International Shed of the Year

Apart from the joy of winning, there's no prize for this special category in the National Shed Week celebrations but Uncle Wilco has announced that The HammerSmith Brewery and Alehouse, Pennsylvania, owned by Christopher Bowen. Here's how he describes it:

A fully functioning micro brewery turns out 10 gallon batches of real ale from grain to glass, where there is also a mug club for 24 lucky members. Being a huge fan of British inspired ale and culture has made it an easy choice of decor for this award winning brewer. The shed features hot and cold running water, heating and air conditioning, four refrigerators, two sinks, cable television and Wi-Fi internet.

Congratulations to Christopher.
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Docuden: Documentally's new garden office

Christian 'Documentally' Payne has now set up a special blog for his new garden office den, Docuden, which has plenty of information about how he's using solar power, rainwater harvesting, buying long range intercoms and building shelves. Well worth a regular look. Here he is musing about his shed and work in general with some atmospheric birdsong in the background.

A song a day for National Shed Week

This year's winner of Shed of the Year, Songs From The Shed, has been putting on a fine online concert daily at their site, uploading a song a day to celebrate. Above is Flipron and Hanging Round The Lean To With Grandad but do check out the other songs from the rest of the week:
Song 1 Ruarri Joseph - An Orchard For An Apple
Song 2 Emily Smith - Butterflies
Song 3 Roddy Woomble - My Secret Is My Silence
Song 4 Emily Barker & Dom Coyote - The Witch of Pittanweem
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Malvern Newland Summerhouse

For those who only want an occasional shedworking atmosphere (the lack of insulation would probably prevent it being used during winter), here's the rather lovely Malvern Newland Summerhouse from Taylors Garden Buildings. It's a new model for 2011, 8'x6' with ground to floor glazing, glazed double doors and two fixed windows with two top opening vent windows in each side. Cladding is 12mm tongue and grooved deal, cedar or logroll. It's currently available at 20% off the normal price.
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The Hide-Away UK Tour: songs from a hide

Look out this summer for a unique shedlike tour of UK bird hides by singer (and freelance organic gardener and environmental artist) Kate Doubleday in aid of the RSPB. The Hide-Away UK Tour also features Trevor Lines (bass/ukelele) and Dan Wilkins (guitar/kora) and will be playing to titchy audiences of between 15 and 50 inside the hides, blending their acoustic music with the sounds of nature surrounding them.

As part of the tour they will also be doing a session at this year's Shed of the Year, Songs from the Shed. Here are the tour dates

* 13 July, 7.30pm LAUNCH EVENT RSPB Ynys – Hir Reserve Ynys hir Hide, Eglysfach, Machynlleth, Powys
* 15 July, 7.00pm RSPB Loch Garten Abernethy, Nearest town: Aviemore, Highlands
* 16 July, 7.00pm RSPB Vane Farm Reserve, Gillman Hide, Kinross. Perth & Kinross
* 17 July,7.30pm RSPB Lochwinnoch Reserve The Tall Tower, Largs Road, Lochwinnoch
* 19 July, 7.00pm RSPB Ribble Discovery Centre Nearest town-Lytham, Lancashire
* 20 July, 7.00pm RSPB Frampton Marsh Boston, Lincolnshire
* 21 July, 7.00pm RSPB Titchwell Marsh, Hunstanton, Norfolk
* 22 July, 7.00pm RSPB Minsmere, Saxmundham, Suffolk
* 25 July, 7.00pm RSPB Thatcham Nature Discovery Centre Thatcham, Berkshire
* 27 July, 7.00pm RSPB Rye Meads, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire
* 28 July, 7.00pm RSPB Rainham Marshes, Purfleet, Essex
* 4 August, 7.00pm RSPB Dee Estuary - Inner Marsh Farm off Pudlington Lane, Nr Burton Cheshire
* 6 August, 11.00 RSPB Conwy, Conwy North Wales
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Garden Office of the Year 2011: Mary's Meals

A very worthy runner-up in this year's Shed of the Year and clear winner in the Garden Office category, Mary’s Meals in Dalmally, Scotland is probably also the worthiest shedworking atmosphere we've featured. It was set up to establish school feeding projects in communities around the world where poverty and hunger prevent children from gaining an education: currently, Mary’s Meals provides daily meals in school for over 500,000 children in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

And it is all run from 'Calum’s shed', a Nissen hut-style building borrowed by the charity's founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow from his father to store blankets and medicines to be delivered where needed in Bosnia. It has two main rooms, one which is Magnus's office and the other which is used for meetings: one reason why the shed is still in use is that it enables the charity to keep its overheads low and thus spend more on helping children in need.

Mary's Meals - The Difference A Meal Makes from Mary's Meals on Vimeo.
Photos courtesy readersheds.co.uk where you can find a lot more.
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Shed of the Year 2011: Songs From The Shed

Large congratulations to Jon Earl whose Songs From The Shed is a very worthy winner of this year's Shed of the Year. We've featured Jon's shedworking music studio where bands - including US roots maestros Pokey Lafarge, above - play acoustic sessions which are then uploaded onto YouTube (as well as the official site) several times on Shedworking in the past: now more than 1,000 musicians have had their songs videoed inside what was originally a First World War billet hut including Steve Harley and a gospel choir and there's a waiting list of 100 bands eager to be part of his music revolution. More details over at Shedblog.

And to celebrate, Songs From The Shed (based in Clevedon, Somerset) is performing a song a day for National Shed Week.
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