Bulldog Forge: shedworking 1940s style

Bulldog Tools rightly won a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show this year for their exhibit (visited by the Queen) put together in partnership with Stone Barn and Suttons Seeds and designed in association with garden designers Jon Wheatley and Mary Payne. The garden was set in the 1940s and told the story of a self-sufficient blacksmith making his own tools and growing his own vegetables and flowers. There are some interesting videos about its design here.
Thanks to John Coupe for the alert and Mrs Coupe for the photo
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Box Office from Roomworks

Box Office Trailer from Luke Barton on Vimeo.

A snazzy video trailing the launch of Roomworks's new range in early July. Look out for more announcements here on Shedworking.
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Eoin Colfer: shedworker

Author of the Artemis Fowl novels for children and most recently Plugged for adult readers, Eoin Colfer lives in Wexford, Ireland, where he writes in a garden office. In an interview with CITV he says: "Usually I spend my day writing in my shed at the end of the garden. I sometimes call it the Bat-Shed, which no-one finds amusing but me and other comic book geeks." Elsewhere he has spoken about how he used to write in an office in his house but when a new baby was born, he had their garden shed converted into an office. This is how he describes it to Boyd Tonkin at The Independent: "I've just got a new room: an old stable that we've converted. It's a palace of a writing room, with its own bathroom - a step up from the shed where I worked for ten years."

Lifehacker also has a marvellous quote by the writer from the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. "He says that as he gets older, working in his office, rather than wherever the possibility arises, becomes more important. “I’m 44 and unless I’m in my shed with my own chair and my music and my own banana and my own bottle of water, it’s hard.” And here he is on his commute to work: "I write in my office in the garden. It is close to the house but even crossing the garden is enough for me to feel I am going to work."
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Australian Prime Minister "banned from shed"

Apparently the Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard is not allowed in her partner Tim Mathieson's shed at The Lodge, writes Charles Wooley in the Sydney Morning Herald, commenting on the couple's first television interview together. Commenting on the success of the Australian' Men's Shed Association, Wooley writes:

"In a shed we tend to open up, and talk about those worries we've been keeping to ourselves," Mr Mathieson tells me. While he and I spend time in his shed, the Prime Minister cools her heels outside, good-naturedly respecting the sanctity of the secret men's business being discussed inside. I am hanging on the outside of the shed, as instructed," she chuckles."

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Guardian chooses Shedworking as internet pick of the week

In today's Guardian, Johnny Dee is kind enough to include Shedworking in his blogroll for gardens saying: "Tales of upscale sheds including the 1920s tram being converted into a garden office." If that's how you've come to Shedworking today and this is your first visit, it's nice to see you and please do have a browse around. You may also be interested in the Shedworking book.
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Charles Dickens' underground garden office commute

Charles Dickens's former Kent Home, now Gad's Hill School near Rochester, is to be turned into a £10m museum and heritage centre. Dickens did most of his writing in the garden office chalet at the end of the garden (see here for details) but the rather strange drawback was that it was on the other side of the road so he had a tunnel built to reach it: it's still there although the chalet has now been moved.
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Eco Hab family home

Gemma from Eco Hab Homes and O Pod Buildings has been in touch with information about their latest project (pictured above), their largest project yet with 8m, 6m and 4m domes and a floor area of 110m2, suitable as a family home (compare this to their mini 3m diameter O-Pods). We hope to bring you photos and details of their new office soon, a 4m circular O-Pod and a 3m model with a link between the two. You can also find them on Facebook.
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