I have to confess that I am past my sell-by date and I was beginning to feel that there would be no point in starting anything new.  Climbing up from my hut on the beach was beginning to be a slow and exhausting business so I have put it on the market.  At my age, I thought,  perhaps I should just accept a bit of stiffness, put my feet up and pick up my knitting.  Then along came my daughter, 'What you need,' she said,' is a hut in the garden.'

Only twelve days since my last entry but already a hidden corner of the garden has been cleared, the footings are in and the floor is laid.  At the moment all that is covered over with a blue tarpaulin but on Tuesday work will begin to build the walls.  In less than two weeks my garden studio should be ready for me to move in.  It is little more than a Wendy house, just 10ftx8ft but my ancient desk will fit in and I’ve found a very small green velvet sofa in a charity shop.  In the middle of the back wall there will be a black electric let’s-pretend wood burner stove so I can work out there on cold winter afternoons and I’ve bought a bucket full of spring bulbs as part one of rejuvenating the hidden garden. 

The next question was what to call this retreat?  All but one of the dolls’ houses I’ve built have names and each has a plot ready and waiting for its story to be written.  ‘Phoenix House’ was published last summer and will soon be launched as an ebook.

I woke this morning worrying that I was spending too much on myself but a voice in my head answered firmly 'This hut is a fraction of the cost of a new car and it be like a mgic carpet, taking  you to places you would never visit without it.'

My first task will be to publish a collection of short stories as an ebook which I shall dedicate to Jude who came to my rescue.  ‘At last you seem to be getting your life into some kind of order, what you need now is a pigeon hole.’  So there it is – The Pigeonhole.  I am now working on a new blog for The Pigeonhole and in my next posting I’ll tell you how to find it.