OK then! I’ll chuck it all in together and you can sort it out yourselves!
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, under which 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. I don’t know where she finds the time as she also runs her business – Hatfield Interiors – from here, alongside her shop and tea room!
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!
