Birds Bathing A friend reports watching “a conflagration of birds feasting, fighting and bathing in their personal lake”. And I’m eyeing   my blackbirds, fussy frenzied delinquents flinging food scraps from the compost heap, a speckle of sparrows pecking seeds   and my ginger and white long-haired puss sleeping under the scruffy hedge. All are oblivious of a continuation of clouds   and showery spasms of rain slowly descending. Brian Turner     Advent I can’t watch the sun going down as reds and greens and yellows merge because feelings informal and formal crowd in and remind me   of…