I spent the month of April, 2010, in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, as a Presidential Fellow at Cornell College, teaching an intensive interdisciplinary course on sexual orientation. Kinda like a whole semester crammed into 18 work days. Phew! Great experience.
The fellowship at Cornell allowed me to finally fund my little dream writing shack in our backyard. My charmer (seen below in summer) is modeled after the pink potting shed at Planting Fields on Long Island.
Bob the Builder (yes, our builder’s name really is Bob) modified the prototype’s roof line to make our cottage shorter and the siesta loft over my desk a little cozier. (I need a lot of naps when I write intensely.) My cottage’s footprint is 9’ x 13’.
My desk looks out on our fruit and vegetable garden, so I get to watch birds and squirrels and even a woodchuck I have named Harold. And I have heat and a/c! Sheer heaven. A big improvement over my former 4 foot x 8 foot space in the attic, which had no a/c and a hard-working space heater.
