Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed the 17th novel in the Maisie Dobbs series: A Sunlit Weapon. Tina reviewed books 8 and 10 in the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves — she liked one more than the other. Anne shared the story of her British ancestor, Lady Smiley, including many vintage photographs published in the society pages of periodicals.

I enjoyed catching glimpses of the four-day Platinum Jubilee weekend last Thursday through Sunday to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 70th year on the throne. Unfortunately, the Queen missed many of the events that she was expected to attend. That’s a problem with planning a party for a nonagenarian.

She did appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, with family, to watch the fly overs associated with the Trooping of the Colors on Thursday. That evening, she started the ceremony that began the lighting of over 3000 beacons all over Great Britain and the Commonwealth. This clip shows the cascade of lights at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.

The Queen took everyone by surprise by appearing on the balcony again on Sunday, in a lovely green suit and hat. She got to hear a rousing rendition of “God Save the Queen” sung by the boisterous crowd attending the final day of celebrations.

My favorite part, though, was being completely charmed by the Queen having tea with Paddington Bear:

Did you enjoy the Platinum Jubilee celebrations?