I’mve just returned to London after a fantastic stay in Nick Weston’s tree house in Sussex. Nick has turned his back on city life to build, and live in, a tree house “somewhere in Sussex”. He is living off the land whilst he writes a book about his experiences. In return for a couple of gifts I hoped that Nick would share a bit of his knowledge with me.
I was not disappointed.

I gave quite a bit of thought to what sort of gifts I would enjoy receiving when far from the madding crowd. I settled on a couple of appropriate books (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Beachcombing at Miramar), a campfire espresso maker, and a giant watermelon (I thought that was probably beyond the capabilities of even Nick’s green fingers).

In return Nick reminded me to slow my life back down, to take a moment to smell the roses (literally), and to simplify, simplify, simplify…
Here’s a 3-minute audio slideshow about what I learnt up in the tree.

(Please do follow Nick’s adventures on his blog here, or on Twitter.)