The Ladies' Tea Guild

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

The Honeysuckle and the Bee

Orange honeysuckle, by Walter
Siegmund, Creative Commons 3.0
So many flowers are blooming, even in this unusual heat!

 I found a really cute Ragtime song called "The Honeysuckle and the Bee" from 1911 or so, on YouTube, that I think more people should hear.  Julie Andrews sang it in the 1970s, but the most historically-accurate modern rendition I've heard is this one, from Patricia Hammond:



Enjoy!







Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
-- William Cowper (1731-1800)
"The Winter Evening" (Book Four), _The Task_ (1784)