About Dan’s Tickleshed

Established 1974 (the year Dan arrived & the world quietly shifted)

Some people are born into their stories. Dan wandered into his.

Born in 1974, in a small corner of a big world, Dan was the sort of child who listened to objects as if they had something to say. He grew up gently — the kind of boy who’d straighten a crooked picture frame without being asked, who’d pat a wooden banister as he passed, who always seemed faintly dusted with flour even when no bread was baking. He did not yet know this softness was magic. But the world did.

The Arrival of the Feather (1987)

When Dan was thirteen, a strange winter storm drifted through town — a storm that didn’t so much fall as swirl thoughtfully. In the middle of that hush, a feather descended. Soft. Luminous. Curious.

It landed in Dan’s open palm as though it had finally found the person it had been searching for.

From that day on, things inside the shed behind Dan’s house began to wake.

Bread rose with more enthusiasm.

Tools developed shy opinions.

Objects giggled when tickled.

And the shed — a simple wooden structure with no expectations for its future — began to hum with warmth.

This was the moment the shed became the Tickleshed.

Who Dan Became

Today, Dan is a man shaped by patience, smoke, flour, and stories.

He is:

• A master of sourdough and slow-smoked meats
• A reader of The Wheel of Time
• A husband to Cathy
• A father to Tony
• Cousin to Carl (who appears in unexpected places)
• A keeper of the magical feather
• A tickler of inanimate objects, indoors and out
• A believer in the small, invisible tenderness of the world

Objects still respond to him the way flowers lean toward sunlight.

What the Tickleshed Is Now

Part workshop, part bakery, part quiet sanctuary, the Tickleshed is a place where:

• Dough sighs happily
• Cleavers hum low, confident notes
• Smokers exhale with purpose
• Feathers glow faintly on the shelf
• And everyday things feel a little more alive

It is not a place of grand magic.

It is a place of gentle, unhurried wonder.

Why Dan Tickles Things

Because the world is easier to understand when you treat it with softness. Because objects remember kindness. Because laughter — especially the quiet, unexpected kind — helps dough rise and days feel lighter.

What You’ll Find on This Site

Stories about tickling objects.

Poems about odd tenderness.

Photos that capture the quiet personality of things.

Recipes that carry the warmth of flour-dusted afternoons.

And the ongoing tale of a man who lives gently in a slightly magical world.

Welcome to Dan’s Tickleshed.

A place where the ordinary giggles, the magical hums, and bread is always rising somewhere in the background.