With my Multiple Sclerosis right hand nerve damage i cant do buttons, zips, hooks, so all my skirts are elastic waist pull-ons, jersey material, wash and wear, no ironing...

Good Morning everyone.  Hope you all had a nice Labor Day weekend.  Mine was spent trying to stay as cool as possible, under our oppressive "heat dome".   It hasn't moved yet, but this is predicted to be the final day of temps in the 100's.

Mary Page - It's hard to find the side-zipper pants or skirts, so I've also switched to elastic waist, with a flat front.  Comfortable and easy.    My biggest problem now is shoes . . . getting them on and off, and getting the laces tied!  I've worn sandals most of the summer, but will need something sturdier for cold weather.   I'm looking to buy some slip on shoes for Fall, so have  been spending time looking at Zappos.   Penny loafers are still available, and I might take a chance and order a pair.

MarsGal - Sounds like your dinner at the Red Lobster, was a disaster!  I have heard that most of the old reliable chain restaurants like Outback and Lobster, have fallen on hard times since Covid.  Almost impossible to hire both kitchen and wait staff.   Many are closing here in California.  Makes you wonder about the future of medium priced restaurants?  Remember when we were all reading the book,  Last Night At the Lobster,  in the Library forum?  I thought it was an excellent short book, and now can look back at how it was a prediction for the future.

Beverly - Sorry that Donna and Mike, had to give up on their long distance hike.  Sounded like a lot of fun, awhile it lasted.
I'm always fascinated with the yearly necessity for a new backpack?  They are given away free, every year, to school districts across the state.    Even little kindergartner's wear a backpack now!  What in the world could a five year old carry in a backpack??   There are lots of things I don't understand about how the school districts are managed in today's world?    Glad my grandkids are all grown up!

Jackie - I have a difficult time with buttons, but probably not nearly as bad as you.   My  problem is my twisted and bent fingers from osteoarthritis.   Seems to me like the buttons and buttonholes are much smaller than they used to be?   There are times when I simply cannot push the button through that tiny buttonhole . . . especially on shirt cuffs!

Marilyne, you are right about the wait staff and cooks. The Red Lobster where we went attracts fewer customers than the one in Harrisburg which is always full and often has a wait line. Anyway, our wait staff were good, but I did notice that they were handling just about the whole dining area. The cooking, however, was poor. The fish and Brussel sprouts were definitely overcooked. I brought the remaining fish and Brussels home. They actually tasted better the next day. I put some sweet chili dressing on the reheated fish and the Brussels, with its' soy sauce coating and crunchies, went into a bowl of mashed potatoes. Now that was really tasty.

I've been spending a bit too much time on the computer the last two days and have been sitting way too long catching up on my reading and watching YouTube clips, especially things astronomical, Welsh, or historical. I don't have any plans for today either. I do need to get up to the pharmacy soon and do some grocery shopping. The front yard will need mowed in a day or so when it dries out a little. Nothing major looming in the near future at the moment.

 

Our Queen has died  God bless her

Jackie -  I just saw the sad news online, about the death of Queen Elizabeth.   I thought about you right away, and all the people of England and other parts of the UK, who love and admire her.   It will be a sad time for your Country.  I will be watching the news for updates and reactions from around the World.   

Me too.

Just saw the news. Queen Elizabeth has reigned for most of my life (I was less than five at the time, Sue even younger, and Barb wasn't even born yet). It is hard to express how I feel other than to say I feel a loss, like the end abrupt end to an era. My condolences to the family and all of the UK.

Yes, God bless Queen Elizabeth.  She never shirked from a hard job, and was a great inspiration to many.

It seems strange to me, and must be a gaping hole for anyone in the UK.

Jackie, I hadn't seen any news yet when I read your post about Queen Elizabeth.  I immediately turned on the tv and all major networks were having a Special Report on the event.
I remember making a scrapbook of her wedding pictures in Life magazine.  I was in 7th grade at the time.

She is, indeed, the end of an era. 

