Royal Wedding

(I LOVE today's Google front page!)

Okay, okay, it has been over a month since I wrote. Life has been a tornado of activity, but today I was inspired to write again! Hello, and thanks for still being out there, if you are. :-)

This morning, I awoke at my customary 5:00am (which is 10am in the UK) and promptly turned on the TV to catch the Royal Wedding hoopla. After about 10 seconds of cringing at the U.S. commentators, I switched over to the BBC and from there, enjoyed a more sedate and dry perspective. One of my favorite moments was when Simon Schama (a brilliant historian and writer) commented that the Queen's cousins riding along in the little coaches (luxurious mini-buses) could be a team of footballers heading off to a match, to all appearances.

I got my daughter up at about 6am so she could see Kate coming down the aisle. We ooohed and aahed at some of the ENORMOUS hats (and others that resembled a jellyfish coming gently to rest atop one's immaculate coiffure)

We watched until William and Kate went back to sign the register, and then we had to go to work and school, respectively.

Almost 30 years ago, three days before my 10th birthday, my grandfather let me stay home from summer camp and watch the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana. That was the start of my abiding and unseemly interest in the Windsors, which over the years developed into a more appropriate and deeper interest in English history and culture, in general.

This morning, for my daughter, I described the way Diana rode to St. Paul's Cathedral in a horse-drawn coach, the big poofy dress, the unbelievably long train... how they left the wedding in an open carriage, went off to breakfast, and kissed on the palace balcony. Leaving out the sad details of the rest of that marriage, I told her that almost a year later, she had a baby boy, and that's who was getting married today.

So today was fun. William and Kate seem to be a genuine loving partnership, and I wish them all the best! We intend to have a mini high tea this weekend, with cucumber sandwiches and perhaps a lemon curd tart. (Any Monty Python fans want to bite on this one? "Damn your lemon curd tart!") Or at least Lionel Hardcastle's favorite, a standard custard tart.

And for a bit of crochet, I did finish my Union Jack pillow (pattern from the Royal Sisters) last weekend, so it was right there on the sofa with us as we watched.

There's a LOT to catch you all up on, so I'll be back very soon!!!