Name That Shed

The owner of this week's entry is sadly no longer with us but this is a major anniversary year for him. Can you 'Name That Shed'?

Mark Gregory: Shedworking's pick of Chelsea 2009

As you know, the Shedworking staff have been a bit occupied recently with nonshedworking activities and we've provided shamefully poor coverage of Chelesea Flower Show (next year we promise to do better). However, our very own Shedworking Gold Medal goes to the marvellous garden from Mark Gregory for The Children's Society, pictured above. Here's how they and Mark describe it:

"Bringing together family life with a busy lifestyle, this garden provides an escape – your own plot of land with multi-functionality. This garden emphasises the different ways that we can take time out to enjoy family time, get healthy, go organic and create new childhood memories."

And of course it has a garden office. Here's a video of Mark discussing it via the BBC site:
You can see more of Mark's video diaries at The Children's Society's own site.We also particularly enjoyed friend of Shedworking Lila Das Gupta's video diaries. Well worth a browse.

InsideOut: Cumbria

InsideOut have been busy in Cumbria recently, as Lyn Fotheringham explains on her blog The Office In The Garden. She says: "The building can be seen from one of the key routes into the Lake District and one or two peole have emailed us to say they have spotted it." The garden office will have a balcony when finished.

(Not) the new Shedworking HQ...

As promised, here is a shed which I discovered on our new property. There's a bit of ivy on it and it might need a bit of work before I can move the laptop and cider press in...

Iconic Antarctic love shack destroyed

An A-frame hut in Antarctica which was one of Sir Edmund Hillary's favourite spots and was a temporary shedworkinglike home for many New Zealand scientists, artists and politicians, has been destroyed by fire. The fire at the hut on the Ross Ice Shelf near Scott Base (though formerly at the McMurdo Station) started during a routine inspection and diesel refuelling and the dry wood quickly ignited. Happily nobody was seriously injured. Antarctica New Zealand chief executive Lou Sanson said:"The A-frame represented something uniquely Kiwi in Antarctica. It was the concept of a mountain hut mixed with a bach. It was the only place you could really get away from the monotony of base life." According to The Southland Times it was dubbed the 'love shack' after a couple were trapped for 16 hours inside five years ago during a terrible storm.
Thanks to Andrew Bantock for the alert
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MPs expense scandal: Paul Goggins

Our ongoing look into the shed angle of the MPs expense scandal focuses today on Paul Goggins, MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East. According to the Manchester Evening News he claimed £300 for a shed at his home in Salford in 2005 commenting: “It was a replacement for a shed that had been there for donkey’s years. I replaced it with a fairly modest one.” In total, he spent £690 on his garden in November 2005 which included the £300 shed, £108 on skip hire, and £40 on turf.
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Vivid Green, the low energy garden building specialists. Click here for more details

Little Tom Thumb, Gambier Island

Bruce Devereux, Recreation & Volunteer Manager at Christenson Village, has sent in details of a lovely shed project at Christensen, a Multi-Level Seniors Care facility on the beautiful west coast of British Columbia (Gibsons, BC). He writes:

"I have developed a new media program working with seniors and sharing stories through both Audio and Video Podcasts. A recent project focused on one of our residents and her garden shed on beautiful Gambier Island, a short ferry ride from Gibsons. We will be doing several more with her talking about all aspects of her Island Life, and family, focusing on how they have evolved over the years."

The shed in question - called Little Tom Thumb - is pictured above and below but for the story you need to watch the truly charming video on their site here.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday posts are sponsored by Vivid Green, the low energy garden building specialists. Click here for more details

Moving

Shedworking is moving house today. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow. Hopefully.
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Farewell to Shedworking HQ

It's the end of an era. As some of you know already, the Shedworking staff and family is moving house today and tomorrow (Wednesday) and unfortunately the Shedworking HQ will be staying behind to enrich the lives of a new family (coincidentally very close friends so we'll be able to make guest returns). We've been in here five years now and have obviously become very attached to the place. But needs must when the devil drives, and a move is necessary for a whole host of reasons. Sadly our new home does not have a garden office (yet - garden office suppliers take note...) so we will be cellarworking for a few months until the dust settles and a new Shedworking HQ can rise in pomp and ceremony. I feel slightly fraudulent in continuing the site while not actually working in a garden office, but I hope you will all understand the reasons why and continue to pop in to see what's new here (there will be plenty, as always). If you'd like to post goodbye messages to the little green fellow, I promise to pass them on.

Peter Merry: shedworker

Peter Merry is a busy chap: a partner at Engage!, the founder and Chair of the Center for Human Emergence, Netherlands; the founder and Director of the Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence; and a Fellow of the Center for Human Ecology in the UK. And he's a shedworker - but as you might expect from somebody with the above credentials, his garden office is something special. Pictured above, it is covered in car tyres from a local garage on the outside and is built out of recycled materials (wood from the former garden house on location, old wooden furniture found on the streets, glass from a nearby bankrupted glass company) by 'garbage architects' Denis Oudendijk and Jan Korbes. You can see more pictures of this marvellous build here - don't forget to scroll down to see them all and more description of the build.
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