Back to Normal

What a fabulous 4 days we've had here in the UK.  I wonder if Her Majesty had a well deserved lie-in this morning!  Although we didn't actually partake in any of the celebrations in person I felt as if we were part of it all simply by being British and being here rather than still in France! How I wished I had been able to be in London though.

Pomp and pageant is something we do so well in England and the colour and joy were apparent in spite of the weather (sixty years ago I remember going to see the proceedings on a neighbour's television but no colour was available then!) What struck me most about it all was the fact that it is possible to have thousands of people all congregating together and there to be none of the violence and arrests which so often occur when crowds get together for whatever reason.  I occasionally feel saddened and embarrassed by the behaviour of some of my fellow countrymen and their thuggish behaviour but the Jubilee restored my faith in the better side of human nature.  It was wonderful to see so many people from all walks of life, of all ages from the elderly to little children (who will surely have memories to tell their own children and grandchildren one day), of all nationalities and no doubt of many different religions or none getting together to enjoy themselves. Just now when the world is in such a parlous state, when Europe is hanging on by its fingernails as the recession deepens, and when so many people have little to be joyful about it was wonderful to have 4 days of happy news on the television!  Long may she reign indeed!

Now the streets of our capital are gradually returning to their usual workaday selves, the nationwide street parties all cleared up and the mountains of washing up done (I wonder just how many cups of tea were drunk over the weekend!) we are left with memories of a joyous few days.  It was certainly something none of us will live to see again!

Meanwhile here at chez Marigold we too have returned to normal as our wanderer left us on Sunday to move on to pastures new - we miss her of course, and so do the cats who had been enjoying extra attention,  but at least this time she is not on the other side of the world but just the other side of London and near enough for an occasional visit.

Yesterday was such a dismal wet day here (I was pleased to see that the rain didn't reach London till later in the day) that indoor occupation was called for and I decided to make a small quilt for the office chair we use at the computer - the cats sometimes sit on it and we are prone to come in to check our e-mails in our grubby gardening clothes so something washable to protect the upholstery was called for.  I probably should have made it red, white and blue instead of yellow since it was stitched over the Jubilee weekend!  I finished off the hand stitching sitting in front of the fire we lit last night as it was so chilly!

By the way there is a programme on Channel 4 tomorrow evening at 9.00 pm about the 50's home to tie in with the Jubilee.  I shall be watching with interest as due to leaving a comment on a blog a long while ago which indicated that I remembered life in the 50s one of the researchers got in touch with me and then after a long conversation on the phone a week later she and another researcher came here to talk with both me and my husband, who probably remembers some things better than I do and had a more typical childhood than mine too.  We were asked if we would agree to being interviewed on film but we declined - we are weird enough as it is without the editing process making us come across as even more strange than we already are so we shall not be making an appearance but it should be an interesting watch for anyone who enjoys a trip down Memory Lane.