City centre, before sunrise.

This is what I wake up to these days, at 4.40 am, mind you. A carpet of complete silence strewn with a dozen different melodies. I can't tell them all apart, but there's always at least one blackbird among them, sitting right above my head on our television antenna. Shortly after that the first car doors are slammed, engines started up. But for those 10 minutes or so, the city belongs to the birds alone.