One day when I was living in the magical city of Oxford, England, I awoke to find a magpie sitting on my windowsill. The room in which I lived was very small office room in #4 Banbury Road. Literally, they converted an office into a bedroom for me. It had just enough room for a bed, a desk, and a small nightstand. However, it had floor to ceiling shelves all along one side so there was plenty of room for my stuff and books. It had delightfully high ceilings and a wonderfully large window overlooking the back gardens behind Wycliffe Hall. We had been having cool evenings and warm Spring days so I had left my window open about 6 inches or so, to let in the fresh air.
Well, that morning I hear a loud 'squak' from the INSIDE windowsill. All I could think about was how frightening and icky it would be to have a very large magpie fly about my room. (It reminded me of George MacDonald's 'Lilith.') So I sat up very slowly and said in a rather pathetic morning voice, "Oh, please fly away." Well, he cocked his head to one side as if to say that I was being very rude for asking him to leave so abruptly... without tea or anything. One more 'squak' and out he went.
That was only a moment in a million on moments worth sharing from my adventures in Oxford. I'll see if I can't share more of them.
