At the dusky tail end of a windy fall day, Rabbit closed the tea shop, picked up her basket, and went outside.

Surrounded by showers of leaves, she set to work gathering herbs to dry from the rafters, ingredients for teas and potions, and a few oddly-out-of-season flowers to add color to a fresh batch of candles: oregano, scented geranium, mint, sage, basil, witch-hazel blossoms, purple violets, rudbeckia seed heads, lavender.

And while gathering items from the Gardener’s fading collection of potted plants, she couldn’t resist adding the last of the tomatoes to her basket as well, for her supper.

(Early November 2024)

Story © Jennifer McClain Singleton / Read+Purr

This is another vignette in my ongoing series of Tiny Garden Stories: peaceful 1-minute tales that let you read like a kid again. Click one of the first two buttons below to go to (or back to, if that’s where you fell down the rabbit hole) either the “Public Garden” archive page or (if you’re a Story Club member) to the members-only “Private Garden” page. Or click the third button to learn more about my Tiny Garden Stories.

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