Royal Windsor Horse Show and New Arrivals at Windsor

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was all smiles yesterday as she enjoyed one of her favourite things of the year... the Royal Horse Show at Windsor...

and Windsor Castle has certainly been a co-star this last week....

 With her meeting her new great grandson Archie, born to Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who was born on May 6th...

at Frogmore Cottage on Windsor Castle grounds...

Windsor Horse Show is near and dear to her majesty's heart.

In 2016, it was dedicated to her for her 90th birthday....

 The Queen’s 90^th birthday celebrations were to coincide with the annual Windsor Horse Show.  The Queen’s 90^th birthday was on April 21^st but special celebrations will take place at Home Park, Windsor between May 12^th and May 15^th 2016. This birthday show featured 600 horses and 1500 performers, and a crowd of 7,000 for each night’s performance, with the days filled with various coaching and equestrian competitions, often with world class contenders and Olympic hopefuls.

The special 90-minute show in the evening paid tribute to many of the things that have been so important to The Queen throughout her life. It featured horses and riders from Canada, New Zealand and Fiji among other countries and included pipers and drummers according to press reports.

The Queen will attended the last night while others members of the Royal Family were present on the other evenings. 

Simon Brooks-Ward, who produced and directed the birthday show and who also runs the Windsor Horse Show, said that the particular event was to ‘celebrate a truly remarkable life.’

 The Queen, the King of Bahrain and the Duke of York shared a laugh while watching the endurance phase of the trials.

So glad she can enjoy herself with all of her responsibilities. 

Always lots of English Royal commemoratives available at 
Time Was Antiques.
For more info on these two items, click on the photos. 

Easter Week... Maundy Thursday

Today in the Christian calendar, Maundy Thursday in celebrated, and is always on Queen Elizabeth's calendar....

 Getty photos

this year accompanied by Princess Eugenie, daughter of Prince Andrew, this year at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

 Part of the tradition is handing our pouches of coins to pensioners... one man and woman for each year of the Queen's age.

This year therefore, 93 men and 93 women...

The money in the White Purse includes 1, 2, 3 and 4 silver penny pieces, the sum equals the number of years of the Monarch’s age.

The red purse contains a 5 pound coin minted to commemorative the 200th birthday of Queen Victoria, and amusingly a 50p coins commemorating Sherlock Holmes... :)

 This year the purse will equal 93p as Her Majesty turns 93 on Sunday!

Maundy Thursday, the fifth day of Holy Week is in remembrance of the sharing of the Last Supper with his disciples before Christ's death on Good Friday.

The origins of the ceremony come from the commandment Christ gave after washing his disciples' feet, where according to the Bible, he told them to "love one another as I have loved you".

Historically, it has involved handing out food and clothing and cleaning the poor.

Ever since coming to the throne in 1952 the Queen has carried out 

the tradition.

Happy Christmas and Merry Christmas!!!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas! The photo above is Bath Abbey at night...lit for Christmas.

Ice skating in Hyde Park, London by the London Eye...

 Christmas at Windsor Castle...

And a very Happy Christmas

or

Merry Christmas

to you all!

Ho Ho Ho! Santa Mug Seasons Greetings and Celestial Seasonings Teas

Hello and welcome to a Tuesday Cuppa Tea which I am joining with Antiques And Teacups.

The top of the china cabinet is decorated with a swag I did a few years ago and is adorned with a German Dresden paper star angel announcing the birth of Jesus.

 But Santa, or Father Christmas is coming soon. I pulled out another of our Dunoon mugs from the Season's Greetings series by Richard Partis that features the jolly old elf himself! This isn't a teacup, but when it's cold my Honey likes a mug and not a teacup...and of course that's fine with me!

Pretty cute, isn't it? And isn't he jolly! What a long list! For more info on the mug at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos. 

The perfect mug for a cup of seasonal teas. Here are 2 of our favorite Celestial Seasons this year. I favor the Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride and my Honey likes the  Gingerbread Spice best!

 I can sit with a cup of tea while going through some of my seasonal books. One of my favorites is The Ritz Book Of Christmas which I picked up at the Ritz Hotel when we were there one year during the Christmas season and stopped for afternoon tea in the Palm Court. The book has Christmas lore and traditions, history of the Ritz and it's tea tradition and some marvelous recipes. I am sharing a simple one I like for Fruit And Nut Clusters.

