Royal High Tea and 'Out of office'

Picture of Palace 'Het Loo' (from internet)

What fun it is to splash out on your birthday in a Royal environment!

The other day I invited a few people to visit the fabulous exhibition

'Beeld van Beatrix'

('Picture of Beatrix')

at the Palace 'Het Loo' at Apeldoorn

and to celebrate my birthday with a Royal High Tea afterwards.

We could not finish it all, it was delicious! Mind you, this picture is at the beginning of the Tea and more brought on to our table as time went on.

The visitors to the exhibition were invited to vote for the best creation. Incredibly difficult for me to choose. Forever the red white and blue (by Carla Rodenburg) at the bottom row is my favorite painting of the Queen, but the one to the left of it, made of pieces of thrift wood, and 3 dimensional, scores also very high with me. Click on the picture to have a closer look and to see how creative this is.

Every picture was so inspiring that it made me start on a painting of the Queen once back at home. I used a photograph of her last address to Parliament in September 2012, wearing a gorgeous flattering golden feather hat. The composition with the roses is so extraordinary. Once finished it will appear on here!

Beautiful floral arrangements and mirror walls reflecting the features of the Ball Room where we had High Tea. The Ball Room is a restaurant in the wing along the lawn in the top picture. A lovely secluded place and the sun shining happily that day!

Goodies on display in the Ball Room, for sale in the Museum Gift Shop. Temptations, temptations! I came home with a book on portrait paintings of Princess Juliana, a bottle of wine with a picture of the winning art creation 'Diplomacy'  and postcards. The picture of Queen Beatrix by Ellen Meuwese was sold out, alas. It is a lovely picture that in just a few paint brushes sketches her personality and  the way we know her.
We will toast to the Queen tomorrow with champagne and wil have an orange dinner, with the wine with the prize winning picture on it. A toast to the new King, of course, wishing him strength and wisdom to fulfill this extremely difficult job.
Needless to say we will be glued to the television, as we will not be going amongst the huge crowds, and not wanting to miss anything of the ceremony in Amsterdam. There are such interesting programs on television on historic moments we never heard or seen before.

Today is Queen's Beatrix last day 'in office'. Would she, like any modern being these days, fill in an 'out of office' in her computer? It is just a silly brain wave of mine.
Visiting the exhibition 'Beeld van Beatrix' (Picture of Beatrix) is impressive. The exhibition lingered on my mind until the next day, it made me really stand still and think about her life, devoted to what fate chose her for. We will miss her. I admire her greatly, as you have read on occasions in my previous posts.

A great big Thank You to Queen Beatrix and wishing her a healthy and happy time for the future! And of course a wonderful time 'out of office'!

This painting symbolizes to me the beginning of her retirement. Queen Beatrix is just a ribbon away from it: out of office, no more musts, only mays.

www.koninklijkhuis.nl