Tuesday 3 July 2012

Shed Haven

Meet 'The Shed' at the end of our garden. It is of course fully wheelchair accessible and serves as garden room, art studio, home cinema, wildlife centre (complete with nest-box-cam), music room, reading retreat, there is even a sofa bed for a sleep-over. However, tonight it served another other purpose...

Here is a clue - last years grapes trying to ripen in the garden...

Yes you guessed it - 'Home Winery' where I spent a very pleasant evening bottling up a demijohn of grape wine and another of sloe wine while listening to my favourite composer featured on tonights ClassicFM concert - Elgar. They even played one of his delightful but little known "Shed Pieces"!! These were called 'Shed' after the shed at the back of the Elgar Music Shop where he and his friends rehearsed on Sunday afternoons. They used to meet regularly to play his latest chamber music written specially for them. They constituted two flutes, oboe, clarinet and Bassoon. Elgar later confessed to writing most of them during the Sunday sermons.



18 comments:

  1. oh, i like your shed and all of its uses! :)

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    1. Thanks TexWis - I bet you've got a proper shed at the Ranch??

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  2. Bottling the wine, listen to music, have the beautiful countryside around ... this wine is a condensation of many beautiful things and love.
    Your blog,Jerry. is a source of serene trust in the wonderful possibilities of life, every day!

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    1. You are too kind Rita! My wine is tasty because I get good advice from Pasquale - my dear Italian friend next door - he grows even more grapes than I do!

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  3. Humm!... Je veux bien venir déguster un verre avec vous de ce merveilleux vin !...
    Une très jolie publication. Merci pour vos photos.

    Gros bisous.

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  4. I like your garden and your shed! Wish I could have a taste of that wine!

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  5. Seems like your Shed is more of a tardis with all those uses! We have actually just recently had a few days away and drove round Great Malvern - Elgar country (you knew that I bet).

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    1. Ann, I've been there. I was entranced by the whole place - what I hadn't realised was the way the Malvern Hills seemed like someone had just plonked them into an otherwise flat landscape.

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    2. ....absolutely, I thought that, but wow what a view!

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  6. Hola Jerry. Tienes un jardín precioso, bien parcelado y cuidado. La foto de las uvas es preciosa, pintadas en acuarela quedarían magníficas. ¡Un abrazo!

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    1. Hola Sonia. Painting those grapes is a good idea - I'll give it a go but it will not be up to your high standard!

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  7. Wow! That's a shed and a half Jerry. Our smaller version contains nothing more interesting than garden tools and doesn't even have a light! My brother used to enjoy wine making, one glass and you weren't fit to walk let alone drive ;-) Love the photo of the grapes. Wine and music...bliss!

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  8. I forgot to say, I misread the title at first and thought it said 'Shed Heaven' just as apt I suspect!

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    1. Yes Jan, heaven/haven perfectly interchangeable in this instance. Thomas can only access downstairs - his bedroom, bathroom, living room and at a pinch our front room (basically at Christmas) so we decided a few years ago to build the shed as a garden room. He especially enjoys playing playstation on the big screen there plus of course watching a good film all together or eating a meal in there...

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  9. Hello Jerry
    In short, you have every mans dream of a shed! It seems like a perfect place of recreation! I also would like to try your wine,- don't really associate Britain with grape growing, although the grapes in your photo look delicious. It's a lovely photo!

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    1. Thanks Breathtaking. We live very near Denbies, the UK's largest vinyard and they produce very high quality wine. The important thing here is to grow varieties that do well in the UK but most Summers my grapes need the addition of extra sugar to assist full fermentation.

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