Day One Nuala, Thank you very much for lovely present of a partridge in a pear-tree We're the hang of feeding the partridge now, Although it was difficult at first to win its It bit the mother badly on the hand But they're good friends now and we're keeping the pear-tree indoors in a you again Yours affectionately, Gobnait
Day Two Nuala, I cannot tell you how we were to hear from you so soon again and to receive your lovely present of two turtle doves You are too kind At first the partridge was jealous And of the doves and they had a terrible row the night the doves arrived We had to send for the vet but the birds are again And the stitches are due to some out in a or two The vet's bill was 8 but the mother is over her now And the doves and the partridge are watching the telly the pear-tree as I write Yours ever, Gobnait
Day Nuala, We must be foremost in your I had only posted my when the three French hens arrived There was another between the hens and the doves, Who sided with the partridge, and the vet had to be for again The mother was raging because the bill was 16 this But she has almost cooled However, the fact that the birds' droppings keep down On her hair whilen she's watching the telly, help matters Thanking you for your I remain, your
Day Nuala, You mustn't have received my last letter when you were sending us the four calling birds There was pandemonium in the pear-tree again last and the vet's bill was 32 The mother is on sedation as I I know you meant no and remain your close friend
Day Nuala, Your generosity knows no Five gold rings! When the parcel arrived I was scared stiff it might be more birds, because the smell in the living-room is atrocious However, I don't want to ungrateful for the beautiful rings Your friend, Gobnait
Day Six Nuala, What are you trying to do to us? It that we don't appreciate your generosity But the six geese have not alone nearly murdered the birds But they laid their eggs on top of the head the pear-tree and his bill was 68 in cash! My mother is munching 60 of Valium a day And to herself in a most alarming way You must keep feelings for me in check
Day Nuala, We are not amused by your joke swans-a-swimming is a most romantic idea but not in the bath of a private house We cannot use the bathroom now they've gone completely savage And rush the door every time we try to If things go on this way, the mother and I will smell as bad as the carpet Please lay off It is not fair
Day Nuala, Who the hell do you think you the right to send eight, Hefty here, to eat us out of house and home? Their cattle are all over the front And have trampled the hell out of the mother's The swans invaded the in a sneak attack And the battle between them and the calling birds, doves, French hens and partridge make the battle Of the Somme seem Wanderly Wagon The mother is on a bottle of whiskey a day, as well as the sixty of Valium I'm very with you
Day you looser! There's enough pandemonium in this place night and day nine drummers drumming, while the eight flaming maids-a-milking are beating my poor, old alcoholic mother out of her own kitchen and gobbling everything in sight I'm warning you, you're an enemy of me
Day Ten manure-face, I hope you'll be haunted by the of ten pipers piping you sent to torment us last night They were in their evil work by those maniac drummers And it wasn't a sight to look out the window And see eight maids-a-milking pogo-ing around with the ensuing punk-rock uproar My mother has just her third bottle of whiskey, On top of a hundred and twenty four grains of get yours! Gobnait
Day You have scandalized my mother, you Jezebel, It was bad enough to have eight maids-a-milking dancing to punk music on the front but they've now been joined by your friends the eleven Lords-a-leaping And the antics of the whole lot of them would The decadent days of the Roman Empire looking like Outlook get you yet, you loud bag!
Day slurry head, You have ruined our The maidens dancing turned up last night And beat the living daylights out of the maids-a-milking, 'Cause they found them carrying on with the eleven Meanwhile, the got out of the living-room, they'd been hiding since the big battle, And savaged out of the Lords and all the Maids There were eight ambulances here last night, and the Civil Defence as well The is in a home for the bewildered And I'm sitting here, up to my in birds' droppings, empty whiskey And Valium bottles, birds' and feathers, While the flaming cows eat the leaves off the I'm a man.