Queen’s Platinum Jubilee #BriFri
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Last week, I reviewed the 17th novel in the Maisie Dobbs series: A Sunlit Weapon. Tina reviewed books 8 and 10 in the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves — she liked one more than the other. Anne shared the story of her British ancestor, Lady Smiley, including many vintage photographs published in the society pages of periodicals.
I enjoyed catching glimpses of the four-day Platinum Jubilee weekend last Thursday through Sunday to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 70th year on the throne. Unfortunately, the Queen missed many of the events that she was expected to attend. That’s a problem with planning a party for a nonagenarian.
She did appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, with family, to watch the fly overs associated with the Trooping of the Colors on Thursday. That evening, she started the ceremony that began the lighting of over 3000 beacons all over Great Britain and the Commonwealth. This clip shows the cascade of lights at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
The Queen took everyone by surprise by appearing on the balcony again on Sunday, in a lovely green suit and hat. She got to hear a rousing rendition of “God Save the Queen” sung by the boisterous crowd attending the final day of celebrations.
My favorite part, though, was being completely charmed by the Queen having tea with Paddington Bear:
Did you enjoy the Platinum Jubilee celebrations?
This weekend in Australia we celebrate the Queen’s Birthday – it has become just another long weekend and I do not know of any events planned to mark the jubilee. The weather is forecast to be cold and the Queen’s Birthday weekend traditionally marks the beginning of the skiiing season.
I did see various news items from last weekend’s celebrations in England – I am glad they had good weather for it. It seems sad, although not surprising, that the Queen could not participate more.
I have just published a post on my 3rd great grandfather’s brief attendance at a school in Guernsey. I was excited to find the reference but I would like to know more about his education.
I only saw a bit of the news items. Louis was the star when he held his hands over his ears from the jet noise!
I only caught that it was happening by a casual remark an old coworker left on facebook. Then, my husband was watching “Last Week Tonight” and we saw the little Paddington Bear thing… was it a promo? an ad? or just a marketing opportunity? It was very cute.