I had one of those perfect summer evenings last night....sitting on the grass, sipping wine, listening to an amazing orchestra play an English-themed outdoor concert.  The cicadas joined in, and for awhile all was right with the world.  When they played Percy Grainger's beautifully orchestrated arrangement of English Country Garden I pictured Queen Mary's Rose Garden in Regent's Park, where my mother and I discovered gorgeous blue delphiniums in bloom during our magical visit to London several years ago.  I was also transported back in time to the television show Captain Kangaroo, which would occasionally play this tune and show pictures of England--and one little girl and her mother dreamed of going there someday and seeing the flowers for ourselves.  Don't you love it when dreams come true?

English Country Garden

(Traditional)

How many kinds of sweet flowers grow
In an English country garden?
We'll tell you now of some that we know
Those we miss you'll surely pardon
Daffodils, heart's ease and flox
Meadowsweet and lady smocks
Gentian, lupine and tall hollihocks
Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, blue forget-me-nots
In an English country garden

How many insects come here and go
In an English country garden?
We'll tell you now of some that we know
Those we miss you'll surely pardon
Fireflies, moths, gnats and bees
Spiders climbing in the trees
Butterflies drift in the gentle breeze
There are snakes, ants that sting
And other creeping things
In an English country garden

How many songbirds fly to and fro
In an English country garden?
We'll tell you now of some that we know
Those we miss you'll surely pardon
Bobolink, cuckoo and quail
Tanager and cardinal
Bluebird, lark, thrush and nightingale
There is joy in the spring
When the birds begin to sing
In an English country garden

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