26 FEBRUARY 1994, Page 38

Early, Late

Hopscotch through the maze of boughs long-tailed tits jink and flicker, calling to each other like girls on an outing, the flirty streamers of their tails preened for fiesta.

Provocative, slender, their voices wink incessant as knitting needles. I think of old women purling away in upstairs windows, watching youth's blind-flying zest --- old women, who have the pattern by heart.

Geoffrey Holloway