Had an interesting experience late this afternoon. There I was, playing the piano to accompany one of my granddaughters who plays the violin. Mr Penry was out in the garden birdwatching and the door to the house was open. He said that while we were playing a beautiful blackbird settled nearby in the hedge, and clearly was taking an interest in the music. Towards the end of the piece he began to sing, and it was as though he (it was a male blackbird, all glossy black feathers and golden beak) began to sing too, as though imitating what he could hear.

This is not as strange as it seems. A few years back, we had a couple of blackbirds that used to sing the opening bars to the Addams Family theme tune. Other people in different parts of the country noticed this around the same time and a letter to this effect was actually published in the Times (but not my letter, alas.)

Are blackbirds copying us? Do they have musical preferences? Are they watching Sky?

Sorry I've not been around commenting much in the last day or so - I'm trying to catch up with my writing, yes, but also the Blogsite has been incredibly slow and I've been finding it sometimes difficult to get pages to load. I don't think it's the internet in general because other sites seem to load quite well.

Anyway, I am up to my eyes in the sanctity of plants at the moment. This wasn't a chapter I originally intended to write, but when I collected my research together I found there was quite a lot on this aspect and it would be a shame to leave it out. After that I might finally get to write about the mandrake!