Rain and rivers and royal announcements. And bits of family stuff.

It rained and rained and rained during the night. I heard it bouncing off the attic skylights and almost didn’t get up. But there was a lull and so I got up and ran. The river Tame is bouncing full. Even the little tributary, whose name I have never known although I presume it must have one, was overflowing into the ford down at the bottom of Sandbed Lane. The path through the wooded bit of the valley from Sandbed into the village has muddy puddles at the best of times and today it was a veritable quagmire. 

Throughout the day so far we have alternated fine and blustery with sleety, hailstoney downpours. 

 

Nonetheless, we ventured out for a blustery walk and saw the river in spate. We did get caught in a hailstorm at one point but otherwise just rather windy! 

My daughter is venturing into Manchester with her fiancé to take their part-Chinese offspring to Chinatown, where no doubt there will be dragons and other such things connected with the lunar new year celebrations. 

Her oldest daughter was hoping that she would be collected and brought here to our house for tea. She would have brought with her home made vegetable soup and two kinds of cake, ginger and chocolate, the product of her baking-to-cheer-up-the-gloom sessions. I have suggested that she could hop on a bus but one of the manifestations of her permanent anxiety state is a reluctance, nay, a near total refusal, to use public transport. So it goes. 

Amongst other news around at the moment - possible war, the collapse of the Northern Irish government, the continuing Partygate fuss, resignations from Johnson’s team - comes a statement from Queen Elizabeth II that when Charles eventually becomes king Camilla should be recognised as queen-consort. That is her royal wish. Until now it had been said that Camilla would not have the title of queen but would be princess-consort. Quite a turn around: wicked marriage-breaking witch to national treasure in a quarter of a century! Charles is apparently pleased and honoured. 

It’s seventy years today since her majesty became queen. I have vague memories of a coronation party in a park when I was 4 years old. I received a coronation mug and a book about Elizabeth II, a book in which I was convinced that the photos of the Duke of Edinburg were photos of my uncle! I imagine the coronation of Charles and his queen will be rather less romantic, and less romantically viewed, than that of his mother, a very young queen! 

On the radio the other day they interviewed someone from a ladies’ crochet group who spent about 6 months crocheting a lifesize model of Her Majesty! Really!? Why? Maybe they are the same ladies who decorate the tops of post boxes around her. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!