creative. I could put all my little lanterns in there, and we could have cups of tea on rainy afternoons. To achieve this I need to get rid of an awful lot of accumulated stuff, both from the shed and from my art storage boxes. I have to admit I have so much stuff I don't use half of it as I don't know what is there. I am going to donate some and sell some. Operation cleanup will start tomorrow, but first I have to get the essential boring stuff back in there-the suitcases, cat baskets, tools and fold up chairs.

Before

Pile one. There is a slightly smaller one the other side of the decking.

Broken corrugated plastic roof. Pointless and broken shelf.

Very rotten wood. On the other side was a concrete slab which is now a step to the shed. It had trapped all the moisture, caused some crossness and grunting when it was removed, and housed a whole city of snails on its back.

The drain pipe had been like this for so long that it had inscribed an arc in the paint.

Cassie testing out the useful cardboard path. It saved a slight amount of mess indoors, though it is still a tip in here-blogging is better than tackling it! I have done most of the outside mess-it has gone to the tip, and will sort out the piles tomorrow. The shed looks great. My brother is so good at all that sort of thing. Will show you tomorrow!

Still Life

Trying to make pleasing still lifes is not as easy as I thought. I have so many lovely natural things and as I was photographing some crochet things for the my shop, I thought I would use my temporary photo studio while it was out. It is a card table, a pile of books and a white sheet. Pushed over towards the kitchen window as the sun was in and out this morning. These are my favourites out of the many I took.I had fun playing with them in photoshop, using some of Kim Klassen's textures. She has a lovely pinky coloured one called 'Dusty Rose' which I used here.

I bought the fan coral ages ago from an American shop on ebay. It is very delicate and stands on a top shelf normally. It is so perfectly tree like. The gourd is one from a few years ago and reminds me of a space ship. The stalk is the remains of my Amaryllis. It has an interestng seed pod. The seeds are very thin paper like black slivers. Fun fun. This afternoon has been all about the shed-well for my brother anyway, after the trip to the DIY shop. It is looking good so far!

Nature Table

I love having a garden-even if sometimes I only go out there it to hang up the washing. I always look at what has changed, and get very excited when something has flowered, or even just survived. I have completely neglected the garden this year and want to get back to it from this autumn onwards. Luckily though, there are lots of things already there which are getting on by themselves perfectly well.

I thought of the nature table we used to have at primary school, in simpler days before league tables and the complete assessment of every single aspect of each child. (Can you tell I am going back to school tomorrow?!)

We had things such as birds nests and conkers-things we had collected and contributed as and when we wanted to. I still collect things from walks-especially beach walks, but not exclusively. Some of them remain around for years in small collections which get forgotten and then rediscovered. They make me happy.

I am quite amazed that the nest has suvived all the high winds we have had recently. It has been there all summer and looks quite fragile. The passion flowers are on top of the shed-so I got the ladder out to take a look. They rush up there to get the sun so we don't normally see them.

The last picture of the shed is just to remind me how tidy it is now. I WILL keep it like that for the year.