Today* has been the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. I’ve never really understood why she gets two birthdays, but assume she chose a date in June in the hopes that it might be better weather for Trooping the Colour than her actual birthday, which falls in late April.
This year London certainly had better weather today than we did here, somewhere in Middle England, where it persisted down most of the day.
Looking out of the window this morning, we noted that it was still raining and spared a thought for Prince Charles, who presumably looks out of his window each morning, sees the flags flying, and notes that his mother is still reigning.
Pondering such things, we got to wondering if perhaps the current Queen is hoping to beat the record set by Queen Victoria: perhaps she thinks it would be nice to get her name in the Guinness Book of Records and become famous. If that’s what she’s aiming for, there’s not long to go: just under three months according to this article from Martin Willis. I don’t suppose we’ll get a holiday.
Although the weather brightened up a bit this afternoon and it’s been dry here for a few hours, there are still puddles about, which seems as good as reason as any to post the following:
Reflection
On rainy nights the streets
are twice as bright. Light runs
in rivulets down pavements, streams
down gutters, swirling into storm drains, drips
from balconies and falls, dimpling
puddles.
*Well, it was today when I started to write the post: in fact it is now yesterday.
(The photo is not exactly a Tudor rose, but, then, the Queen is not exactly a Tudor monarch.)
don't confuse the narrator 