The summer sky was hazy with distant wildfire smoke, making the weather unseasonably cool and rainy, and everyone craved hot tea.

Rabbit’s shop had been full every day for at least the past week, and Raccoon’s kitchen was a frenzied mess of spilled flour, sugar grit and butter smears on the counter, and jumbled piles of spice jars, as she kept up with demand for scones and lemon bars and herb-studded shortbread cookies.

But, she declared to no one in particular, she would clean up later. Right now, she needed to work on this batch of strawberry cupcakes. Squirrel was on his way over, any minute, with a satchel full of strawberries she’d asked him to (discreetly) steal from the potted strawberry plants on the cottage porch, which had recently borne slightly-out-of-season fruit.

(July 2023)

Story & Photo © Jennifer Singleton / Read+Purr

This is another vignette in my ongoing series of Tiny Garden Stories: peaceful 1-minute tales, full of cozy vibes, delicious details, and generous dollops of imagination & whimsy. 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 Private Garden page. Or click the third button to learn more about my Tiny Garden Stories. Want each week’s featured story delivered directly to your inbox? Subscribe to my Substack.