 Fruit And Nut Clusters

"Red and green are the classic Christmas colours and the decoration od red and green glace cherries on these delicious little chocolates carries on the theme. They look enchanting in individual gold or silver sweet cases, if you can get hold of them, but failing that, pack them into a gold or silver box tied up with red and green ribbon."

The recipe has both metric and cup measures, but I give only the cup measures here.

4 squares semi sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces

1 tbs light honey

3/4 cup mixed dried fruit

1/2 cup chopped nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts

red and green glace cherries for decoration

Place the chocolate and the honey in a bowl, then either stand this over a pan of hot water until the chocolate has melted, or put into a microwave on low power for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the fruit and nuts until they are well coated with chocolate. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto waxed paper or parchment. Press a small piece of glace cherry into the top of each piece and leave in a cool place until set. 

For a fun tour of Christmas at Windsor Castle, here is a link from The Royal Collection Trust about the festivities there with a video at the bottom of the page:   HERE

 

Lastly, most of you will have already seen this, but here is the latest picture of little Prince George, son of William and Catherine, Duke & Duchess of Cambridge.

 

I am joining Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for her Christmas Tea and Ruth at Antiques And Teacups for Tuesday Cuppa Tea.   Have a wonderful day visiting the other blog parties. And have a cuppa tea with a friend!

Diamond Jubilee Festivities In May Ahead Of Main Weekend

I just wanted to share a couple of events that have occurred this month leading up to the main Diamond Jubilee festivities this weekend for Queen Elizabeth II.

On May 18th, various heads of states and nations gathered at Windsor Castle before the opening festivities for the Diamond Jubilee which I reported on in my last post. To see the slideshow at the BBC Online, click on this:

In pictures: Monarchs at Windsor for Diamond Jubilee

On May 23rd, the Queen met with members of the arts for a Diamond Jubilee reception in London. There are photos and videos on the BBC Online article about the gathering here:

 

Diamond Jubilee: Arts A-listers gather for the Queen

 

 This was taken by a friend and sent to me of a portrait of the Queen made of LEGO in a London shop window.

Sir Richard Branson & Virgin Airways got into the act with a contest to win a street party for your block.

So that brings  us to the Diamond Jubilee Thames Pageant which willbe on June 3rd. Here is an artist's depiction of the Royal Barge Gloriana:

 

The BBC has had some spectacular coverage of the barge.

Click here for a fascinating video on the decorations being carved for the barge:

Diamond Jubilee: Decorating the Royal river pageant barge

 

A great video of the launch of the barge:

 

Diamond Jubilee: Royal Rowbarge will be lowered onto Thames

 I can hardly wait to see it and the flotilla on the Thames!

I will be covering more of the festivities later in the week. We still have a few of our Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee English bone china mugs at Time Was Antiques, and we are having a Diamond Jubilee sale!

Honouring Queen Elizabeth II on her 60 year reign! Use code DIAMOND for a 15% Discount on any order over $50.00 through June 6th to honour the Diamond Jubilee!

  

Enjoy your day and get your Union Jack and bunting ready!

 

Queen Victoria's Birthday, Windsor Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

Happy Birthday Queen Victoria! Victoria was born on May 24, 1819 so tomorrow is her birthday! She lived until 1901 and was the longest reigning monarch...until our current Queen Elizabeth II who celebrates her Diamond Jubilee year of 60 years' reign this year.

This wonderful portrait was painted by Winterhalter in 1842. I love the meticulous lace. We are all more familiar with photos like this as she went into mourning on the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert and remained in mourning until her death.

 Her birthday was remembered in Canada this past weekend with the Victoria Day celebrations. The celebrations were also linked this year to Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.

This last weekend was also the opening salve for the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations with a Royal party for Windsor Castle, the Queen's favorite home. There was an armed forces Muster, Fly By, massed Queen's Guard Unit parade and bands and other festivities including a Windsor High Street walk about for the city residents.

There are Yeoman Warders, also known as Beefeaters at Windsor as well.

As the Navy passes by, they are viewed by military pensioners who live in the area.

I especially loved the manuever of a fly by with planes in the formation of E II R and also in the number 60. The colored trails are so cool as well!
 

This is the massed Queen's Guards regiments which includes the Coldstream Guards, my husbands old regiment. He was quire teary as we watched the YouTube video below of the fly by.
 

 all photos from The Mail Online

I am quite excited about the main Diamond Jubilee celebrations on the weekend of June 2nd. I'll tell you more about them soon.

Here is a YouTube video of the Diamond Jubilee Fly By at Windsor. Enjoy!