Quoting: First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon's tribute to our Queen

" For more than 70 years, Queen Elizabeth has been the great constant in our national life. She has inspired us, on occasion comforted us, and always personified values we hold dear. Throughout her reign she performed her duties with exceptional wisdom, dedication, and fidelity. Scotland loved, respected and admired her, and by all accounts her majesty was rarely happier than when she was here in Scotland at her beloved Balmoral, a fact i have been privileged to have observed personally. I hope it will be a source of comfort to her family that she spent her final days in a place that she loved so much."

I totally agree with every word she has said. ( Scotland was my place of birth but, i am British on my birth certificate )

I think it will really hit us Christmas day, when for the first time we wont be sitting down at our tv's to watch our annual televised Queens speech..something we have all been accustomed to...

I came to find you and offer my sincere sympathy, Jackie. My sister had a pen-pal during WWII that lived in England and they sent magazines to each other, not often, mail was expensive! But my sister would let me read them when she was finished. I was 6 when the war ended but had been reading for a while before that. I admired all she did during the war and thought she was an inspiration, so brave. At 88 I can truly say she is the ONE famous  human that has never disappointed me through out my lifetime. She lived to be the dutiful person she was taught to be, a great loss, especially after these difficult last few years. I am grateful that God blessed her with that special time at the end, in her comfort spot, Balmoral. In MY world her beloved Prince Phillip was there with his hand out to help her across the step. 

Jackie, I thought of you, too when the news first broke.  I had just said a prayer for her, since I had seen the notice about the doctors' having said what they did.  I turned the TV on quickly, and couldn't move from the house from watching the special reports.  As I've said, I'm not British, but I so loved Queen Elizabeth II.  I saw her coronation when it was broadcast live on TV back in '53 (?).  That was so special for me.

I have a soft spot in my heart for most of the Royals.  I am especially concerned for Princess Anne. She seemed to have been overlooked in all of the special reports. Think I saw one picture (recent) of her, must have been the trooping of the colors, as she was in full regalia.

God Rest the Soul of Elizabeth II. She is back with her "Prince" who she loved so dearly.

Our UK will never be the same again, all i have ever known is having our Queen..a role model, a well respected Queen, loved by everyone worldwide, which makes me proud to be British..We always new this day would come but, the reality just doesn't sink in that, this day has come...Yes she is now with her beloved Prince Philip...

Thank you Queen Elizabeth for just being who you were..

This was May & June of 1971.  We toured Scotland & England on our own.  And let me say, David learned to drive British cars on the wrong side of the road with great pizzazz!

David taped a map on our card table and went to work.  It took all Winter.  He began by asking what were the three things I most wanted to see.  Only Three?

I tried to see if I could fulfill such a request.  I finally came up with Salisbury Cathedral, the Western Hebrides, and the City of York.  I won't bore you with the whys.

Nor am I going to give you the whole trip.

I think this was in early June.  We had completely finished Scotland (our version) and taken a train from Edinburgh to York.  Then a taxi from the station to our hotel, The Chase, just outside the ancient city gates.  Or one of them.  Monk's Bar, I believe it was called.

Our driver was a very loquacious one.  "Are you here to see the Queen?", he asked.

We finally got through to him that we had NO IDEA the Queen was to join us in York.  He filled us in, as we passed a bunch of horses in a field very close to The Chase.  These belonged to the Household Cavalry, who had not been out of London in some mere 350 years.  The Queen's people had all arrived before her, and she would appear tomorrow.

It seems York had been founded in the year 71, and they were throwing a party for their nineteen hundredth birthday.

More to follow, but Yes, we saw her!  Twice!  I kind of sort of doubt she noticed us.

We loved the hotel, and spent the evening figuring which sites we could cross off our list for the next day.

There was a lovely long curving parkway that wound from  Monk's Bar (I believe they told us Bar is the Danish word for Gate;  but remember  I carry a badly cracked memory now.)  This was across some lovely grasslands that stretched out behind & beyond our hotel.  It led to a place called, I think, the White Rose somethingorother.  A place for outdoor events to take place.  So after breakfast we hiked across those fields, and wound up right on the curb.  Crowds joined us, but we held our places.  We even bought small flags to wave.  British flags.  It rained.  The sun came out.  It rained.  Ditto.  The Queen was driven by on OUR side of the road.  Her car window specially made so you could see her sitting there smiling radiantly.  A grassy green and white flowered dress and turban.  She was gorgeous.  No, I mean it.  She never photographed as lovely as she truly was.  Oh, and the sun was out for her passing.

