Here we go round the mulberry bush...

... on a cold and frosty morning.

One of the first sights that  greeted us when we returned home after the holidays was this:

Yes, apparently our shed at the allotment decided that it needed a lie-down. :/

A couple of days ago D and I enjoyed the rare treat of a day without the boys. Much as I love them and as much fun as they are to be around, these occasional 'grandma days', as they are known around here, are cherished too, because they don't happen very often and they give us the opportunity of doing some of the things that we don't often have time for. I tend to go into my office and paint or craft, and D is invariably drawn to the shed. He is currently working on a peg loom for me (my Christmas present!), so that was on the agenda for this particular grandma day.

Before we could get round to any of that, though, we had to wrap up warm and take a trip to the allotment to prop our shed up. It had fallen over completely, thereby flattening the fence behind it and snapping one of the fence poles. Not good. If it hadn't been for the holidays we probably would have a letter of complaint in the post already, because, let me tell you,  the allotment committee doesn't mess around! 

It was quite hard work getting the shed upright again, which makes me wonder how it fell over in the first place. It's so heavy! I can only guess that the open front (D hasn't quite finished it yet) acted as a kind of sail and the wind caught in it and pulled it over. For now we've stored a few patio slabs in it so hopefully the added weight will mean that it's secure for now, at least until D can get some more reclaimed wood to finish the front and side off. We set ourselves the task of, if at all possible, only using reclaimed materials at the allotment, because isn't that make-do attitude part of the allotment appeal? That is also the reason for the rather crazy looking bi-fold shower door that the shed has - we had it in one of our outbuildings. ;)  I'm quite liking the odd look of it all and I'm hoping to paint it with the boys next summer...

After we'd fixed things up a bit I had a little walk around the allotments. I always like it there, but with the hard frost we had it has a truly magical feel to it.