Of mokkis and men

A lovely piece in the New York Times by Philip Besonen - A Private Matter in the Backyard - which details how he spent a year building a shed for himself but with an important issue at stake... "I wanted to build a cottage in our backyard," he writes. "The problem was my wife. I had to do it before she noticed." He continues:

"I wanted something like the little buildings called mokkis (rhymes with hokey) that I had seen while visiting my relatives in Finland. Mokkis were relatively small and nothing special to look at, but they were invariably off by themselves near lakes or trees, in settings where you could find peace. The feeling of serenity was the most striking thing about them."

A marvellous little article, well worth reading. And he also gets my vote for namechecking the masterly writer Garrison Keillor.
Photo by Spencer Tirey and thanks to shed champion Neal Zimmerman for the alert.