A Selection Blog for Christmas Day -- Susan Price
Monet: The Magpie : Wikipedia A lonely, peaceful magpie... Best kind. Earlier this month, a gang of rowdy magpies had a right old ruckus with some crows in my garden. I was reading in a back room, but the noise was so loud and so persistent, I went into the garden to find out what on earth was going on. Magpies and crows, chasing each other round the trees and chimney-pots. Screeching. Cawing. Croaking. Flying at each other. You never heard such a racket. Not much Peace and Good Will there. And just yesterday, in a supermarket carpark, I saw two magpies chivvying a rat. You can't live for 'em. Let's change to quieter and more contemplative creatures... c THE OXEN Thomas Hardy Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. “Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease. We pictured the mild creatures where They dwelt in their strawy pen. Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt t...