Living Simply in a Garden Shed

I spend many years dreaming of a simpler life, where time doesn't feel like it's rushing by and always just about escaping our grasp. And every day feeling like we didn't do it justice, like we didn't do all the things we set out to do. Always rushing and saying, next week I'll slow down, next month things will finally settle down, but it never happened. So eventually I realised that a slow life isn't about managing time better, it's about saying no to what doesn't serve you and choosing to walk through life unhurried. If you're new here, hi, I'm Jessica. Two years ago I left my old life behind for a simpler life in nature. I quit my job, sold most of my belongings and since then I've been slow travelling around Europe with my partner Rissi and my puppy Heidi to reconnect with nature and grow roots in the wild. Right now we're spending a few months in this tiny garden shed in my in-laws' garden while we're converting my new van that I'm going to travel in solo. There is no bathroom in this hut and only a tiny outdoor kitchen, so life is very simple here. Before I started living life at a slower pace I was worried I would find myself with a lot of time on my hands that I didn't know what to do with. But in reality, a slow life and living with less means doing things not necessarily in the fastest or most convenient way, like hand washing your laundry, writing things down instead of using countless apps to organise life, or foraging wild foods instead of a quick trip to the supermarket. A slow life for me means doing things intentionally. I recently read that medieval peasants didn't really perceive time as an entity like we do, but rather as a sequence of tasks, which meant that their thinking was less future-oriented and more focused on the present. And that sounds very peaceful to me, and in a way I'm trying to be more like a medieval peasant. This week I'm alone in the hut because the rest of the family is away, which has been a nice opportunity to go inwards and reflect, because Rissi and I haven't been apart for more than a couple of days in the last two years. And I've been thoroughly enjoying this quiet solitude. It's kind of funny how being in the same place for a few months can make you feel uprooted in its own way. I find I'm much better at sticking to routines when I'm travelling, because I have my van, and all of my things are with me. So I always feel a bit lost when I'm in a bigger space like a house or even the garden shed. I get a little more chaotic, and I don't always make the most of my days because the fields and the local woods will still be there tomorrow. But I try to welcome those feelings, because they show me that my time on the road isn't done yet, and I definitely made the right decision building out a new van. I actually managed to forage quite a bit of elderflower today, which is really exciting. I wasn't really expecting to find any because it's quite late in the season. We've had a really warm and sunny spring, so everything's come up a little bit early. So I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to infuse some oat milk with this and then make some elderflower and lemon fairy cakes. I'm making such a mess. I don't actually have a means of baking these here, so I'm going to bring them up to the house and then pick them up again later. I just recovered from a long week of illness, so I'm a little bit behind on the van building work, but we're still hoping to finish the conversion by the end of the month. So I've been chipping away at it a little bit every day while I'm regaining my strength. At the moment, I'm processing a lot of reclaimed pallet wood, which we're using for pretty much the whole build, from the walls to the ceiling and the furniture to keep the project as sustainable as possible. Thank you so much for watching. This video was a little bit different from usual, but I hope you still enjoyed it. This episode was made possible by the support of my wonderful patrons and channel members, and if you want to support me in making more videos, head to the link in the description. Take good care of yourselves, and we'll see you next time. Bye!