Shedworking and birdwatching

Jenny Diski is one of the many writers who work in a shed and her web site has a marvellous description of it. If you're considering going down the garden office route but still not sure, her words will surely persuade you. "I work in a shed at the bottom of the Poet's [Ian Patterson] garden. More palatial than a shed. More palatial than a palace. Windows and glass doors, wood and white paint. Warm. The trains to Kings Lynn run along the end of the garden. There are bird feeders on the fence opposite my desk, in front of the shed where I can watch from my armchair and hanging on the raddled old apple tree that has hardly any leaves left on it now but is an excellent staging post for blue tits, sparrows, chaffinches, starlings, blackbirds, robins, collared doves and once a goldfinch to make a dash for the seed con-tainers. Mostly I watch the birds come and go. Sometimes I work. If anyone asks, I explain that I stare at the birds in order to work, but it's just as likely to be the other way around."