The Caravan Drop In

This shepherd's hut from Plankbridge is used as a drop-in counselling service in St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, London and run by the CCPE (Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy Education) in partnership with St. James’s Church. It is open seven days a week and offers a free service to users though of course donations are kindly accepted.

Caravan Co-ordinator Zak Waterman said : "It is home, heart and hearth. There is something welcoming, warming and hospitable about it. We’re giving a message to all disenfranchised people that you’re worth it and you’re worth taking care of, and there’s a place for you here.”
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Angela Harding: shedworker

Artist Angela Harding has a particularly beautiful shedworking setup, as she explains:

My studio looks out over the Rutland landscape, the main theme of my work is British birds combined with the British countryside.  I have always loved birds; even at primary school I carried round a small orange suitcase that contained my feather collection. This love and fascination with birds has stayed with me, I do not consider my self a twitcher, the interest I have with birds is for their form and the setting they inhabit. The paintings and prints I make are an attempt to capture a glimpse of the atmosphere they evoke. I work from small sketchbooks, noting down quick drawings of what I see while out walking. I then take these to the studio and enlarge them on canvas or develop them into prints. 

You can see more photos of it on her blog too as well as her work.

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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Boulton & Paul revolving summerhouse

A think of beauty is a joy forever. More details and images at UKAA. Seen via readersheds.co.uk ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Cocoon 1: working in a bubble

With full 360 degree views, according to its designers Micasa Lab the Cocoon 1

magically connects aesthetics and function. Its insularity provides protection and seclusion. At the same time, its translucency enables us to let our thoughts wander whilst simultaneously allowing us to join in with life "outside"

Indeed. There's more of this on their site if you like it.

Actually, Cocoon is being marketed as a piece of furniture rather than a shedlike atmosphere and you can add different modules for sleeping, cooking or storage. Special attachments mean that you can also hang it from the ceiling if you want to work inside or from a tree outside. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday posts are sponsored by 3rdSpace modular garden rooms.
Customise | Configure | Extend | Relocate

Over 3m homeworkers potentially operating illegally, warns insurance giant

As the number of people who work from garden offices and home in general continues to rise, statistics from AXA Business Insurance suggest that the majority of homeworkers in the UK are, probably unknowingly, operating without the insurance cover they need and over half are potentially breaking the law in the process.

According to research from AXA, 16% of homeworkers employ one or more people yet only 3% have employer's liability insurance. Meanwhile just 14% of homeworkers surveyed say they have business car insurance yet 66% use their cars for business purposes. In both instances this would mean they are operating illegally.

And aside from the legal requirements of insuring yourself if you work at home, AXA is also warning people to be aware that they should inform their home contents provider if they are working from home or they could risk invalidating their policy. For the 10% of homeworkers who meet clients in their home, or the 30% who visit clients' premises, AXA advises that public liability insurance should be considered to protect against any accidents.

Meanwhile, only 8% have professional indemnity insurance to cover themselves for legal liability in the event of providing customers with poor advice. One in four homeworkers admitted they were putting their businesses at risk through neglecting their insurance needs as they would not know how to fund any shortcomings if they needed to make a claim and had insufficient cover.

Darrell Sansom, Managing Director of AXA Business Insurance, said: "The number of people working from home has grown by over 20% in the last ten years or so but our research shows that these people take a more relaxed view on insurance than those working from business premises. We appreciate that generally there is no intention to break the law and that insurance is possibly not top of the priority list for many people. However, it is absolutely vital that homeworkers check what they need to be covered for and, at the very least, meet legal requirements. We would also strongly recommend that people consider what other cover they need to protect what is, in many cases, their livelihoods." -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Shed Sunday

A Cartoonish, Funky Art Shed/Shack/Guest House by Derek 'Deek" Diedricksen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Unveiled: the stars of BBC's Shedtown's sheds

BBC Radio 4's comedy Shedtown is back so do nip along and listen on the iplayer thingy if you missed the first episode of the second series which was broadcast yesterday. The Radio Times has a great feature about the sheds owned by the stars of the show including Tony Pitts's and Maxine Peake's. Above is Stephen Mangan (who plays Jimmy) and here's a snippet from what he says about it:

My shed is so small it could comfortably double as my coffin. It’s so crammed with junk that I haven’t dared open it for three months in case I get buried under the avalanche of tat that will inevitably fall out. I’m sure there are unclassifiable creatures living in the bottom of it. I built it myself. Well – I assembled it from a flat pack. But it needed hammering, and painting, and roofing-felt pinning on.

Thanks to David Crawford for the alert. ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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