Mr. Owl — along with Squirrel and Mama Chipmunk, who’d volunteered to act as chaperones — had taken the school children on a field trip to the wide meadow down the street from their home garden.

There, poking up from the winter-brown grass, was an absolute carpet (dozens? hundreds?) of purple crocus.

The field trip was meant to serve as both a counting exercise for the little ones, and a complicated higher-level math exercise for the older ones, but while Mr. Owl wasn’t looking, the chipmunk and squirrel children snapped crocus blossoms off their stems, flipped them upside down, and plopped them on their heads as tall, pointy purple hats.

(February 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.