Every day this week I noticed children, in school uniforms, around town, trudging down the Commons, conspiring by a well next to the castle, chatting on a bench at the star fort, to scatter when I pass them. I also spotted pairs of birds: wood pigeons, rooks, jackdaws, magpies. They fly, court, build nests. Signs of a quickening, surely, hopefully. I also spy, bemusedly, a seagull, a bit far from any seashore.





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