A long weekend

The British Queen is also, by virtue of the concept of the "divisble crown", the head of state of Aotearoa.

It is somewhat confusing and Aotearoa New Zealand's releationship with the British Royal Family is complicated, as you can hear in this YouTube clip and read in this article, but around the world many people are celebrating Queen Elizabeth's 70th year on the throne. 

The picture on the left of this page is of a box in which a damask tea cloth is stored. Now a little torn, the tea cloth has had many years of use by our neighbour's family and it was used at a dinner party in recognition of the occasion. The blue damask is decorated with silver pictures of the castles and properties that the Queen owns and, as the other image shows, portraits of Queen Elizabeth, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, a young Charles, Prince of Wales, and Princess Royal, Anne. The cloth was woven in Dunfermline in Scotland - here is a fascinating article about the Royal linen weaving of Drumsheugh where the Dunfermline trade originated - and made its way to the West Coast through family connection, a link to the country from which they emigrated.