I feel we should mark this amazing achievement.
Congratulations to Queen Elizabeth!
I wrote to her!

BBC link
Your Diamond Jubilee message to The Queen
We are delighted to present Her Majesty The Queen
with your message of congratulations on the eve of her Diamond Jubilee.
We have received more than two thousand messages from the four corners of the world - from London to Japan and Canada to South Africa - each with its own unique message. We very much hope that Her Majesty enjoys the treasured memories of her reign so far.

Onya, Liz!

Well, I've got bunting on my avatar so I'm ready for the party!

I wonder what the iconic image will be from this Jubilee? I don't think I shall ever forget Brian May playing God Save The Queen from the roof of Buckingham Palace for the Golden Jubilee, they'll have to go a long way to top that.

The only thing I am curious of is why are they having the jubilee celebration four months after the fact? Didn't she ascend in February?

She's only the second queen to keep that title after sixty years.

Obviously, Dave, you have not been in London in Feb!

I have ... I flew out out London on the 15th of February many years ago and vividly remember trudging through the snow so it's a good move to wait til June.
But I saw one weather report that they're expecting heavy rains the day of the Thames flotilla?
That will be a shame if it does.

February in London ...... ewwwww! Hope the weather holds.

No, I've never even been to London at all, but I have contended with 12.5" of snow in February here in Dallas.

The main feature of English weather is not heat, cold, rain, drought or anything like that, but simply unpredictability. If the organizers thought they'd have a chance of fine weather in June, they must have forgotten the Queen's coronation - held in early June in pouring rain!

Who could forget Queen Salote riding through the deluge in an open carriage, smiling and waving as though the heavens poured cold water on her every day?

Queen Salote was a very tall woman, and quite large as is the Tongan way. She shared the carriage with the Sultan of Kelantan, who was relatively small and not nearly as outgoing. So when someone asked Noel Coward who was with Queen Salote, he replied "Her lunch?"

It's almost certain that it will rain tomorrow but the current prediction is that the heaviest rain will fall about 60-70 miles north of London. In other words, right over my house!

Well you'd better get up to Buck House quick!

it is due to rain here all day Tuesday at the moment, soggy party!

Tom, have you been to Texas? That sounds exactly like my weather...unpredictable.

I do hope the jubilee celebration goes well without any issues.

A convoy of a thousand boats on the Thames! I must admit I'm quite excited about that.

The BBC has done a slide show about previous Thames pageants in case anyone's interested:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18107913

Have a jolly marvellous time everyone! Pip pip, cheerio and all that rot

Some lovely pics here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-18302995
(I am sooo homesick!)

Are you doing anything in Hong Kong, Ren? Getting together with some expats or something?

We have a boat from Jersey taking part in the pageant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-16410341

This is an image tweeted by Peter J Holland and judging by other comments I think he was the photographer. I hope so, because overnight this image has gone viral.

Buckingham Palace dressed up for the Jubilee

One of the entries from Jersey in the Chelsea Flower Show last week was moved to Epson Racecourse as it was deemed appropriate for the Queen so see yesterday. She liked it when she saw it last week so will probably be surprised to see it again a week later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-18247845

Fabulous photo, Flopsey!

I'm watching the SKY coverage - it just seemed more appropriate to listen to English commentators than Australian ones lol.
It looks like the weather is improving as the day goes on

The security must be astounding with about a million people expected to watch from the banks.

Dave, yes she did ascend in February 1952 but the Coronation wasn't until June 1953, so even though the actual 60 year anniversary was in February they are marking it with the official celebrations on Coronation weekend. This is also her "official" birthday (she has two) and usually we have Trooping the Colour this weekend.

I'm watching the river pageant on TV, and at the moment it look as though it has pretty much stopped raining. Certainly Kate and William have just arrived without an umbrella in sight. She looks lovely, bright red outfit. The river banks and bridges are jam packed and people slept out on the embankments last night to get a good place. We don't let a bit of rain stop us - we're too used to it for that.

Apart from anything else, who wants to have a big celebration week in the winter? February in the UK is not something that you want, possibly snow and certainly pretty cold by UK standards.

