Pictures from Buckingham Palace Day

The actual Pictures from the big day will have to wait till I receive them from Steven. He showed us some on his camera and they both looked lovely. Steve made the sensible decision, in my view, to go in a lounge suit rather than morning suit. In my humble opinion 'morning suits' make most Englishmen look faintly ridiculous. I was lucky in being able to go in uniform which solved the problem.

Apparently cameras are still taboo within the palace grounds but Lisa reports several mobile-phone 'violaters'. It must be one-to-one occasions, like Sandra's MBE. where you get an official picture and video. They were quite close to the Queen but she didn't actually stop to speak to them personally. The cucumber sandwiches and the china cups were worthy of note and they had a super, lifetime memorable day, and of course the weather. Poor Queen in that heat; but she's got bottle has Elizabeth R bless her. And Philip too, he stuck it out. And half of her subjects are moaning because the tarmac is melting abit. Mind - it IS hot. We have had curtains closed, fans on etc... etc.. frequent lie-downs. There are advantages to retirement.

Picture 1 is my effort to capture the evening sun shining through beech leaves at Burton Joyce but, as usual, my Casio doesn't like being faced with the problem of focussing on nothing in particular. Hence the less-than-sharp result. I should have tried 'manual focus' but I forgot.

Picture 2 was taken in the later evening from the river bank outside The Ferry Boat. Again not a good exposure. The camera has metered for the water and burnt-out the swan. My own fault. But there was a most welcome breeze. The children got very hot. They don't really understand the concept of not running about in such weather.

And, a follow up from Monday when poor Sky complained of itchy spots, which were barely visible and everybody discounted. They were worse this morning and the Doctor diagnosed chicken pox. Then Brooke had to be collected from School with bad earache; so it was back to the doctors again, and she has an ear-infection. Poor both of them, especially in this heat. The reason I rang Helen was to tell her I'd tracked down the Me Too - Children's Book of Bible Stories which someone had lent her and had to go back. It is a lovely, gentle book with great pictures. Amazon did the biz. Two copies, one new, one used but excellent condition - so I ordered both.

Jill is cruising up in the Spitzbergen, Tromso and Murmansk region. She says she is pleased to have missed the heatwave but that Murmansk is the 'dreariest, dullest, most miserable place' they've ever been to.

They rang me from the clinic, my blood INR level is sky-high and I've got to miss a day's Warfarin. I can only think that the 'idiot in me' discovered a way round my 'idiot-proof' system, and that I've taken them twice in one day recently. She assured me that there was no immediate cause for concern, so long as I didn't start bleeding, or bruising more than I do already....... And she has booked me in for 9am Tuesday 25th. Hardly a ringing reassurance but not to worry...............