Spring at the Shed...

Looks like all that work was worth it!

Of course this is just natural...the young forest across the alley where Belle likes to hunt...

Here, you can see some of the daffodils, the new young crabapple tree, one of the baby hollies, and of course, the shed!

The holly is blooming...profusely!

The ancient lilac did better this year than ever before...

Our original lilacs, forsythia, dogwood and crabapple are lovely this year...

And below, some of our surprise daffs...I thought I was getting a bag of all one kind, at Costco...instead, we have more kinds than I knew existed!  They bloom at slightly different times, so watching what's next has been fun.

Unfortunately, looks like neither of the red twig dogwood made it, and one of the viburnums has died, but the butterfly bush and the other viburnum are doing well...I want to plant a cedar, to block the neighbor's trash view, but it's all coming along nicely, especially for a very shady lot.

Updated the OOoops page...

I added a few updates to the Ooops page at the top, here.  New notes are in italics!  Progress...still considering a wee porch overhang over the door, though, to protect from the weather...

Prefab Sheds...

I'm VERY glad we've got what we have...I love my handmade shed and find that it works better all the time.  We spend a lot of time out there; working there is a pleasure.

And as longtime readers of this blog know, I started it to encourage others who need a similar place--for work, peace, studio, meditation, workshop, yoga, writing, whatever--to GO for it.  I haven't regretted it for a moment.

These garden sheds at Home Depot reminded me of one of the possibilities we considered, a prefab.  You could customize and finish it however you wanted to, and have it delivered to your site.  (And of course the links in the sidebar contain quite a few options of this type...) These range between a bit over $2000 to over $4000, but there are a lot of options out there, both higher and lower.  We pass a garden-shed place every time we go over to Independence to hit the big Costco. Even our local lumberyard offers a few models...

Mourning Doves at the shed...

It's been lovely having mourning doves in the yard, lately...around here they're more likely to be in more suburban or rural areas.  Being able to watch them so closely reminded me how similar they are to the extinct passenger pigeon.

I recently found this rough sketch, left, on the back of an old bank deposit slip...I did research years ago for an article for Country Living Magazine, and drew on what I had with me!

Evolution of a Workspace

Originally I had thought I'd just have the table Joseph built for me up when I needed it...turns out I need it almost all the time!  In the summer, when we sometimes have the French doors open, I may move it, but for now it's a wonderful place to work.

As you can see, it's MUCH roomier than the little oak TV table I used before...we've also eaten on it, I've done the videos for my classes and YouTube...all in all it's earned its place.

Meanwhile, things ebb and flow out there...I put a small candle heater away in the shed's shed--it was just taking up space.  I hung more up on the walls to liberate floor space.  We took the photofloods back over to the house since I'm not shooting videos right now, and reorganized books and art supplies...

I seldom use my little footstool box, so it may go, too.  When you're dealing with a place that's only 10 x 10, you really need to simplify, often!  It's kind of nice...