A garage or shed of your own?
Hello m' mid Mayers,
Just a quickie from me today.... How people choose to spend their free time always fascinates me. I think that's why I enjoy reading blogs so much - they are full of personal passion and interest. This month I discovered one work colleague used to head a 'supernatural investigation club' - he has some hilarious and hair raising stories (more on that some other time).
Another colleague has converted the lower part of his garage into a blacksmith's forge, where he makes weaponry for his cosplay weekends. It gets better - the upper part of his garage looks like a medieval tavern. This is where he and his beardy friends gather under flickering candles to drink mead, eat stew from wooden bowls and play the Dungeons and Dragon's board game!
It is said that the UK is a nation of gardeners. I suppose we have a good amount of rainfall and enough sun to make it a plausible pursuit. But what to do when the snow endlessly falls? Last week, I stumbled across an extraordinary documentary on BBC iPlayer called ' Garage People'. It follows the lives of everyday people in the Russian Artic, who find refuge and solace in their garages. I don't want to spoil it should you choose to watch it, but it is pretty bonkers and very moving at times. It is also a good job that it's in Russian, as the following conversation between two scrap metal hoarders trying to move a salvaged bus demonstrates -
Sorry, that's enough expletives for one blog post!!!
Are you lucky enough to have a garage of your own ?
Perhaps your own a private lady shed or man cave ?
If not, what space would you wish for and how would you use it ?
Maybe someone you know has an interesting workshop ?
I will leave you with lots and lots of pictures of Long Mizzle taken on this morning's cuppa walk. The mutli-skillless, multi-talentless being that I am, I have been trying to perfect the art of snapping WHILST drinking tea -
As you can see, I don't have a shed as such. The playhouse is tiny. I have been known to disappear into the greenhouse for hours on end though ;) (Standing room only)
I hope that you are well. Please send gossip.
Lulu xXx
Thank you for visiting!
Most recent posts can be found here - https://longmizzle.blogspot.com/
Lucky that's not the school bus with all that swearing! I think you must work in a very interesting place to have such fun colleagues. Until my neighbour moved, we had 'the shed club' basically me and her squeezed in her garden shed with a bottle of wine and two glasses every saturday night; this went on for about 10 years - so I would like a shed but also the allotment to go with it and! would have a shed club with my fellow allotmenteers!
ReplyDeleteHaha, yes that would be a fun school bus ride Betty! I am very lucky to have awesome work colleagues. It's what makes the job really. Oh I love the sound of Shed Club, what a shame your neighbour moved. The allotment (when you finally get one) is not going to know what's hit it! It will be THE place to be each Saturday night xXx
DeleteI was just talking with my parents (while visiting your blog) about how British are the nation of gardeners. We get some of your gardening programs on our TV, they are always lovely.
ReplyDeleteYes, rain and sunshine do help the plants, but there are countries with rain and sunshine that don't have enthusiastic gardeners.
I admire people who do gardening in extreme climates, it must be hard.
Your garden looks great. I love how diverse are the colours of the flowers. It's so colourful.
I think you did a very good job snapping these photographs while having a cuppa, they are very clear.
To answer questions....
Are you lucky enough to have a garage of your own ? No, I'm not.
Perhaps your own a private lady shed or man cave ? I wish!
If not, what space would you wish for and how would you use it ? Honestly, I would probably just herd books in it. Maybe not having it is for the better.
Maybe someone you know has an interesting workshop ? Yes, some people I know have interesting workshops.
Have a lovely week ahead!
Thanks Ivana :) Us Brits do seem to have a lot of TV gardening programmes :) I think you're right, it must be a cultural thing. I enjoy following a couple of American dessert blogs - they get hardly any rain at all - all cacti and succulents. . A lot of YouTube videos my kids watch would make one believe the hot states don't do gardening (all artificial grass, swimming pools, bare yards and no plants at all), but I know this not to be true. For me, it is always interesting to see how people garden round the world. A book lined shed or garage sounds perfect to me :) xXx
Deleteohhhhhhhhhh how beautiful your garden is. So much space to play in. I'm weighing up the pros and cons of buying a green house. I need to move house and have a bigger garden.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cherie chuck :) It is nice having garden space to swing a rat around in. Wish I could say the same about my house xXx
DeleteHahaha! The Russian dialogue had me in stitches! I will have to try and make time to watch it in full. Your garden is looking spectacular! It's a mass of colour and every space is utilised - you can see it's been created by someone who knows what they are doing. As for those succulents... so pretty! We no longer have a garage. It was a small prefabricated one built by the original owner, but too close to the road so all in all, it was pretty ineffective. We do have a workshop in the garden. It contains a wood burner and a CNC machine Gareth inherited from his days as a Product Designer. It's so big and so heavy, I will never know how they managed to get it up a flight of garden steps and part way up a sloping garden. It's therefore going nowhere, although he never uses it (it is quite old now). I never venture inside the workshop now because it's also become something of a dumping ground. I would love a space of my own. I would have a reading nook; loads of shelves lined with books and curious objects I have found, hanging basket plants, space for a couple of clothing rails and an adjoining dark room so I can experiment with analogue photography. If you could fix it for me Lulu, that would be great! xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks Claire :) I couldn't stop watching that documentary. It's one of those natural style ones that just follows people's activities and conversations, without the need for voice over explanations. You are lucky to have a workshop complete with wood burner! You are missing a trick there, people rent off their glorified garages for good chunks of money per night! Plus how nice it would be with a reading nook and dark room attachment!!! I have seen how big some of those old CNC machines are though :0 I am quite happy to act as 'Challenge Anneka' and call up a helicopter flying favour from Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson xXx
DeleteDear Lulu
ReplyDeleteI have a shed, but it is filled with gardening stuff - pots, tools, more pots, chicken manure pellets, more pots! It really needs a clear out (a bit like the house). I do like disappearing in there to prick out seedlings or pot things on. Your garden is looking beautiful. I love this time of year.
