Friday's Fave Five - 3/6/22

It's Friday again so time to list my blessing of the week and share them over at Susanne's site - Living to Tell the Story.

Here goes:

1) Dinner at our youngest son's place last Sunday.  It was nice to spend some time with both our young grandsons and then after they'd gone to bed we had dessert.  We also played a game of cards with our son and DIL which gave us time to have a good catch up with them without the kids constantly interrupting and wanting attention.  (Nothing wrong with that - just what little kids do but it does make adult conversation tricky.)

2)  Yummy cakes and a catch up with one of Hubby's friends last Friday.  A local residential facility had a cake sale to raise funds - it's just up the road from us so it was easy to walk down to town and stop off to pick up some cake on the way to having lunch with hubby's friends in one of our many coffee shops.

3)  Being retired.  Grandson Nathan hasn't been too well this week so it's been good to be able to visit a couple of times and have them here to make things a bit easier for his Mummies.  We couldn't do that if we were still working.

4)  Another Knit and Natter session this week.  The group have been making bees to make a display for the upcoming Highams Park Arts Trail which starts next week.  I hadn't made any bees as I've only just joined this group but now they're on to knitted bunting to add to the display.  Knitted triangles for bunting I can do!

5)  Our Queen.  This weekend she is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee - 70 years on the throne.  We have an extra bank holiday this week so Thursday and Friday are holidays and there are lots of celebrations taking place over this extended weekend.  Yesterday there was the Trooping of the Colour - the very grand ceremony involving lots of servicemen and women and of course horses.  Normally the Queen would be part of this at Horse Guards parade but yesterday she was represented by her son Charles who was also accompanied by his son William and the Princess Royal (Anne).  There must be something in their genetics - Charles and Anne still riding horses in their 70s and, although the Queen is definitely more frail and having some mobility issues, she is still doing as much as she can at 96!

She was on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the parade return past the place to their barracks and then there was a flypast of various planes with one group of planes set out to show 70 and then the Red Arrows leaving plumes of red white and blue across the sky, which thankfully was fairly clear of clouds.  We Brits certainly know how to do Pomp and Ceremony and there were lots of spectators lining the route and then filling the space outside Buckingham Palace to see the Royal Family join the Queen on the balcony.

Yesterday evening beacons were lit across the country and there are further events planned over the weekend including street parties although I'm not sure there are any very close to us.

I know not everyone loves the Royal family and there have definitely been some ups and downs, particularly over the last couple of years but the Queen is such a great example to us all.  She became Queen at such a young age with very little time to prepare for the role and yet she has carried out her duty to this country and its people brilliantly. 

Happy Platinum Jubilee Your Majesty!

Picture taken from the BBC website.

Have a good weekend all.