It’s not a particularly big job, once you clear some space in the surrounding area. A few plant pots are at the front, but behind is a bit of a dumping ground. 2 wheelie bins, an old metal dustbin and a couple of old garden chairs. It’s also where my bird feeder spends it’s summer. It’s an area that remains undisturbed for the majority of the year.

One of the benefits of grdening is having frequent visits from my little robin friend, particularly when I’m weeding and uncovering bugs for him. I always speak when he comes to see me, yes, I know I’m sad, and today was no exception.

He appeared as I was painting the back of the shed. “Hello”, I said, “I don’t think you’ll find any bugs to eat when I’m doing this job”.

How wrong could I be, no sooner had the words left my mouth than he was on the ground, prospecting, very successfully,  in the dead leaves that had laid un-disturbed for 12 months. He came ever closer, until he was only about 3′ away. Obviously plenty of creepy crawlies for him to eat.

So, there we are. Out-smarted by a robin.

He really is in remarkably good nick considering the shaky start we had with him. I’m really pleased.

This hot, end of summer weather is just great, but it’s spoilt by the number of wasps about.

I’m sure they are attracted by the apple trees in the garden, but you only need to have the door open for a moment and they’re inside the house.

We like the door open in summer, originally it was for the cats, but now they’re gone we like it open too, and have a bead curtain for the purpose of keeping the insects out.

It works pretty well most of the time, but not it seems for wasps. Needless to say once inside they prefer the kitchen, and seem reluctant to leave even when the window is open.

I’m no cook and trying to make tea with 4 wasps buzzing round your head is no fun. The air is often blue, I hope no-one can hear me!

They have an un-nerving habit of sitting on the drawer and cupboard handles and the handle of the kettle, not to mention cutlery waiting to be washed up.

I have a horror of putting my hand on one and getting stung. (Yes, I’m a wimp) So the mantra of the moment is ‘look before you touch’.

When I started painting the house a few weeks ago, I gave Billy a couple of coats of paint, and he is looking as cute as ever.

After our early misgivings he has turned into one of our most useful purchases. So Happy First Birthday to Billy the shed.

Now, as the peak gardening season approaches, I decided it was about time I re-arranged the shed into some kind of sensible order.

I wasn’t really looking forward to the task, but once I got going, it didn’t seem to take too long, and went quite well.

Buoyed by this success, I then went on to plant a further 36 potatoes (Desiree) and then sowed some Tigerella tomato seeds, as the previous ones haven’t appeared, and I don’t think they will now.

Of the other 21 tomato seeds I sowed I have 20 germinated, so that’s pretty good really.

The problem was, neither of us really wanted a shed, we’d both have preferred some kind of summerhouse or log cabin, but we couldn’t afford either of these so, after much soul searching and lateral thinking we decided it would have to be a shed or nothing.

It is said that in life you generally get what you pay for, and so it is with sheds. When ‘Billy-O’ (for that was it’s name) arrived it was clear we had got exactly what we’d paid for.

The wood was thin, the fixings brief and not always to the point, and the felt just big enough with no room for error. We tried to overcome our disappointment and struggled manfully to do the best job we could with what was available. It took us several days to erect and paint Billy-O, and then it took me a couple of hours to fill him up. By the time I’d finished I was growing rather fond of him and calling him by his first name, yes I know I’m sad, whoever heard of a shed called Billy!

Yesterday when I ventured into the garden for the first time in weeks, it was also the first time I’d been to see Billy since early December and I was a little concerned as to what I might find. I needn’t have worried, when I opened the door, everything was warm and dry and there was that reassuring smell that you get in a garden shed, a sort of ‘sheddy’ smell if you know what I mean. All was well and I was pleased, Billy had survived the first part of his first winter.