03
Aug
2009

Treehouse Living

I’ve 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.)

Tree house living from alastair Humphreys on Vimeo.


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If you liked this post you might enjoy these too:

  1. Review of The Treehouse Diaries
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  4. Welcome Home! And what a wonderful home it is…

4 Comments

  1. OO
    Posted August 3, 2009 at 4:11 pm | Permalink

    Loved the toilet – v civilised!

  2. Thom Ghunn
    Posted August 4, 2009 at 10:06 am | Permalink

    This is a really fascinating concept. I wonder what other people think:
    - is he a bum wasting his time?
    - is it pointlessly backwards looking?
    - is it a rallying cry to us all?
    hmmm….

  3. Queenie
    Posted September 4, 2009 at 2:42 pm | Permalink

    Really interesting! Not an idea that I have come across before!!

  4. Posted January 12, 2010 at 2:19 am | Permalink

    Great post! I’m state-side but have my extended family in the UK. Next time I’m over there I definitely want to check out some of the great UK tree houses!

3 Trackbacks

  1. By Life in a tree house | Alastair Humphreys on March 23, 2010 at 9:32 am

    [...] Nick Weston left London to build a treehouse in a wood. He lived in it for six months, foraging from the land, growing vegetables, catching fish, picking mushrooms and wild herbs. This is his story, a brilliant story. I went to visit Nick in the summer. Read about my time with him here. [...]

  2. [...] Last year I became friends with Nick Weston when I went to stay with him in his treehouse. [...]

  3. By Microadventure #5: Back to Basics | Alastair Humphreys on September 12, 2011 at 9:01 am

    [...] from it all. Slowing down. I got in touch with Nick Weston who I first met a couple of years ago living in a treehouse. By chance he had been asked to write a magazine article about living as a hunter-gatherer [hence [...]

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