a royal jewelry box

a diamond daisy for queen daisy

the greenland crown

a more contemporary headpiece that fits the queen's up-dos. 

some of the many honorary titles and orders the queen has been given by various countries over her 50 year reign.

the pearl and diamond set that the queen often travels with, since the crown jewels aren't allowed to leave the country. 

a versatile three-piece set that the queen often wears.

this is probably a bad blog post because i know so few of the details of these pieces. i went to an exhibition at the amailenborg museum (that's the residence of the danish queen). it features the queen's jewelry. actually, the royal family's jewelry, not just the queen's. it is quite well done - you get a listening device that you scan along the way and hear the queen tell about the jewelry on display in her own words. my friend and i were speaking english, so the docent handed the device to us, set to english. the english voice was some snotty brit and hearing the explanations in her accent was utterly off-putting, so we had to go back and have them set them to danish. it was so much warmer and more palatable in the queen's own words. it was actually quite interesting, the difference that made. the brit imitating the queen sounded so condescending and the danish queen doesn't sound like that at all. 

and it wasn't all historical tiaras passed down from the russian tsars or the swedish royal family, there was also a pair of blue plastic earrings that the queen bought one summer in matas, a shop with an outlet in every town that features makeup, shampoo, nail polish and other personal care items. 

there's so much history and thought behind the pieces. and so much thought behind when they are worn and by whom. and who made them and for which occasion. it made me glad that i live my ordinary life, though it made me want to do so more deliberately. 

these are the things we'll remember

the queen was in town today. she goes around denmark every summer on her yacht and today, it was our little town's turn. the town is celebrating its 200th anniversary and the queen came to honor that. it was a beautiful sunny, perfect autumn day for her visit (thank you google weather gods).

the entire school gathered in the schoolyard this morning. i went along to take pictures and to be together with sabin on this momentous occasion. tho' the queen is no kennedy (they're the closest we have to royalty, right? tho' maybe the obamas are in that category now), she's still the queen.

3B had to fall in line for the walk across town to where the queen's carriage would pass by. that's sabin's fabulous former business class stewardess teacher (look, isn't her hair perfect?) capably herding the third graders into line.

everyone got a flag to wave as the queen passed by. there wasn't much left of some of the flags by the time the queen actually came, so it might have been a bit better to hand them out once we got there.

it took quite awhile for the queen to come once we were in position. i think they managed to ask how long it would be approximately 438 times before she finally came.

doing a little practice flag-waving

finally the hussars mounted on horseback came.

it was all very grand with the horns heralding the arrival of the queen

i love the shell-covered bridles. they were very festive.
even if these two look like they wish they were somewhere else.

and there she is - queen margarethe II of denmark

and prince henrik, her french husband
don't you love her earrings? kind of viking-y.

the queen's flag

and bringing up the procession, a big truck to clean up the "heste homhom" as sabin calls it.

that's horse poo to you and me.

i know jelica will love this. it's a well-functioning society, what can we say?

i'm really glad i was able to go with sabin and take pictures.

this is the stuff you remember when you grow up.