The young artist Frances Jennings became a semi-invalid and was advised by her doctor to spend as much time as possible in the outdoors. Being a Victorian lady at loose ends she chose to take to the road.Her simple rig and good spirits served her well.
Frances was one of many enlightened souls who've found through the ages that the way to happiness is through simplicity.
Her delightful story appeared here on Paleotool's wonderful blog recently.
I build immense fires she said.
That constitutes a great happiness for me.
I have a kettle-hook and a hanging pot and
I buy food in the villages.
At the farms I find a plentiful supply of milk, fruit, honey, nuts and fresh vegetables.
I build the fire by the cart with the donkey
near at hand.
She admitted though, her Walden experience
was not always easy.
I find great excitement in the winter in hearing the storms raging about me in the black of the night but it's by the skin of my teeth
that I'm able to exist.
But sit by her fire she did and dreamed also...
A secluded little cabin in the woods brings to mind Henry David Thoreau living freely as he did in Walden, without society's bureaucratic restrictions.