But there was MORE !

The children of York performed a pageant for her.  We did not see this.  We were holding fiercely to our place on the curb.  Kerb?

Then back she came.  This time, with the Household Cavalry.  Ornate open carriage.  Still gorgeous smile.  Still the rain had stopped for her.  Our hearts turned over with the constant thought: "What if we had missed this?"  I am not good at estimating distances, but we were very, very close to her BOTH times.

The Queen's carriage took her to a tumultuous welcome through that Danish named gate into the City of York.  Trumpets on top of the gate and all that.  The photos the next day (in the papers;  we took none ourselves.) were divine.

So we SAW the Queen of England and ........

I don't believe she ever dined out on stories of seeing us.

Oh well.

Mary Page...
... lovely story, you just happened to be in the right place at the right time, so to speak...otherwise any other day, any other time and you would have missed this eventful happening...

I loved todays story from former PM Teresa May...Link...

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-62853444

Mary Page -  That was what they call a quirk of fate . . . an unexpected but good turn of events!   How fortunate you were to see The Queen up close.   I have read over the years, that her photographs did not show how beautiful she actually was.

Jackie - I agree with you, that the UK will never be the same without Queen Elizabeth.   You could count on her always being there . . .  a calm, dependable force, through the good and the bad times.  She seemed to be almost immortal, like she would always be there . . .  but suddenly, she's gone.  A shock to everyone, even though she was 96 years old. 

When I was a child, the only places I could see photos of the little princesses in Windsor Castle were LIFE magazine and the news reel shown in the moving picture theatrex.

There was a huge and warranted fear of Polio back then, so I did not get to many movies.  I, and other children, gobbled up the pictures of Elizabeth & Margaret Rose playing or walking with their parents.  The younger sister was always called Margaret Rose back then.  Princess Elizabeth was only 3 years older than I, so I took a great interest in her.

And I can actually remember the great switchover.  The world listened in to the radio address the young king gave when he abdicated the throne so that he could marry "The Woman I love."  By the way, she was from Baltimore.  And I am pretty sure I heard the speech for the first time at the Same time the world did.

Yes, I knew of 2 kings (brothers) before Elizabeth came to the throne. 

Make that THREE kings I knew of before Princess Elizabeth became Queen.  I am pretty sure George V was King when I was born in 1929.  THEN his two sons took turns.

We ( UK ) have ourselves a new Monarch, going to be strange singing " God save our gracious King " something we now will all have to get used to...I feel confidant King Charles will emerge from the Prince that he has been to the King, that will make his " darling Mama " proud...yet he will never match our Queen Elizabeth...no one will, she was unique....

Such a lot of emphasis is mentioning our Queens " infectious " smile...She lightened up everywhere She went, every place She visited. every person She met...and always put people at their ease...Our Queen had a beautiful smile...

Good morning to everyone looking in today.  Hoping some of our regular posters will leave a message here today?

We all survived the prolonged heat wave here in California, but seems to be taking us older folks a long time to recover.  Today is the first day we have had a cool breeze blowing - almost feels too cold - but I'm not complaining.    We were fortunate, in that we only had a couple of rolling blackouts, and they were short - one to two hours.

Younger daughter Sandy, came down with a case of Covid, over the weekend.  She has been fully vaccinated, but that doesn't seem to matter anymore, as most people who have had all the shots and boosters are getting Covid anyway.   Also she tends to be a health worrier, (hypochondriac), under the best of circumstances, so she has been extremely careful throughout the entire Pandemic.  Always wears a KN95 mask when she is out in a public place,  and is a careful hand washer, etc.    Anyway, she is now taking the antiviral pills, (Paxlovid), and they are definitely helping.  I talked to her this morning, and she's feeling much better.  No more fever, and the other symptoms aren't as bad today.

