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We Tend Our Gardens

from Faerie Fire Dances by Marc Block

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We Tend Our Gardens Words by Marc Block, music Trad. (A Fair Maid Walking, Roud 264).

I got the tune for this from an early Roy Bailey recording, which I was listening to while driving to Stansted on my way to France for my Mum’s funeral. I found myself singing about images I had from the day she died, and by the time I got to the airport, the whole song had appeared. I sang it unaccompanied at the funeral.

lyrics

We tend our gardens all in the springtime
We gather flowers when summer comes
We then set store when the autumn leaves fall
We fuel the fire in the winter cold

When bitter bread and cheese was on the hedgerows
And word came through, I made my way home
A fine white swan flew out from the morning mist
Across my path flew then there a crow

As I was grieving my mother, gone that day
I took the swan for her soul in flight
I took that crow for the sadness in my heart
And I took hawthorn my hope to be

For as the swan soars into the morning light
And as the crow flies from tree to tree
So do fly parted souls to light and love
And sadness comes and sadness goes

And as the hawthorn it bitter may be now
Its spines as sharp as the briar and rose
It surely blossoms when May we welcome in
And hope remains and joy returns

So turns the circle around and round again
And life goes on and we do our best
We raise our glasses and drink to health and life
And we break bread with the ones we love

We sing the seasons around and round again
We mindful are that the time is now
When we take heed of the wheeling moon and sun
Well we take care of all we love

credits

from Faerie Fire Dances, released October 28, 2020
Bouzouki: Marc.
Fiddle, backing vocals: Sarah Matthews.
Melodeon, backing vocals: Doug Eunson.
Bass: Tom A Wright.

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Marc Block Nottingham, UK

"one of the most exciting singers I've heard in a long, long time" - Mike Harding

“The joy in the singing is totally what I need right now” – Peggy Seeger

"Really good stuff" - Mark Radcliffe, BBC R2 ... more

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