Didn’t the Queen look radiant yesterday at Chelsea Flower Show?  Copyright prevents me from posting a photo of her here (instead you have a picture of that most sumptuous May flower – the Peony) – but she was wearing a beautiful multicoloured pastel suit and beaming away at all and sundry.  Gosh, she’s amazing.  And today she’s got the State Opening of Parliament! A hectic schedule for the most seasoned superstar, but then she is in a different league.    

I love Chelsea Flower Show.  I’ve only been once, when it was impossible to see anything because the crowds were 8 people deep in front of each of the garden displays.  So, now I watch it on TV and find it sort of comforting and reassuring.  Alan, who is looking very slim these days, presents with aplomb. The whole show feels gentle – just what one needs in the face of economic uncertainty and the hamster wheel we live on.  It’s also one of those things that brings so many people together – like Wimbledon or the World Cup, and because of that gives many more of us an opportunity to have a conversation with someone we may never usually speak to.

I wonder what I’d say to the Queen if I met her?  Maybe I just wouldn’t be able to get the words out; I’d be so nervous.  I’m sure she’d deal with the situation adroitly and say something like: ‘Oh how wonderful you could come today, we think the work you do is simply tremendous’.  And I would stand there, speechless, just basking in her magnificence.