What is is about magpies? Three of my friends – all from various bits of Yorkshire, which may or may not be a coincidence – behave very oddly when they see one. One of them asks where its wife is, one asks after the health of its wife and children, and the third forks his fingers and spits between them as if warding off the evil eye. In all other ways this third one is possibly one of the most gentlemanly people I know, but when a magpie is foolish enough to come into his field of vision he gets all medieval.

It’s only solo magpies, apparently: more than one is absolutely fine. Jill even knows the numbers after seven in the one-for-sorrow, two-for-joy rhyme – it gets a bit post-watershed from eight onwards, it turns out. There’s more information here about it all, anyway, and it turns out some places even consider them to be lucky. In Sussex if a magpie sits on your roof it means your house won’t fall down, which I would find quite reassuring.

“There are many rhymes about magpies, but none of them is very reliable because they are not the ones that the magpies know themselves.

Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

You may wonder why magpies are on my mind this week. Previously I have waxed lyrical on how entertaining I find the baby magpies in the garden, as they’re scrappy and scruffy and play like children. I have felt sorry for the mama magpie, who comes and sits on next door’s roof for a bit of peace. There’s a nest at the end of the garden, so they’re a constant presence.

However, I do not love them quite as much as I did, as this year’s brood have taken to sitting on the guttering above our bedroom window at dawn every morning and starting their day with a noisy discussion about whatever it is magpies feel the need to debate at that hour of the day. I would go so far as to say that these six would be very unlucky indeed*, if I was able to fly.

(*not really, as long as they shut up.)

Things making me happy this week:

• Still crocheting octopuses, although I did branch out into a hyperbolic coral thing
• Baby horses spotted on my walk yesterday
• A field full of hares on an early morning wander
• Still my new job
• Strawberries from the garden
• The garden full of kids, grandkids, dogs, Timeshare Teenagers, and various extras, and my Beloved is in charge of the barbecue.

And on that note, I’ve done my walking for the weekend and there’s a bottle of Rattler with my name on it in the fridge.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Two for the Lions/One Virgin Too Many/Ode to a Banker – Lindsey Davies

That Mitchell and Webb Sound S1-5 (Audible)

Exploring The New River – Michael Essex-Lopresti