Long Live the Queen!

Royal Corgi

This past weekend was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in London. That means she's been the reigning royalty for 60 years! James and I have been eagerly watching everything we can on TV to feel like we're there, including the Concert for the Queen tonight, a day after it actually happened in England. I think my favorite moment in the whole concert was when the Royal Family got up on stage and Prince Charles began addressing his mother as "Your Majesty...Mummy..." So fabulous!

To mark this momentous occassion, my lovely friend Amanda sent us the card in the picture above. It arrived this morning and had the both of us in a wonderful mood before our workdays. Thanks, Amanda! The artist is Alison Fennell of Wales, and she does the cutest paintings of animals. Amanda also gave me this fox print for my birthday, which I looooove.

In England's entire huge long history, there has only ever been one other Diamond Jubilee, that of Queen Victoria. It's quite an accomplishment for Queen Elizabeth to reach that landmark as well. They're even re-naming the clock tower that houses Big Ben after her. (It's only the bell that's named "Big Ben".) The other tower on the Houses of Parliament is known as Victoria Tower, after Queen Victoria on the occassion of her Diamond Jubilee. Fitting, isn't it? (Can you tell I've been missing England?)

I was lucky enough to experience the Queen's Golden Jubilee 10 years ago at the end of my first year in London. I watched the fireworks from Picadilly one night, and I went to Hyde Park another day to watch the royal proceedings on these huge TV screens that were set up. I saw the Red Arrows do their fly-over trailing streams of red, white and blue. One of the oddest things I saw was a number of old Routemaster buses (the open-back double decker buses) painted gold in celebration. I think this past weekend must have been incredible to experience, and I'm loving seeing the photos of street parties on Facebook!

Hooray for Queen Elizabeth, aka "Mummy"!