I know I’ve written about The Shed before – but I wanted to bring you all in to have a look. I got a fab coffee machine for Christmas, which means I can potentially overdose on caffeine as let me tell you, those espressos slip down very nicely and are gone in a matter of moments! I do have some de-caf, but where’s the fun in that?

The shed is now warm (two heaters in here), well-lit (proper lights and fairy lights AND a desk lamp) and cosy (comfy Ikea chair and footstool for when I have visitors, or for when I want to sit and read rather than work at my desk). It has book cases, stationery like you would not believe, a whiteboard (which fell off the wall the other day – I nearly wet myself with fright), coat pegs, a kettle, a biscuit tin shaped like a big old book, and a coffee machine. I’m not going to fit a bathroom in here however much I want one, so that will have to be that.

I don’t get many visitors.

And lovely as my shed is, it hasn’t been very good for productivity. It’s funny, I always thought that once I had a ‘room of one’s own’ (essential for women who write, according to Virginia Woolf) I would be super-productive and would be churning out novels like you wouldn’t believe – but I still seem to spend a shocking amount of time staring into space.

I think it’s because I am accustomed to working in an office with lots of other people, with noise, and the shed is just too quiet. Even with the radio on. So today I am experimenting with the BBC World Service on quietly in the background, just so I have some voices rather than music or silence.

I continue to experiment with my writing routine, a whole year after starting my career break. I have one year left. What’s the betting I will establish a brilliant, effective routine the week before I have to go back to the day job?

Much as I want to write 9-5, I seem to be more productive in the late afternoon or early evening, which is a shame because that’s when the family is at home and I have a million and one other things to do, like supervising homework and cooking dinner. I suspect this is no coincidence.

Productivity aside, I love my shed. I love it. It is my space and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have that, and everything in it…