Day 268: Fifty birds in the hand

Obviously a low-resolution still photograph doesn't quite do it justice, but these trees were alive with sparrows making an amazing noise. It was early evening as I was leaving work yesterday. They may not sing beautifully, but what they lacked in musicianship, they made up for in numbers. I would guess at least one hundred, maybe many more.

Talking of musicianship, Exile #3 and even more so Exile #4 have always seemed to have a fairly musical ear and been able to sing in tune for the most part. So it was with some surprise that Exile #2 continued her rendition of 'Twinkle, Twinkle' earlier after Exile #4 joined in singing in a completely different key. At the end she turned.

"Mummy, we sound like when children sing" she said.

There is every possibility she did it on purpose. I'm not sure I could do that if I tried, then again maybe she's not so conditioned to (at least try to) sing in tune as I am with my choral background, or maybe children-singing-each-in-their-own-key is just as much a valid musical form for her as any other.

Another thing that the girls have been finding easier than me is a little brain-game on one of our cereal packets. It's one of those where you have to say the colour not the words (something like this):

blue green yellow red green purple

I tried it one day and Exile #3 was amused at how hard I found it and proceeded to show me how easy it is. Of course, she probably would have a go at reading the words, but it certainly isn't quite ready to mess with her head.