There are some good pictures in the Daily Telegraph.

The Queen's official birthday this year will be on 16th June, marked as usual by Trooping the Colour - I assume it was deferred because of there being so many events this weekend but it is always a movable feast and can be held on either the first, second, or third Saturday in June. I hope the Queen uses next weekend to soak her feet after standing up all that time today!

During all this pageantry, celebration, and partying let us take a moment to remember the woman that made all of this possible, Wallis Simpson! Liz would never had made it to the throne if it wasn't for her.

Actually she probably would have made it to the throne, just not to her Jubilee. Edward didn't show much sign of wanting to settle down and providing an heir not alone a spare so she probably would have ended up as queen.

Flopsy - I was surprised she stood up all the time. It looked as though there was plenty of comfortable seating provided, yet she and Philip stayed on their feet, which isn't bad at 86 and 90 respectively. And of course, as no-one else is allowed to sit unless she does.... I just hope Camilla and Kate had comfortable shoes on!

I thought Camilla seemed to be dancing just a tiny little bit to the "Jack's the Lad" hornpipe played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra towards the end of the pageant.

Yes, I noticed that. I think one of the more bizarre sights I've seen was a full orchestra floating down river on a boat complete with choir singing their hearts out, even though they looked soaked to the skin.

I thought Charles, Camilla, and Catherine were all jiggling - his dress sword was keeping time anyway.

And that choir... aww. Still, they were determined to do their bit and they sounded fine so what's a good soaking between clefs? I was sorry we didn't get a bit more of the bells leading the whole flotilla - it took them years to plan that boat, cast the bells, tune and mount them, and we saw hardly anything of them. Plus at 105 decibels you'd have thought we'd have heard more of them.

Yes, I'd like to have seen more of them. I think there was just so much it was hard for the TV to keep up with all of it. I reckon at some stage the BBC will edit it all together into a coherent DVD showing the whole thing more in organised sequence, showing a bit more of each of the various elements. There must be loads of footage they shot but didn't show live.

That's the only think I found disappointing, after a terrific show, the fact that we didn't hear the music till the end.
But wasn't it terrific? I stayed up till 2 am. I am about to stagger in to work and no one else will have watched it, or even known it was on, probably. We miss a lot since 1997!

I loved it when the Sailors Hornpipe was played, they couldn't stop themselves jiggling about, so spontaneous.

I will be glad when it is all over, for their sakes, the stress on such elderly people must be immense and I would hate for one of them to keel over.

We watched until the end which was 1am here in Australia. As far as I could see the Queen didn't sit down for the whole time...she must have been exhausted and very cold. She was here in Australia earlier in the year when it was very hot and looked absolutely amazing and also displayed masses of stamina then too. Long Live the Queen, Charles will have a lot to live up to.

That concert was impressive .. although I think a couple of the older performers need to hang up their hats now. Loved what they did with the lights on the Palace. Amazing.

Am just watching a little of the functions today and the family are going to appear on the balcony in the afternoon. I just can't help but think of that Goodies episode lol (I wonder if that's on youtube? must look for it ... " We want the Duke! We want the Duke!" 0

It was a pretty good concert wasn't it, although yes, I think Cliff and Sir Paul could reasonably consider retirement now. Thought Tom Jones was good and Stevie Wonder and Elton John and for me the completely highlight was Alfie Boe, both his solo bit and the duet with Renee Fleming which was just beautiful. Fireworks at the end were impressive as well.

Look out for Sir Gary Barlow sometime soon I reckon.

I'd have thought Sir Gary would be quite likely, too. Tom Jones seems to get better and better, and Paul McCartney sounded very weak. Cheryl Cole was the worst of all, though. The lighting effects, especially during the Madness songs, were very impressive.

Burly Chassis wasn't bad either, and for 74 years of age still has a very powerful voice.

Apologies, she's 75, born 8 January 1937.

Mathematics was never a strong point, I always used to get half the questions wrong, and the other three-quarters were doubtful.

