The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin: A Springtime Wind-Down

Hello creators,

Put your phone down for ten minutes and feel what happens, a short walk outside with no music, no scrolling, just fresh air and your own thoughts settling. 
It sounds small, but for busy performers and creators, that tiny gap from noise can be the difference between lying awake and actually drifting off.

Today, we ease into a nostalgic sleep story: Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. 
If you love bedtime stories for adults, relaxation audio, and practical sleep tips that don’t feel complicated, this is a gentle listen designed to calm your mind and soften you into rest. 
Subscribe for more, share with a fellow tired creative, and leave a review telling us what helps you unwind before bed.

Sweet dreams,

Florence x

Transcript

Welcome To Sleepless Creatives

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Sleepless Creatives, a sleep podcast for performers and creators just like you. I'm your host, Florence. Hello, creators, and welcome back. And

Spring Reset And A Simple Walk

SPEAKER_00 0:18

it feels like we're finally welcoming in spring, and not a moment too soon as well. I was personally getting very sick of all the storms and the freezing cold weather that we've been having here in the UK. So fingers crossed, the sunshine lasts. The blossoms are finally blossoming, the green leaves are finally coming out, the birds are singing, and it's looking really lovely outside. So, just a simple tip from me today. Make sure to get yourself outside for at least 10 minutes. Leave your headphones at home. Don't be listening to music if you can. Leave your phone at home too. You will be surprising how kind of liberating that feels. I've been doing that a lot recently with my evening walks, and it just makes everything feel so much more relaxing and like I can just take in my surroundings as well. So get yourself out of the house. Just breathe. Take in your surroundings. You're doing great, and you're going to continue to do great.

Settling In For Squirrel Nutkin

SPEAKER_00 1:15

And in today's episode, we are going to be continuing with the nostalgic collection of stories from my favorite children's author, Beatrix Potter, and we will be reading The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. So, take a moment to get cozy and comfortable and drift off. The

First Visit And The Riddle

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter. A story for Nora. This is a tale about a tale, a tale that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin. He had a brother called Twinkleberry and a great many cousins. They lived in a wood at the edge of a lake. In the middle of the lake there is an island covered with trees and nutbushes, and amongst those trees stands a hollow oak tree, which is the house of an owl who is called Old Brown. One autumn, when the nuts were ripe, and the leaves on the hazel bushes were golden and green, Nutkin and Twinkleberry and all the other little squirrels came out of the wood and down to the edge of the lake. They made little rafts out of twigs, and they paddled away over the water to Owl Island to gather nuts. Each squirrel had a little sack and a large oar, and spread out his tail for a sail. They also took with them an offering of three fat mice as a present for old Brown, and put them down upon his doorstep. Then Twinkleberry and the other little squirrels each made a low bow and said politely, Old Mr. Brown, will you favour us with permission to gather nuts upon your island? But Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners. He bobbed up and down like a little red cherry, singing, Riddle me, riddle me, rot totty. A little wee man in a red red coat, a staff in his hand and a stone in his throat. If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a groat. Now this riddle is as old as the hills. Mr. Brown paid no attention whatsoever to Nutkin. He shut his eyes obstinately and went to sleep. The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts and sailed away home in the evening. But next morning they all came back again to Owl Island, and Twinkleberry and the others brought a fine fat mole and laid it on the stone in front of Old Brown's doorway and said, Mr. Brown, will you favour us with

Gifts Offered And Nutkin Pushes

SPEAKER_00 4:10

your gracious permission to gather some more nuts? But Nutkin, who had no respect, began to dance up and down, tickling old Mr. Brown with a nettle and singing, Old Mr B, riddle me re, hitty pity within the wall, hitty pity without the wall. If you touch hitty pity, hitty pity will bite you. Mr Brown woke up suddenly and carried the mole into his house. He shut the door in Nutkin's face. Presently a little thread of blue smoke from a wood fire came up from the top of the tree, and Nutkin peeped through the keyhole and sang, A house full, a hole full, and you cannot gather a bowl full. The squirrels searched for nuts all over the island and filled their little sacks, but Nutkin gathered oak apples, yellow and scarlet, and sat upon a beech stump playing marbles and watching the door of old Mr. Brown. On the third day,

The Egg And Old Brown Snaps

SPEAKER_00 5:11

the squirrels got up very early and went fishing. They caught seven fat minnows as a present for old Brown. They paddled over the lake and landed under a crooked chestnut tree on Owl Island. Twinkleberry and six other little squirrels each carried a fat minnow, but Nutkin, who had no nice manners, brought no present at all. He ran in front, singing, The man in the wilderness said to me, How many strawberries grow in the sea? I answered him as I thought could, as many red herrings as grow in the wood. But old Mr. Brown took no interest in riddles, not even when the answer was provided for him. On the fourth day, the squirrels brought a present of six fat beetles, which were as good as plums in plum pudding for old Brown. Each beetle was wrapped up carefully in a dock leaf, fastened with a pine needle pin. But Nutkin sang as rudely as ever. M together in a shower of rain, put in a bag tied round with a string. If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a ring. Which was ridiculous of Nutkin, because he had not got any ring to give to old Brown. The other squirrels hunted up and down the nut bushes, but Nutkin gathered Robin's pincushions off a briar bush and stuck them full of pine needle pins. On the fifth day, the squirrels brought a present of wild honey. It was so sweet and sticky that they licked their fingers as they put it down upon the stone. They had stolen it out of a bumblebee's nest on the tippity top of the hill. But Nutkin skipped up and down, singing, Hum-ab-Bum, buzz buzz, humma bum buzz. As I went over Tipletine, I met a flock of bonny swine, some yellow-nacked, some yellow-backed. They were the very bonniest swine that e'er went over the Tippletine. Old Mr. Brown turned up his eyes in disgust at the impertinence of Nutkin, but he ate up the honey. The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts, but Nutkin sat upon a big fat rock and played nine pins with a crab apple and green fur cones. On the sixth day, which was Saturday, the squirrels came again for the last time. They brought a new laid egg in a little rush basket as a last parting present for old Brown. But Nutkin ran in front, laughing and shouting, Humpty Dumpty lies in the beck. With a white counterpane round his neck, forty doctors and forty rites cannot put Humpty Dumpty to rights. Now old Mr. Brown took an interest in eggs. He opened one eye and shut it again, but still he did not speak. Nutkin became more and more impertinent. Old Mr. B, old Mr. B, Hickamore Hickamore on the King's Kitchen door. All the King's horses and all the king's men couldn't drive Hickamore Hackamore off the king's kitchen door. Nutkin danced up and down like a sunbeam, but still Old Brown said nothing at all. Nutkin began again. Arthur O'Bower has broken his band. He comes roaring up the land. The King of Scots with all his power cannot turn Arthur of the Bower. Nutkin made a whirring noise to sound like the wind, and he took a running jump right into the head of Old Brown. Then all at once there was a flutterment and a scufflement and a loud squeak. The other squirrels scuttered away into the bushes. When they came back very cautiously, peeping around the tree, there was old Brown sitting on his doorstep, quite still, with his eyes closed, as if nothing had happened. But Nutkin was in his waistcoat

Escape And The Lasting Lesson

SPEAKER_00 9:14

pocket. This looks like the end of the story, but it isn't. Old Brown carried Nutkin into his house and held him up by the tail, intending to skin him, but Nutkin pulled so very hard that his tail broke in two, and he dashed up the staircase and escaped out of the attic window. And to this day, if you meet Nutkin up a tree and ask him a riddle, he will throw sticks at you and stamp his feet and scold and shout kuck ku. The end