Royals and Rain.

Do have a cheese muffin, won't you? Celebrate a little!

That's my best caketin too, I bought it at least 20 years ago. It is a coronation souvenir (not made in China) and has her promise of "queening-right-to-the-end" written on it right next to the golden coach. The tin has a very good closure and fits a whole cake in it. It is a little battered (haha) over the years, but that adds to the vintage charm.

The view from our living room was pretty bleak this week. We have had a proper autumn storm in our Hawkes' Bay, with a quarter of the yearly rainfall falling within 60 hours. In some of the rural areas many people needed to be evacuated, with bridges washed away and power outages. Much damage to the land and quite a few slips on the Napier hill too. But our house seemed pretty sturdy and I think it must help to have so many trees planted all around us to keep the hillside strong. It looked and sounded like a waterfall outside, though.

I had plenty to do inside. This is the dining room/workroom. All those boxes! But it is getting there...
My bookshelves are up in there as well, the boxes are emptying. I try to sort everything into the right places straight away, still coming across books I should get rid of .

But the really good thing about autumn is eating feijoas! I scoff them 10 at a time, with a little spoon after my breakfast. Oh that scented jelly goodness, with a little grit like a pear.The flavour is a little like fresh, slighly sour bananas combined with a cool juicy fruity scent. That is as close as I can get. Love,love!

People have them growing in their backyards and often give them away by the bag-load, or get their kids to sell them at their gates.
View from the breakfast/dinner table, looking up towards the road.

And more view from the same spot,with a big hibiscus bush in the garden. We can see the sun come up from here, the sea is this way.
Oh weren't they lovely...!

I spent the evening at a friends' where we had a royal wedding party. At least 4 ladies wore their wedding dresses and hats and some of the men came in nice suits, some with ties and even a bowler hat. I wore some nice clothes (There is no way I could fit back into my wedding dress!) with a little pink hat, pink gloves and a crystal necklace, and borrowed my mans' black tail coat.

Everyone brought a plate, scones and cake and asparagus sandwiches. We drank Pims and tea. We talked and shushed for the exciting bits, stood up and sang 'god save the queen', waved along cheerfully, giggled and made fun of the important people. It was way past midnight before we got to the double kiss!
As a citizen of 2 countries I am in the strange, yet pleasant, position of having 2 Queens and 2 royal houses to admire/criticize. I was pleased to see crown prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Maxima of the Netherlands among the invited guests. Here they are on their bicycles. They have 3 blond little daughters, that all look like baby Julianas.
Here they are again screaming 'goal' at the world soccer cup. Somehow I don't think the British Royals would be so openly enthused or spontaneous. Ever seen Queen Liz on a bike?

I am sure the Dutch queen Beatrix would have given her grandson a kiss and hugged the bride straight after the weddingvows, instead of that stiff little smile from QEII. Surely you can do all the formality with the curtsy and still retain family warmth.

Maybe she just can't...