A garden shed tucked away for the winter - the hoses rolled, the mower cleaned, the gardening gloves washed, the peony stakes bundled - is beautiful.   Properly placed hooks are beautiful.  Hanging tools are beautiful.   Garden hats always look great on a hook.  Mostly, the whole thing is beautiful because all that WORK is at rest, which means the person in charge of digging, planting, watering, trimming, and weeding can rest.

I didn’t organize this shed; Tom Stockton, the man who lead our renovation project, the man who brought Howlets back to its understated gray grandeur, put in the hooks and rolled in the mower, but as I walked around the yard recently seeing new areas to clear, dead wood to remove, and imagining new garden spaces, I opened that door to the shed, saw all the tools looking so peaceful, and I thought I had never seen anything so beautiful.  I whispered “hush,” and tip-toed away.