Have a happy gardening week
Best wishes
Ellie
That sounds like a good use of a shed to me Ellie! Thank you, happy gardening to you too :) xXx
DeleteI'm lucky enough to be able to scarper off to the summerhouse (formally known as the (*clears throat*) 'The Summerhouse Studio' from days of yore when I was an aspiring (unemployed!) artist - now it is a bolt-hole in the garden where we can down a mug of tea in relative peace (if you exclude visiting cats/dogs/bumblebees) - love it!
ReplyDeleteTea in the summerhouse (formerly studio), sounds perfect Kate! Even with the visiting beasts :) xXX
DeleteAh, such gorgeous blooms in your garden. You definitely HAVE great skills and oodles of talents if you snapped these while having tea :-)
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have a proper Summer house at the back of the garden where I can do a spot of escaping from the big bad world. Unfortunately, even just opening the doors of our current shed would be a hazard ending in serious concussion as its contents come tumbling out! xxx
Thanks Ann, I think I am finding my photo-tea groove! Regarding your shed, I have a cupboard in my house that's a bit like that :0 Hard helmets needed :) xXx
DeleteI think the British are, or at least were, a nation of gardeners. So many traditional front gardens seem to be covered over nowadays for car parking. I remember as a child - I have a good memory - walking with my mother and us saying which gardens we liked the best - happy days. Love your garden photos. As for garages my wife has the strange idea that ours should be for our car - it would make such a ... well many things.
ReplyDeleteHave a great week
The tarmacked garden craze is both visually disappointing and potentially leads to flooding issues! Front gardens can be beautiful and functional. Do you know, I used to do the same thing as a kid with my mum - we'd walk round the block after tea - eye up who had the prettiest front garden, who had the nicest colour front door, what the occupants were having for dinner or what they were watching on t' tele etc. Moi, nosey !? A garage being used for a car - now that is quite rare ;) xXx
Deletethe BW saw that russian doku and loved it! reminded him of his youth :-D
ReplyDeletelong mizzle looks like a jungle already - love your tea walk photos....... with 130m2 half renovated house space for 2 people there is actually no need for a man cave or she shed @BWH........ and the house came without a garage but with a coal shed instead - and the "summer salon" - the tin roofed, ivy clad 25m2 in the garden.... but i could def. do with a more practical kitchen if someone would ask :-D
much love! xxxxx
Oh how lovely that Garage People reminded the BW of his youth! I know you have your sewing space, and of course I have admired your delightful summer salon. I lived in a rented property years ago that had an old brick coal shed. It was crammed full of retro and vintage finds that I'd sell at the local fleamarket each Sunday. That was on top of a full time job complete with lengthy commute totaling 10 hours each week. I seemed to have endless energy back then! xXx
DeleteThat was a colourful conversation from the You Tube video! I don't have my own space but it would be lovely. We have a large poly tunnel which I am the one that manages what is planted in there but it is not really my space. I would love a she-shed, I have a desk in the house but that is not quite the same ;(
ReplyDeleteVery ripe language as seen on the BBC :0 :) I love poly tunnels! I know people that have dining tables and ping pong tables in theirs. Fab spaces to have - especially in winter when a dose of outdoors is needed :) xXx
DeleteI think a tree house would be my personal choice. Preferably in a garden full of wildflowers and hidden corners, and a swing!
ReplyDeleteA tree house - nice choice Jules. I think you'd have to be careful of Ewoks though ;) xXx
DeleteI have a garage, it was here when we moved in. It's a bit larger than average which is just as well as I'm one of those odd people who put their car away in the garage over night! 😮 It ha a side door so the final third has a bench where I do my seed sowing, potting and general other jobs.
DeleteI'd love a greenhouse, prefferably an 8 by 10 feet a!aluminium one but I'm not too choosey!
Everything I grow is from seed and raised outside, I do remarkably well with oudoor tomatoes. Our weather's about six weeks behind yours, which brings me to your lovely garden photo's. You have an amazing range of flowers out already, I'm very envious of your Mesambryanthemums! 😡 Great photo's, what camera do youuse, or are you a smartphone pnotographer? So many folk are now.
All for now, 😊 🐕 🐢
Hello David, how lucky to have room in your garage for a potting station and an actual car! Well done on the outdoor tomatoes. Every time I have tried them outside here, they have succumbed to blight BUT having not tired it for a few years now, and having an excess of plants, I am going to risk it again this year. The Mesambryanthemums (that's a mouthful!) were from an honesty box sale - one of my brother's neighbours sells wonderful plants in their front garden. I'm really chuffed with them - such happy little plants. Thank you for the kind words. I am still on the iPhone6 for photos as it is quick for me to snap and upload but I am still hoping to dig out the old Canon SLR at some point xXx
DeleteGood luck with the outdoor Tomatoes. 😊
DeleteWe watched Garage People a while ago, it's completely bonkers isn't it? I loved it!
ReplyDeleteYour garden goes from strength to strength, every time you post a blog with Long Mizzle updates I call Jon over and we both gasp with envy!
Once Jon's built his massive man shed we're going to remove the satellite sheds (all four of them!) and rejig one to make it a summer sitting out room filled with Indian textiles and covered with climbing plants - the only trouble is that we keep going on holiday and spending our money on booze and food! xxx
Oh so glad you caught Garage People Vix! I remember you and Jon recommending Warwick Thornton's 'The Beach: Isolation in Paradise'. I love these quirky little documentaries. The summer rooms sounds wonderful and good luck to Jon on his man shed. I need to stop paffing about and come over and catch up on your Greek adventure.... xXx
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