Misalliance

It’s been too hot today to do any gardening, but when I went out this evening to water a few special plants I noticed that the honeysuckle, which grows up the trellis against our fence, is coming out nicely. Unfortunately, I can also spy the emerging corkscrews of bindweed tendrils which fight their way up with determination every year through the soil below it.

And, of course, I couldn’t help thinking of the Flanders & Swann song, "Misalliance", from their album "At the Drop of a Hat", the first verse of which I have quoted below. The written words don’t really do the song justice; I think it has to be heard to be properly enjoyed. "At the Drop of a Hat" was one of my father's favourite LPs, and he often played it on the record player when I was young.

"The fragrant honeysuckle spirals clockwise to the sun,
and many other creepers do the same.
But some climb anti-clockwise, the bindweed does, for one,
Or Convolvulus, to give her proper name."

Flanders & Swann