Got to agree that Alfie Boe was the star of the show for me too. The concert seems to have gone down well

Did anyone else, like me, consider BBC gave far too much coverage to under-talented, over paid, "celebrity" drivel, during River Pageant, and too little coverage to the pageant itself!

Personally, I turned the sound off on the TV, as I wanted to watch the pageant (when BBC consented to show it and not some prattling "celebrity")and not the actions of some overpaid minor non-entity.

Whomsoever organised the river pageant, should be rewarded with the highest honour possible at the next honours list.
It was a breathtaking spectacle. Whomsoever organised the BBC TV coverage of it should, IMO, be rewarded with the SACK!
I would suggest, those in authority in BBC, watch either the Coronation or the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, as an example of GOOD coverage. Just a skilled narrator to explain proceedings, and not an endless procession of "stars", each with an over inflated view of their own importance, to the detriment of the programme.

Tend to agree with you there. The pageant was wonderful, but the coverage was awful and there have been so many complaints about it. Just uninterrupted coverage of the boats was all that was needed, with a good presenter who knew who was in them, what the history of the boat was, that sort of thing.

I agree, too. I wish I'd realised that Sky were covering it as their programme must have been better, since it could hardly have been worse. Not one presenter seemed to actually know anything about what was going on or explain any history. Disappointing, to say the least.

Luckily, living in London, I could make the most of the whole thing. I went and watched the flotilla from just below Tower Bridge - opposite where the Royal barge moored at the end. And yes, I did get rather wet, despite a strong waterproof coat. But it did mean I missed the naff BBC commentary. Being a ringer myself, I was keen to see the floating bells (I knew some of the ringers), and look forward to ringing on them later in the year when they are put in St James Garlickhythe.

On Monday night (after watching most of the concert on TV), we had a beacon-lighting ceremony in a park three minutes walk from where I live; though to be honest it wasn't an especially impressive beacon - just a silver cup with a propane-fuelled flame!

Finally, on Tuesday, my daughter and I got up early and went up to the Mall to see the Queen drive past in her carriage, and then managed to get a good spot in front of Buckingham Palace for the balcony appearance. The atmosphere was wonderful - well worth the effort.

That sounds brilliant.

Right Stedman! So go to Photo a day and post your photos! Please!

I have a question. Why can't Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, attend any royal functions? She has retained her royal title (I think) and her behavior was far from royal at times, but she is the mother of two recognized princesses and the wife (ex-wife?) of a prince of the blood.

Times were different when the late Princess Margaret displayed very un-royal behavior. She was the Sarah Ferguson of the 50s and 60s but remained royal. Is it because she was a princess of the blood?

To answer your last question first, yes, Princess Margaret was a princess of the blood and her HRH title could not be taken from her. Even so, she never got reported, in the UK at least, as doing anything as scandalous as Sarah Ferguson did - and went on doing.

Fergie's HRH title was removed, as was Diana's; she's known as Sarah, Duchess of York but without the HRH it's only a courtesy title. As an ex-wife she's not invited to public events - do many people get their bosses to invite their ex-spouses to business functions or the bishop to include them in church services? I think she used to be allowed to stay in a house on the estate at Balmoral or Sandringham when the York girls were there on vacation but I seem to remember that arrangement was halted when she got involved in yet another set of shenanigans. You realise that the Queen spent millions rescuing Fergie, and then she want and did it all again, but worse. I don't think Fergie was nearly as popular over here as she has been in the USA and I suspect that many Brits would choke if they saw her turn up at Westminster Abbey for some royal function or other. I'd love to see the Queen's face though, lol. Wait, no, I wouldn't do that to the Queen, sorry Ma'am. Dang, that's my peerage gone.

The role of the York girls is a bit up in the air at present. Rumour has it that Prince Andrew wants his daughters to take on royal duties. However, Prince Charles, who is the heir, wants to slim down the monarchy and believes that the York girls should not be financed from the public purse and should get jobs. Judging by the Jubilee service and other events, like the carriage ride and balcony appearance, Charles is winning. And I can't believe that the taxpayers will object too much.