FOR most people, the garage is filled with junk, half-empty paint cans, tools and bits of left-over carpet - but for music teacher Pippa James, it is a children's theatre.

Every summer holiday for the last eight years, her car has been put out on the street to make way for a stage complete with lighting and scenery.

But the curtains will close on The Buttonhole Theatre for the final time this year as Pippa prepares to pack up and move to Devon with her partner Michael Stickland, 61.

The 63-year-old, who travels all over the county teaching music to nursery school children, started the theatre at her home at High Green, Severn Stoke, with her friend Jayne Bowers, also a teacher.

"I couldn't do it without Jayne. We have been doing this together for so long that we know how each other thinks and can just bounce ideas off one another," she said.

Children aged five to 10 spend a week rehearsing to put on a musical extravaganza for their family and friends on the last day.

"The children are fantastic, they work really hard - it is difficult learning all the songs, the dances and their lines in just one week.

"But we have a really happy time with lots of laughter and lots of music," Pippa said.

This year, 16 children are taking part in the production, which is the story of The Owl and the Pussycat.

With the audience seated on Pippa's drive, they are hoping for good weather for the performance at 3.15pm on Friday.

"We just have to keep praying for sunshine - we have never had a year when we have been rained off," she said.

And this year the performance will be a real family affair for the mum-of-four - Michael is doing the lighting, her daughter, Samantha Salisbury, 40, is helping with the make-up and her five-year-old granddaughter Daisy is in the cast.

While Pippa has enjoyed her eight-year run at The Buttonhole Theatre, she has no plans to turn the garage of her new home into a stage.

This has been unique and it wouldn't quite be the same doing it anywhere else," she said.