A Tiny Secret Between The Trees

The road narrowed as I wound deeper into the hills, the landscape becoming greener, quieter and a little more wild with every turn. Now, this is my kinda scenic drive! By the time I arrived at Possum Hollow, the outside world already felt so far away. There were ferns spilling beneath the trees, mountains stretching into the distance and that unmissable scent of damp earth and eucalyptus lingering in the air. I wished I could have bottled it up and saved it for a rainy day.

This was exactly what I had come for. Two nights with nowhere to be. No plans to keep. No noise to escape from. Just me, a tiny home tucked into 100 acres of countryside and Mother Nature. I had arrived on one of those beautiful evenings when the sun still had a little warmth left in it, so before darkness settled over the valley, I set about preparing the wood fired hot tub.

The fire pit was next. With a stack of wood from the shed and dinner cooking over the flames, I sat outside watching the last light move across the mountain tops. The smoke curled almost hypnotically into the evening air and the whole place seemed to let go as the sun disappeared. And so did I. I slipped into the steaming hot tub, looked up and found myself surrounded by stars, with just a few loose clouds drifting above. I made wishes that night. Quiet ones. Wishes about love, about life and about the things I hoped might find their way to me someday, one day.

By morning, Mother Nature had done a complete backflip. The weather arrived wild and unapologetic, rain hammering against the tiny home and sweeping across the hills. My plans for bush walks were quickly abandoned. She was chaos. So I stayed inside, safe and warm in my little abode. I made pancakes, created one spectacular mess and settled into the cosiest kind of day. Mother Nature wasn’t the only one causing chaos around here.

The wild weather began to soften in the early hours of the morning, and on my final day I woke to the sound of lyrebirds singing somewhere deep within the rainforest. Their calls echoed through the trees as the first light crept across the mountains. Outside, everything was glistening. Raindrops clung to every fern, catching the morning sun and turning the forest floor into a sea of tiny diamonds. The trees looked freshly washed, the air was crisp and clean, and the mountains seemed to rise from the mist as though they were waking too.

I stood there for a while, taking it all in. I blew a kiss towards the mountains and thanked the trees loudly for their existence, just so the ones out the back could hear me. I packed up slowly and left my tiny home with muddy boots, wild hair and a full heart, the scent of earth and eucalyptus drifting through the car. There was something else lingering inside me too, like I’d just been let in on a tiny secret between the trees.

Can you keep a secret?