Where Have all (flowers) Seed Pods Gone:

This song was written by Pete Seeger in 1955 it was the first thought that came to mind this morning when i saw these empty Banksia Cone pods at the top of the tree, which led me into google when i returned home to look at the words of the song, then the words led me onto this young mans story his name is Aly Renwick, below is what he wrote. I found it very interesting:

     I first heard this song during Easter in 1968 (on the CND Aldermaston march while still a soldier) and the crowds of people on the march were singing Where Have All The Flowers Gone? Five months later, after a short period of service in Northern Ireland, I bought myself out of the army. After my discharge I went to London to live, so I could help to organise the anti-Vietnam War protests and again this song was often sung on these demonstrations. After the song became such a powerful voice for peace Pete Seeger described how he came to write Where Have All The Flowers Gone ? –  “I had been reading a long novel called  “And Quiet Flows the Don” about the Don River in Russia and the Cossacks who lived along it in the 19th century. It describes the Cossack soldiers galloping off to join the Czar’s army, singing as they go. Three lines from a song are quoted in the book: ‘Where are the flowers? The girls plucked them / Where are the girls? They’re all married / Where are the men? They’re all in the army.’ I never got around to looking up the song, but I wrote down those three lines. Later, in an airplane, I was dozing, and it occurred to me that the line ‘long time passing’ which I had also written in a notebook would sing well. Then I thought, ‘When will we ever learn.’ Suddenly, within 20 minutes, I had a song. There were just three verses. I Scotch-taped the song to a microphone and sang it at Oberlin College. This was in 1955.”
Aly Renwick served with the British Army in Thailand during the Vietnam War, he is a member of VFP UK.
With leads me to on to the next Question "when will they (the  politicians) ever learn" clearly not any time soon..