Thank you, Ma’am
Together with the rest of the country we paid tribute to our Queen on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee.
We have a particular way of celebrating at HPC. It usually involves alcohol, quite often flowers, and always cake! Lucy’s Jubilee Cake was a triumph. Glitteringly iced and sporting a whole team of corgis it tasted as good as it looked. I should say cakes because there was a crown shaped one as well, to say nothing of tiers of cup cakes made by various bakers in the congregation. it was the stickiest event we’d had in a long time.
The church was suitably decorated, inside and out. The decorating team – Jeremy up a ladder tying bunting, the flower team inside creating seven magnificent arrangements, one for each decade of the Queen’s reign and embellished with a photo of each period – started early. We wanted to be ready for the anniversary of Coronation Day itself. Whether the flowers would last was a bit of a worry but the weather – uncooperative in almost every other way – was on our side, and the cold kept them fresh through to Sunday and beyond (they still looked good for the Hampstead Collective’s Jubilee concert on Monday).
Our efforts were overlooked by Her Majesty in the form of a cardboard cutout, leant for the occasion by Angela Read.
Sunday dawned cold and damp – true royal weather as anyone who remembers the Coronation will recall. And frankly the church was pretty cold too. But our hearts were warm – this was a very special occasion. And it was Pentecost too – the church’s birthday. We sang the national anthem. We drank a loyal toast. We celebrated. It wasn’t quite the party in the churchyard we had hoped for but residents of Church Row did find their way in to celebrate with us.
The day ended with Choral Evensong when more wine and cake were served after some glorious music.
And if we didn’t have marmalade sandwiches there was marmalade in some of Andrew’s cupcakes.
The flowers….
The cakes….
