Sheds, Gazebos, Shepherd's Huts, Gypsy Caravans & Garden Sheds

It is time to decamp to the garden and in these glorious days of summer do our best to live amongst the roses.

A summer house, the grown up version of a Wendy house, can be fitted out with chairs and tables and even a day bed. It is lounged in and, if you happen to own the most deluxe model, it can even be turned on its axis to track the sun.

Gazebos are more lightweight versions of the summer house, a place for pausing in rather than setting up home. Glossy magazines have been full of "Shepherd's huts" with their rounded corrugated roofs. And iron wheels, and I can't help thinking, terrifyingly hot and stuffy at this time of year and of far more use to shepherds in the spring.

A gypsy caravan, on the other hand, is my fantasy home from home to sit in my fantasy orchard. Sadly, I don't need a crystal ball to tell me that only the orchard will become a reality.

Then there is the shed. This is the no-nonsense stalwart of back gardens and allotments but ever since it became popular in the 1920's and 1930's it has taken a life all of its own. The rise of the shed, although this stolid, no-nonsense building has been with us since at least the 15th century, coincided with the between wars rise of modern suburbia and the newly affordable mechanical lawnmower. It very quickly became a male refuge where, in cartoons, comedies and real life, a man could retreat to smoke a pipe in peace; a survey has concluded that the average man spends a year of his life in a shed.

Sparkly Shed was a real labour of love!

Sarah's "sparkly shed" is of course a work of art. It's the culmination of a final project for her fine art degree taken at Swansea Metropolitan University and was exhibited in her final degree show. Still, it is a real shed for all its five kilos of purple, pink, green, gold and silver sequins. In fact, it is her father's shed and he could not be more proud of both his daughter and the shed. It sparkles in the sunlight where individual sequins "catch fire" with sudden sparks of light and even on an overcast day it twinkles prettily. You can, of course, see it is as a feminine encroachment into a males domain, but I think of it more as a lovely work of art that brings a touch of the exotic to what is a useful but mundane object. Every sequin out of the 680, 000 has been glued on by hand, a labour of love taking over a month, and then the whole has been coated in several layers of yacht varnish for durability. Sarah has her sparkly shed up for sale but I rather wish that she would keep it and enter next year's "Shed of the year" competition.

National Shed Week

Shed Week will soon be upon us as turning your shed into an Oriental fantasy or a Gothic stronghold is a popular pastime. It seems that for outdoor living every man, and woman's shed, is a castle.