Nipples and dimes

In the background of my mind are the things my mother taught me and this shows through now and then in poems that I write:- Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye. Four and twenty blackbirds, Baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing; Wasn't that a dainty dish, To set before the king? The king was in his counting house, Counting out his money; The queen was in the parlour, Eating bread and honey. The maid was in the garden, Hanging out the clothes; When down came a blackbird And pecked off her nose Lots more on the net about it but this little bit was fun to think of:- "That the blackbirds are the choirs of the 'dainty dish' of the monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII and that Katherine of Aragon is the queen and Anne Boleyn is the maid." "An Italian cookbook from 1549 (translated into English in 1598) contained such a recipe: "to make pies so that birds may be alive in them and flie out when it is cut up" and this was referred to in a cook book of 1725 by John Nott. " Thank you my Lord and my League and my Lady Jayne. As to adopting me, well that's okay with me! I am old enough to have been a grandmother, but tant pis! Love to all Ann, ok Margaret Ann.