Falling in Love Again

I am the most unmusical of men but lyrics from years past come regularly into my head and are parroted, most likely in an inaccurate form, all day long. This dreadfully annoys my poor wife and would annoy our youngest son all the more were he at home for both are sticklers for accuracy in such matters while I am more given to free and creative quotation so that a line from one song can lead quite naturally, in my mind, to a line in another while the tune might well belong to another. It is a kind of free association, I suppose, though those others of the household reckon it is a sure sign of a degenerating mind and declining faculties. To me it is of the same order of the happiness experienced by a child rattling off nonsense rhymes and general prattling. One is never too old to be childishly happy.

It was a similar piece of lateral thinking and odd connections, skeow-ways thinking, that brought me to the sound of Marlene Dietrich singing “Falling in Love Again”. It was something far from Marlene Dietrich -though there is a sense of “moths around a flame” – that threw the words into my mind. Over the last few weeks I have been charmed by a flower in the garden, one planted only last year and flowering for its first time this autumn.

Colchicum speciosum  ‘Rubrum’

First flower to pen

And then there were two!

And, finally three!

It is a colchicum, often incorrectly called “autumn crocus” though they are not crocus at all. I have had other colchicums in the garden for many years but this one has a wonderfully rich colour which appealed to me very much. It is a rich deep pink, a ruddy red, a luscious claret, absolutely divine and I have enjoyed it over the last few weeks as the three flowers which came from the bulb opened in succession and have photographed it with each progression and with each change of light in an attempt to capture its beauty.

I say, “Falling in Love Again” as colchicums have caught my attention this last year or so and I have bought half a dozen different cultivars and planted them in the garden. It is good to fall in love with a plant, a new plant, for it sparks and rekindles the interest and enjoyment in gardening. They are reasonably priced and good-value bulbs as they last for many years and then flower at a time of year when most else has gone past its best. Why wouldn’t one fall in love with them!

I particularly liked the colour of the colchicum against the foliage of this miniature Gingo – Gingko ‘Troll’

It has been a pleasure and then…this morning all three blooms were flattened to the ground. I didn’t witness the destruction but Mary did. As she entered the kitchen this morning the hen pheasant which had roosted in the overhead tree, Magnolia stellate, must have expected her breakfast was about to be served and dropped down directly onto the colchicum flowers. A pity!

The Eagle…well, actually, the pheasant has landed!

However, they can be admired indoors for the next few days and we can look forward to seeing them again in the garden next year.

And now, indoors, to be enjoyed for a few days more.

 

And, finally, for fans of Marlene Dietrich, the lyrics of “Falling in Love Again” and you can imagine me going around the garden today singing it.

Listen to Marlene Dietrich on You Tube and sing along:

Falling in love again

Never wanted to

What am I to do?

Can’t help it

Love’s always been my game

Play it how I may

I was made that way

Can’t help it

Men cluster to me like moths around a flame

And if their wings burn, I know I’m not to blame

Falling in love again

Never wanted to

What am I to do?

Can’t help it

Fallin’ in love again

Never wanted to

What am I to do?

Can’t help it

Love’s always been my game

Play it how I may

I was made that way

Can’t help it

Men cluster to me like moths around a flame

And if…