WINDSOR, England – What do you get a queen for her 90th birthday?
The thick crowds that lined the streets in Windsor, where Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her birthday, plumped for gifts including flowers (lots of carnations, reportedly the monarch’s favorite), cakes (one in the shape of a corgi), cards (many homemade) and a giant stuffed bulldog.
Windsor, an endearing city about 20 miles west of London, is the focal point for the queen’s many birthday celebrations taking place across the country.
Wearing a bright lime green coat dress and hat — she likes to be spotted in a crowd — the queen mingled with thousands of well-wishers during a 30-minute walkabout. She cheerfully accepted dozens of cards and flowers – which were quickly passed to her handlers – and unveiled a plaque marking “The Queen’s Walkway,” a 6.3-kilometer (about 3.9 mile) walking trail.
“At 90, she is still doing this,” said Jeanette Standee, 64, a self-described royalist who made the queen a birthday card and wears a watch whose face has a picture of the monarch.
There is a much more festive mood in the air than there was back in September, when Elizabeth II became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, surpassing the reign of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria. At the time, royal-watchers said she was reluctant to mark that milestone, in part because her reign began with the death of her beloved father.
But there was an undeniable lightness in the air on this sunny spring day where throngs enthusiastically belted out “Happy Birthday” as the queen walked by.
At one point , she stopped to talk to Nadiya Hussain, winner of the TV program “The Great British Bake Off,” who made the queen an orange drizzle cake with a butter cream and marmalade filling.
At an age where most people are enjoying retirement, the queen is still punching the clock. As part of her birthday celebrations this week, she met with staff at the Windsor’s Royal Mail delivery office to mark the Royal Mail’s 500th anniversary. On Friday, the queen and Prince Philip will host a lunch for Barack and Michelle Obama.
“Most people at 90 would want to kick back, I think,” said Mary Laturner, 32, an Australian living in London who was sharing a birthday-themed cake – retailers are keen to cash in on the occasion — with others in a dense crowd outside of Windsor Castle. “She’s an ambassador for what it means to work hard regardless of your age.”
Back in London, British Prime Minister David Cameron led tributes in the House of Commons, praising the monarch as a symbol of continuity, adding that when people meet her “they remember it for the rest of their lives”.
Other tributes rolled in. Actor Roger Moore, best known as one of the James Bonds, told the BBC the queen was “calm” and “beautiful” and admitted he was a tad jealous when it was Daniel Craig, another James Bond, who got to make an Olympics skit with her.
Prince Charles, the queen’s son and heir, recorded a special radio broadcast of an edited passage from William Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII.” Later in the evening, he will host a private family dinner.
Her birthday was also marked with the release of photographs taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz.
In one picture, which was splashed on the cover of the Daily Telegraph newspaper, she captures the queen with her two youngest grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, including Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who is sitting on her lap.
In the evening, the queen will light the first of over 1,000 beacons across the U.K. and beyond. The Palace of Westminster will be lit red, white and blue.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Karla Adam
