{"id":2919,"date":"2026-05-21T07:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/kazka\/soroka-v-sadu\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T07:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:20:50","slug":"soroka-v-sadu","status":"publish","type":"kazka","link":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/kazka\/soroka-v-sadu\/","title":{"rendered":"Magpie in the garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

A magpie named Strekotuhka was a cheerful bird. She jumped on the branches, chattered with everyone, loved shiny things. Her nest was in an old apple tree in the village. Everything was going well. Until last fall - she fell. Unluckily. She broke her wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was treated all summer. But it grew back crookedly. She could hardly fly \u2014 only briefly, low, limping in the air. The other magpies flew away to warmer climes. The little bird remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winter came. The garden became empty. It was cold. The thrush hid in the hollow of an old apple tree. It slept there, its feathers bristling. But the frost was piercing through. Its paws froze. Its beak could barely open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a storm before Christmas Eve. The little bird felt that one more night like this would not wake her up. Then she did something she had never done before: she jumped closer to the human house. There was a dog in the yard. But the dog was sitting on a chain far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The window of one of the houses was slightly open - for fresh air. A little bird jumped up and jumped inside. The house is warm. It smells like borscht. A woman is kneading dough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman turned around. She saw a magpie on the windowsill. She shuddered. \u00abOh! A magpie in the house is a bad sign, they say.\u00bb She wanted to scare it away, to drive it away. She picked up the towel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u0421\u043e\u0440\u043e\u043a\u0430<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But suddenly, something whispered behind her shoulders. Quietly, gently. As if Saint Nicholas himself had breathed. "Don't chase her away. Today is Christmas Eve. She's also God's little animal.".<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman lowered the towel. She came closer. She looked at the magpie \u2014 wet, with a crooked wing, her eyes frightened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

"You're poor. You can't fly. You're freezing. But where can I drive you at night?"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She carefully took a warm piece of old cloth. Wrapped the magpie in it. She placed it on a bench near the stove\u2014it was warm there, but not hot. She gave it a piece of a pancake soaked in milk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The little bird couldn't believe it. At first she shivered. Then she started to peck at the bread. Then she warmed up. She started to chatter softly - as if she was saying thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman listened and cried. She didn't know why\u2014suddenly tears flowed. Maybe it was because on Christmas Eve, like this\u2014both the man and the bird found each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All winter, the little bird lived in a corner by the stove. The woman carefully bandaged her wing - every day. The man sneered - "Well, now we have three children and one magpie." And he fed her nuts himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By spring, the wing had grown back evenly. The magpie began to try \u2014 now it would jump onto the bench, now onto the table. One day in March, when the sun was already warming up, the woman opened the window. The magpie flew up to the windowsill. It looked. It looked at the woman. And flew away. Straight into the blue sky. Like a real magpie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman stood, looking after her. Suddenly she noticed a magpie circling in the apple tree branches. It came down. It was holding something shiny in its beak. It threw it right into the woman's hand. A small gold earring\u2014the same one the woman had lost in the summer and never expected to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman smiled. She raised her eyes to the sky. And whispered softly: \u00abThank you, Uncle Nikolai. I really heard your whisper then. And you knew that the Magpie would also bring me a gift.\u00bb And the magpie was already flying far, far away \u2014 into the spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n

\ud83d\udc9b Sometimes we save someone - and we don't know who we're actually saving.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A magpie broke its wing in the fall. It's winter. It can't fly, it's freezing under a tree. It's looking for warmth. It finds an open window in a human house. The woman wants to drive it away, but Saint Nicholas whispers in her ear.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":3034,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","rank_math_description":"\u0422\u0435\u043f\u043b\u0430 \u043a\u0430\u0437\u043a\u0430 \u043f\u0440\u043e \u0441\u043e\u0440\u043e\u043a\u0443 \u0437\u0456 \u0437\u043b\u0430\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0438\u043c \u043a\u0440\u0438\u043b\u043e\u043c, \u0449\u043e \u0448\u0443\u043a\u0430\u0454 \u043f\u0440\u0438\u0445\u0438\u0441\u0442\u043a\u0443 \u0437\u0438\u043c\u043e\u044e. \u0421\u0432\u044f\u0442\u0438\u0439 \u041c\u0438\u043a\u043e\u043b\u0430\u0439 \u0443\u0447\u0438\u0442\u044c \u0436\u0456\u043d\u043a\u0443 \u0437\u0440\u043e\u0431\u0438\u0442\u0438 \u043c\u0430\u043b\u0435\u043d\u044c\u043a\u0443 \u0432\u0435\u043b\u0438\u043a\u0443 \u0441\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u0443.","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":"","footnotes":""},"kategoriya":[],"vik":[],"zhanr":[],"class_list":["post-2919","kazka","type-kazka","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"emoji":"\ud83d\udc26","moral":"\u0406\u043d\u043e\u0434\u0456 \u043c\u0438 \u0440\u044f\u0442\u0443\u0454\u043c\u043e \u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e\u0441\u044c \u2014 \u0456 \u043d\u0435 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u0454\u043c\u043e, \u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e \u043d\u0430\u0441\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u0434\u0456 \u0440\u044f\u0442\u0443\u0454\u043c\u043e.","image_1_prompt":"warm watercolor children book illustration, injured black and white magpie with bent wing standing in snow under bare tree branches, looking cold and weak, ukrainian village house visible in distance with warm glowing window, melancholic tender mood, soft pastel colors, painterly, no text, no letters, no words","image_2_url":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/soroka-v-sadu-2.jpg","image_2_prompt":"warm watercolor children book illustration, kind woman in headscarf gently wrapping injured magpie in soft cloth inside warm cottage kitchen, Saint Nicholas as Orthodox bishop in flowing white and gold liturgical vestments with tall golden mitre church hat and ornate bishop's staff (posokh), long white beard, kind face, NOT Santa Claus, NO red Santa suit, NO white fur trim, NO Santa hat, softly visible at window outside in snowy night watching with smile, peaceful magical winter atmosphere, soft pastel, painterly, no text, no letters, no words"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kazka\/2919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kazka"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kazka"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kazka\/2919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3035,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kazka\/2919\/revisions\/3035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategoriya","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategoriya?post=2919"},{"taxonomy":"vik","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vik?post=2919"},{"taxonomy":"zhanr","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/zhanr?post=2919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}