International Literacy Day has us thinking about the role reading has played in our lives, and in the making of the Hazelnut Inn.

We’ve always loved the way a little bit of ink can take you to another world. Fantasy novels, the journals of explorers, and the stories we kept tucked under our pillows as children have all shaped our imaginations

And our love of reading found its way into the Hazelnut Inn, too. The Under Hill Suite exists because Tolkien once described the comfort of a cozy burrow so vividly we could almost smell the cool earth. The North Star grew from the smudged maps we found at the front of our old adventure novels. And the Copper Crown was shaped by the stories that taught us that courage can prevail even in the face of dragons.

So, wherever you are today, take a little time to pick up a book — a story you’ve been meaning to read, a poem you love, or perhaps something that takes you somewhere entirely new.

And, to all the late-night page-turners out there: Happy International Literacy Day!

Today is Beatrix Potter’s birthday.

Best known for her beloved “little books,” Potter was also a naturalist and a passionate advocate for the preservation of England’s Lake District — a landscape that inspired much of her work.

Her stories were also an inspiration for our Under Hill Suite. Beneath the soil, twisting tree roots, bespoke hand-painted wallpaper, and woodland-inspired details create a space that feels like stepping into a little world of its own. A little whimsical, a little hidden, and made for slowing down and looking a little closer — much like Potter’s stories themselves.

Happy Beatrix Potter Day!

Last week we posted a short video of our Under Hill Suite online, expecting it to settle quietly among the millions of other things people see in a day. Instead, it seems the internet had other plans. Late at night, the video was watched for the one-millionth time.

A million is a strange number. We don’t know how many individual people watched it, or how many came back for another look. We only know that, at some point, a little video of our room under the hill crossed that remarkable number.

And that feels a little magical.

The Under Hill Suite took months to build. We bent steel into the shapes of roots, worked concrete by hand, scraped quite a lot of it from beneath our fingernails, and spent an unreasonable amount of time deciding exactly what colour “dirt” should be. It was built slowly, carefully, and entirely by hand.

So to watch something that took months to make travel around the world in seconds is a strange and lovely thing. There were shares and tags, and plenty of comments, including one that made us laugh: “Adults only?… GLORIOUS!!!”

To everyone who watched, shared, tagged a friend, or simply paused for a moment to peek under the hill — thank you. We’re very glad our little room found its way to you.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to go polish a tiny green stove.