Good afternoon everyone,

Thank you to all who shared with me their favourite women of the steppes following last week's Fem Fri. I now have enough #content to do an entire other newsletter on that topic and you better believe I already have the subject line written.

Moving on to this week, though, there are lots of trees outside of my home and one of the chief joys in this is watching all of the birds who hang out in the trees. Of the many flighty friends I have, let's take today to recognise the noisy iridescent wonder that is the magpie.

We're going to start with an explanation of what sort of magpie I mean, because you might be thinking, why are these horrible birds getting a Fem Fri? I mean the left column magpies, thank you Elodie Glass for the clarification:

https://twitter.com/felicityinkpen/status/699610506701705216

Did you know also that magpies are associated with love in China? Here's a delightful story from Chinese mythology about magpies helping a woman by making a bridge across a river to her husband and family. It's based on the stars you might know as Vega and Altair:

Niulang (牛郎, Altair) and his two children (β Aquilae and γ Aquilae) are separated from their mother Zhinü (織女, Vega) who is on the far side of the river, the Milky Way. However, one day per year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, magpies make a bridge so that Niulang and Zhinü can be together again for a brief encounter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega#Etymology_and_cultural_significance

It's not only fictional women that magpies help, though. Here's a story about Sam Bloom, who following a spinal injury rescued a baby magpie who subsequently became a friend – if a pecky little friend – to the whole family:

"She was pretty much on my lap or on my shoulder from the moment we brought her home. She was just company and she'd make us laugh. […] I would talk to her, I'd whinge, tell her how I was. I don't think Cam wanted to hear it any more. Penguin knows it all."

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37519032

Do you have a favourite magpie or magpie story? Please let me know if you do. I really like them.

Alex xx.