A few years ago I bought a tepee. It is, of course,  not made of animal hides but of a sturdy canvas although, from a couple of hundred yards away, it looks just like the real thing.

I am small and have to enlist the help of taller friends to put up the poles and wrap round the canvas;  the more extrovert among us then have a dance but  the more self-conscious just look embarrassed. There is something very different about sitting in a tepee, it is not like being in a normal tent;  I find that it both relaxes and inspires me at the same time. I have a wild area in my garden with a large pond and from spring until late  autumn the tepee stands close by it. There is a smoke vent at the top and sometimes I lie face up and watch the clouds float past overhead.  Occasionally I use my macbook or iPad out there but this is a place better suited to pen and paper or needle and thread than to electronic gadgets.  I am sure that to some eyes my tepee looks completely incongruous in my English Garden with a Victorian Greenhouse , herbaceous borders and formal hedges all within sight but it is another perfect place for solitude and I love it.