The BBC is showing a live feed of the queen’s lying in state at Westminster Hall. Two lines of well-wishers are filing past the coffin on the catafalque; some bow, some curtsey, some salute. It’s impressive to watch so many people ‘paying their respects’, in the knowledge that they have queued for many hours for these few moments. It would be possible, and certainly more convenient, to remember Queen Elizabeth II in the privacy of their own homes, but maybe they just want to “be there”: to play a small role in a national event. Many will have actually enjoyed the travel, the expense, the inconvenience, the long hours of waiting, and regard the experience as both a “day to remember” and “something to tell the grandchildren”.
Licenced today: village cricket at Crakehall, North Yorkshire. A pic so old that it was shot on film, not digital. I tried (but failed) to recreate the shot last spring, hoping that the cherry blossom would still be out during Crakehall’s first home game of the new season…
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