Shedding

She is looking neglected, and a bit tatty. I should be ashamed of myself! I have an excuse though… I was waiting to see if the garden thing came about. Once confirmed i would go ahead with a spot of… or rather, a lot of… refurbishment. Rachel is planting with the Jubilee and the olympics in mind. So I said if my shed was in her garden, she too would be decked out in the red, white and blue. So when we get a couple of dry days forecast, I shall get my team in (Briony on pasting, Elaine on kettle duty) and off we go. in the meantime, I have to venture into the loft to ferret out all the vaguely red white and blue bits of old clothes, curtains and moth-eaten remnants. Then it’s simply a matter of slicing it up and sticking it on with my secret glue recipe… it’s very complicated, you would never guess.

This second post, for the sense of continuity, has been copied and pasted straight from my other blog, “Threads”. From here on, all the other posts about the Shed will be posted only here.

Right, the shed has 2 quite different confirmed activities for this summer, and a third one being discussed… and she might make it to my final show, you never know.

The first one is next month. From 12th June to 12th July (ish) My shed will sit in the lovely Worcestershire garden of Rachel Barnes, who is doing sterling work preparing her acre for the National Gardens Scheme. She opens her garden for charity, and last year had over 500 visitors – which for her first year is amazing. The garden is lovely, overlooking rolling Worcestershire fields. It is a family garden with rabbits, ducks, dogs and children, and Rachel still makes it look beautiful. There are little achievable vignettes that make you stop and sit and contemplate for a while, thinking you should be able to do similar in your own garden. You’ll not find perfect rows of obsessive planting, but a working garden, worked by someone who clearly loves it.

What my shed will do is sit in the middle of it, overlooking the views, sheltered by huge old trees. What happens inside is up to the artists and musicians that book themselves in (contact me through my website if you’re interested). Some days will have loads of visitors, some won’t have any. The open weekend will hopefully have troops! Take a day, or half a day, or more, retreat, write, draw, play, stitch, perform, paint, exhibit… whatever floats your boat. Leave some words or work pinned up for the next people to look at and respond to if you like. Get booked in with a complete stranger and collaborate! I’m hoping that in amongst the hurly-burly I’ll get to retreat and spend some calm time there myself, to write, sew, draw, think. There is no charge to sit in my shed, neither will there be a payment. But it would be nice if you contributed to the charity while you were there.

From there, the Shed will be hot-footing it over to Stourbridge for LOAF. July 14th and 15th. She will grace the courtyard at the Coach House and be filled with wonderful live acoustic music… guitars, harp, double bass, violins, accordion, and beautiful voice after beautiful voice. I’m very proud of this little event, that grows every year. The quality of the art and the music gets better and better, as do the cakes.

As the organisation of these events goes on, I’ll no doubt be letting you know.

The garden in question is:

http://www.ngs.org.uk/gardens/gardenfinder/garden.aspx?id=22910.

If you have queries about the garden, contact Rachel, but if you’d like to know more about the shed, contact me through my website: www.elenathomas.co.uk

LOAF can also be found on the events page on my website, complete with links to all the musicians playing, so you can have a sneaky listen before you come. I’m also going to be doing some sort of SoundCloud release/download opportunity too.

Too long a post, sorry! Got carried away!

The first post here should probably tell of the birth of the shed. This shed specifically.

I’d covered other sheds in bits of fabric. About six of them, and put photos on my website. Serendipity brought Dan Whitehouse to my door…. Well, to my email inbox. It is not very easy to sing in a dilapidated allotment shed full of sharp implements, compost and rat poison, so we decided to build a special one… or get one built at least. We decided we needed the front to be entirely doors that could open wide to extend the performance space. I drew pictures and took them round a few shed manufacturers. Most of which, when I mentioned wanting to take it apart and reassemble it, sent me away. One company said “no problem” and got the job. However, on the day of delivery it turned up with two lovely blokes and a box of screws and an electric screwdriver. “Where are my coach bolts and wing nuts?” I asked. “What?” they replied? Panic set in. Eventually, given a very short time frame, these guys agreed, as a “foreigner” once I had decorated the shed, they would come back, dismantle it, then reassemble it at the venue. Which they did. Thank God! When we managed to get it home, we then had to reassemble it with the screws, to keep the inside dry, while we thought of how we could do the bolts. In the end, it was very simple (thanks to my very practical brother, Alec)…. 8 coach bolts, wing nuts and 4 old wooden cotton reels as spacers did the trick. It is a tool-free erection experience!

The gig was fab. That first year it was just Dan. And it went so well we decided we should definitely do it again, and invite more people to perform. (Which they did!)

So that’s the quick back story. There have been adventures in other places too… She (as she has become) looks particularly good placed centre stage with spotlights.

www.dan-whitehouse.com

www.elenathomas.co.uk