A few days later, a small parcel arrived in the mail for Crow, with several more hand-painted postcards tucked inside.

Her second cousin had extended her stay in high-desert country, packing up her watercolors and her sketchpads before flying farther afield, where she’d discovered strikingly lovely yet infinitely strange mountain ranges, all surrounded by huge expanses of wide-open space.

Crow gathered the postcards and paid a visit to Rabbit’s tea shop, where everyone oohed and aahed at the painted depictions of massive rocky outcroppings; red-tinted, undulating mountains; snow in the high peaks; and rolling green hills, tinged with eerie sunlight.

(Early June 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.

If you’re new to Tiny Garden Story-land and would like 10 free stories from our first year, visit ReadPurrNewsletter.com.