The giant redwood tree which towers in Haddington’s Memorial Park is approaching its 127th birthday. It was planted as a tiny sapling on June 22, 1897, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It is still a youngster, as redwoods can potentially live for up to 2,000 years.

But it’s already awe inspiring.

It was under its huge branches that I was privileged to be telling stories with artist Lynn Fraser during last weekend’s Haddstock Festival. Lynn led the children in creating their own art, while I had the job of weaving their creative ideas into a new story, a gift for this magnificent tree.

Here is the tale, and the creative youngsters, whose ideas made the story.

Once there was a lonely fox named Sniffles, who lived in Haddington. Sniffles was lonely because he had few friends, and he was hungry because he was finding it hard to find food.

You see, Sniffles was a town fox. He had been used to finding food that humans had left out in their bins. He’d always lived on bits of pizza, thrown away sausages, discarded fish and chips or burgers, that kind of thing.

But now the humans were reducing waste and recycling everything, which was good. . . but not for Sniffles.

So he decided to do what humans do; go shopping!

He didn’t have any experience in this but as he browsed on the High Street looking at the shop windows, he saw a bakery with delicious looking donuts on display.

“That’s what I fancy,” he thought to himself, licking his lips.

He walked into the shop but all the people inside screamed “a fox, a fox!” and the shopkeeper chased poor Sniffles away.

Shopping wasn’t for foxes, he realised. So he decided to do a foxy thing; go hunting!

He saw a rabbit!

“Yes, a tasty rabbit,” thought Sniffles.

He chased the rabbit, but Sniffles had eaten too much junk food in the past, so wasn’t fit enough to catch the rabbit, which escaped to its burrow.

Now Sniffles wasn’t just hungry, he was getting hangry!

But he had an idea. Since humans have hunted foxes, he decided it was time a fox hunted humans!

He crept into a house with an open door. The family were sleeping but the dad was snoring like a rhinoceros.

Sniffles didn’t understand what this noise was – it sounded like a deep growling, as if some monster was in the house.

This scared Sniffles so much he ran out the house.

“Maybe it’s not a good idea to hunt humans after all,” he thought.

By now, it was night-time, and he still hadn’t eaten all day. He was terribly hungry and feeling sad.

The town was deadly quiet because people were sleeping, and the moon shone in the night sky. Sniffles felt so alone.

So he did what he always did when he felt lonely; he sat under the arching branches of the magnificent giant redwood tree on the edge of the town.

Sniffles was a fox, so he couldn’t read the plaque that explained this tree had been planted many years ago to commemorate a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. But Sniffles did understand the tree was special and unusual.

“What am I going to do?” Sniffles asked the tree in a despairing voice.

Then he saw something dangling from one of its branches. It was sparkling in the moonlight. It wasn’t a cone. So, what was it?

He realised it was a key! A magical key!

But how to reach it? Foxes can climb trees, but the key was really high up. It was impossible to reach.

Then Sniffles saw a trampoline in a nearby garden. Yes, a trampoline is what he needed!

But how to get the trampoline from the garden to the tree?

As he was thinking about this, he saw the solution. There was a digger parked in the street left by some workmen. The key had been left in the ignition, so Sniffles turned the key and drove the digger to the garden with the trampoline.

The noise of the engine echoed in the night air and woke up a woman sleeping in a nearby house. She went to her bedroom window to see what was happening.

“What’s going on, dear?” asked her husband.

“Oh, it’s just a fox driving a digger,” she said sleepily. Then went back to bed.

Sniffled managed to get the trampoline into position under the tree.

He bounced once and smacked his head on a big branch. He bounced a second time more carefully but didn’t bounce high enough. But on the third bounce he reached the key and grabbed it.

He looked at it carefully. In the moonlight he could just make out a symbol. It was a chicken inside a coop.

“This must be a key to the chicken coop farm!”

He looked up at the tree and said, “Thank you!”

He ran to the farm and, sure enough, the key opened the door to the giant chicken coop, where hundreds of hens lived.

He rushed in, then stopped, totally startled and taken aback.

The chickens were having a party: a chicken disco fancy dress party!

“Welcome,” they said to Sniffles, “great costume!”

There was a huge buffet with all kinds of tasty snacks, including donuts!

“Help yourself,” he was told.

So he did. And after he’d eaten as much as he could, he danced the night away with his new chicken friends.

They soon realised he was a real fox but by this time they’d all got to know each other, and Sniffles wasn’t going to eat his friends!

“We have a party every night when the farmer is asleep,” they said, “you’re welcome, if you promise not to eat us.”

Sniffles promised. And he kept his promise. He was never again hungry or lonely. But the chickens always made sure they had plenty of Sniffles’ favourite buffet food at their parties, just to be safe!