She spent most of past three days watching the ceremonies and solemn processions in Scotland, honoring Queen Elizabeth, and I did too.  Very emotional, seeing the Queen's four children, all taking part in the pre-funeral rituals in Edinburgh.  The processions were beautiful, with the Royal Scottish Guards in their colorful kilts, and the family in British Navy uniforms.  Especially impressive to me, was the Vigil Ceremony, with The Queen's four children, standing silently around the coffin, for twenty minutes, with heads bowed.    It was an emotional and  beautiful sight to behold.    I hope others, who are interested, saw it as well?

Marilyne...
...i watched the " vigil " and felt so much for the four children, the cameras focussing on their face's their expressions whilst guarding their mama's coffin for all the ( televised ) world to see...i noticed they all closed their eyes ( a bit of privacy ) as the waiting public were led in passing them to pay there respects...How fitting to see the children in full uniforms...It seems that every detail so far has been precision...

As i type the plane-coffin has touched down at R A F Northolt, just 8 miles from me...

Edited: as i type, She our Queen has now arrived back, She has come home, home to Buckingham Palace, so emotional when all the crowd cheered and clapped...

Jackie, like a lot of Americans, my daughter & I have kept a TV on constantly to watch the Royals and their respect for the Queen and for the traditions she held dear. My daughter carried duel citizenship until she was 18 because she was born in a GI hospital at South Ruislip on January 25, 1956.

It was told to us that the apartment we lived in at that time was the house where the Queen's uncle and Wallis Simpson met many times before they married. The house, on a hill outside of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, had been divided into 3 complete houses and the one end house was divided into 5 flats. The carriage house & other buildings had been sold off, remodeled turned into fascinating homes.

During the days when Cas was at the base I would walk to town & visit with the store keepers or walk through the cemetery to read dates on the markers. I loved history and the chance to visit with the locals. 

"Googling" the area shows a different world now, but a piece of my heart stayed there. Later we moved to a house in High Wycombe where we stayed until my husband finished his 4 years of Air Force duty and we came "home". Alas, I never got to go back.

I have been having trouble logging into my Britbox site, still waiting on them to return my email.  But I did have the good fortune to be able to get it on my computer. So this morning before 8:00 AM our time, I logged into it, and there was the entire live streaming of the service, moving the Queen's coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Westminster location.  I was able to see the forming up of all the various "guards" (for lack of the correct word), the horses being  readied to pull the gun "trailer" on which the coffin would be placed, the bands forming up.  The whole preparation for the procession which began, as stated, at 22 minutes after the hour (8:22 here). The wonderful British commentators, so low-key, respectful and knowledgeable were a pleasure to listen to. So glad I was on Britbox and not some U.S. network and their "so called commentators". It was an awesome History Lesson with all the pageantry explained, no wonder I'm such an Anglophile! I was so proud of Princess Anne, who walked the entire procession, in her uniform, no less!  She is 76 years old! They walked in lock-step right behind the coffin. I hope our networks will show at least a part of this.  Then the religious service, which was beautiful, very moving.
The crowds who have been in line for hours & hours, will just now be getting to go into Westminster Chapel to pass the coffin and pay their last respects.

I thought Princess Anne and Prince Harry both held themselves up well, you can tell time in military service taught them well how to hold themselves and walk in step to the processions " death march, " continuous beat of the drum...that was quite a long walk they all had to do and whilst everyone keeping to same step....

I hope it will be rerun later on one of our channels, but I doubt it.    If so it would be a much shortened version - just a quick "sound bite".   I have discovered that we can get most events from the UK a little later on YouTube, with the British commentators, explaining every step and detail.  I will post the link when it shows up, for anyone who is interested.

Thank you! That will be great.  Only thing I missed was when they brought the Orb and Scepter, wish I had seen that.

The crowds/individuals seem so well-behaved and expressing their loyalty to the Queen.  Saw several men kneel and bow their heads, showing their obeisance (sp) like in ancient times. Many of the ladies curtsied.

Our local Cable provider (Verizon FIOS) Has a "BBC World News" channel, which carried it all.
I do suspect it will be repeated in the evening so that those who had to be at work can see it.