a happy place.....

thoughts of summer are again in my mind today...our little den in the garden was looking most sorry for itself so I hatched a plan.....

the story of our den is close to my heart...I built it from old palettes and scrap wood with just a hammer...some very big nails and a screwdriver...our boys were only small and I had been mothering and nesting as you do when I had the urge to build them a den... when I look back now it was just what I needed at the time...a project to take my mind off sad things...outside in all weathers...banging stuff... getting grubby..thinking time...mucky hands...sitting on a pile of wood sipping tea from a big tin mug...

it started off  very small but then someone gave me some more palettes and it got an extension...the boys call this bit the balcony (so grand)

 

It's at the bottom of the garden in a tree....there were already little steps there so it feels like you have to 'climb' up to it...there's also a little pond and a lot of frogs rustling around down there...it's changed a bit over the years from a pirate ship to an army base and a nature look out (which was basically the boys spying on our neighbours with binoculars through a small gap in the camo net)

 

the latest look is based on a favourite film from last year...can you guess??? this meant I had a lot of fun gathering stuff from around the home to decorate it...

 

another clue :)

as you can see it's not huge but all 4 of us plus the dog can sit in there at a push...the tree is like a canopy so it keeps pretty dry inside...

 

it's quite well hidden from the house so you can really hide out in there without any one knowing :)

 

the latest addition is a swing seat made from strong rope and a piece of wood..

 the nitty gritty to the construction of the main den is pretty simple...

it is basically 4 palettes joined together with a roof made from fence posts...it involved lots of re jiggling..re designing and quite a bit of swearing...it's not straight, the roof is a bit wobbly..and there are far too many bugs in there for my liking

 but we love it....(especially me)

x x x x x x