A Palace and a Perfect Picnic

Hello, how are we all, good I hope?. Another week vanishes and what a busy one it's been. We have been on day trips and picnics and generally made the most of the free time. September is just around the corner so it won't be long before we are all back to the grind and ties of school life.

The week started off well, we went on our day trip up to London for our visit to Buckingham Palace and the Royal Mews. We were up with the lark, well before 8am, met the in-laws and caught the train up to London. It was a very busy train and we had to stand all of the way. Good job it was a fast train and only took just over half an hour. A brisk walk down Baker Street to the underground and then just a couple of stops to Green Park. We walked through the park in the glorious sunshine, the kids just had to stop and have a quick sit in the deck chairs before we hit the Mall and Buckingham Palace.

We hit the mad rush to see the changing of the guard. There were literally thousands of tourist waiting to catch the smallest of glimpses of the marching soldiers. I felt like telling them to go to Windsor Castle and watch it. You can see the changing of the guard in relative peace and quite and you can normally get a great view of the actual change over ceremony.

Once we had made our way through the masses we headed down past Buckingham Palace and out towards the Royal Mews. It was really peaceful there and not overly busy. We all enjoyed seeing the various carriages that were on display, all of them gleaming and very polished.

I can't remember what each carriage was called, one was the Australian carriage, given as a gift to the Queen on a visit to Oz. This ones name escapes me. I must admit I'm not terribly good at reading all the blurb on exhibits.

This was the one used by Lady Diana and Prince Charles on their wedding day. I remember the Royal Wedding so well, I was sat in front of the TV literally glued to it, I didn't want to miss a thing. I would have been about 12 I think and was totally taken in by the whole of the Royal Wedding, it really seemed like a fairy tale to me. I even made a royal wedding scrap book of newspaper and magazine cuttings.

We stayed in the Royal Mews for about 45 minutes, looking at the carriages, cars and horses and then headed over the road for a spot of lunch in a cafe before heading back down to Buckingham Palace and our tour of the state rooms. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed in the palace, well not photo taking. So you will have to make do with a few images from the outside.

Inside the Palace was absolutely beautiful. The rooms were all so lavish and the attention to detail fantastic. The ceilings in particular were wonderfully ornate. We had a bit of a problem inside the Palace, as Alex decided he needed the loo. The toilets are situated right at the end of the tour and are only accessible once you have finished looking around. This takes about two hours! We had to ask one of the wardens if there was a loo that he could use. After a long wait we were escorted to this very hidden almost secret little toilet and then escorted back to the Grand Staircase and the start of the tour. Alex wanted to know if he had used the Queen's actual toilet! The hand basins were very posh and did have some very lovely smelling Molton Brown liquid soap and hand cream though!

A big part of the tour was the exhibition of the Queen's year. There was a collection of her hats worn at Ascot and Chelsea flower show. A few of her dresses and coats were also on display. A huge collection of cards she had received for her birthday were also on display. The exhibition really did highlight how hard the Queen works throughout the year.

I also didn't realise just how attractive the Queen was in her younger days. She really was a very slim and attractive lady.

After the tour we headed outside into the gardens and had tea and posh cake in the marquee set up especially for the period when the palace is open to the public. It was all very civilised and our visit was finished off with a look in the gift shop and a couple of small souvenirs.

Here's Alex and Daisy sitting on the fountain outside the Palace.

Tuesday's outing was a rather wet visit to Legoland in Windsor. We had a great day out with our friends even though we got absolutely soaking wet. I managed to avoid all of the scary rides and the little ones had such fun going on all of the rides with their friends. I wish I had their nerve, none of the rides phased them at all.

Wednesday was spent at home, and then Daisy and I went off to a friends birthday party. It was a pyjama pamper party. All the little girls had face masks, nails painted and hairs put into rags. I helped out with the nail painting and face masks. The girls had a ball, they loved all the beauty treatments and especially loved the party games we played after tea. Daisy's short hair had curled like crazy when we took the rags out the next morning.

Thursday was spent on a perfect picnic with our friends. We went to Cliveden house and spent about four hours in the water garden there. The kids went off and played adventure games whilst we sat and drank tea, crocheted and chatted to our hearts content. They came back for lunch and off they went again. There was very little whinging or demanding it really was the perfect picnic.

I have felt knackered today, I am blaming it on the busy week, so we have done very little apart from a visit to the in-laws. Alex has begged a sleep over with Mr P, he reckons I snore too much! Which is like the pot calling the kettle black as I can hear both Mr P and Alex snoring right now and I am sat downstairs!!

So this is where I'm sleeping tonight... Alex room, finally a picture of his finished bedroom.

Here is a quick progress picture of my blue blanket currently being made for Alex's bed, I have a long way to go me thinks! I have decided to do a granny stripe to which I will add a border and picot edging.

Enjoy your weekend and lets just hope its not too wet where ever you are. I will leave you with a picture of Alex taken earlier today. We needed a photo for his Blue Peter badge pass which gets him into lots of parks and attraction free of charge. Its only a tiny head shot needed so we chopped his head out of this picture for the card!

Till next time.

Alison

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