The Duchess of Cambridge has been in the wind since the end of July. On July 30-31, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were in Belgium for a ceremony marking the centenary anniversary of a World War I battle. While William has made one or two appearances since then, Kate has not. Because she’s so keen, you guys. This year is different, she swears! Her people have claimed all year that this is the year she’ll finally turn her keenness into actual, consistent public appearances. They usually claim that right before she disappears for the better part of a month.
But Kate did put in an “appearance” over the weekend. As it turns out, Will and Kate traveled to Balmoral, the Queen’s privately-owned summer estate in Scotland, at some point this month. Will, Kate, Prince Andrew, Prince Charles and Camilla were all seen attending church with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on Sunday. There’s a small chapel near Balmoral, Crathie Kirk chapel, and the Queen likes to go to church there whenever she’s in residence in Scotland. Also: I just realized that when William and Kate are in Scotland, I’m supposed to refer to them by their Scottish titles, the Earl and Countess of Strathearn. Countess Kate always sounds better to me than Duchess Kate. Alliteration! You can see a photo of Kate and William in the car with Andrew here. Kate repeated a burgundy Hobbes coat which has been in her closet for at least five years.
Anyway, do Will and Kate get a “pass” on working this month because they went and visited Balmoral? Most of the royals take off for August, although let’s be clear – Charles has been working most of this month, even when he sets aside some time to go to Balmoral. The last time the Cambridges/Strathearns went to Balmoral last year, they pretty much had to be bribed by the Queen. I wonder what the Queen had to promise them this year? A new helicopter? New jewelry? Or maybe Kate will finally get a family order? Ha, probably not. When does Prince George start big-boy school in London? It will be happening soon.
Photos courtesy of WENN and Backgrid.
I love Scotland. I would never pass up a free holiday in the highlands.
Inverness and environs was one of the loveliest, most special feeling places I have ever been.
Anyone here know and love Pressburger/Powell’s “I Know Where I’m Going”?
I have never understood why I don’t meet guys like Roger Livesey’s doctor in “A Matter of Life and Death” or his character in “I Know Where I’m Going”. I just don’t understand it.
It’s a safe bet Kate’s never seen it.
I *love* “I Know Where I’m Going”. Such beautiful b/w photography – really captures the otherworldly quality of the place. And the chemistry between the two leads is so intense.
“I Know Where” is my all time favorite movie. I’ve watched it at least 50 times.
Off topic but I will be visiting Leicester in May. Any recs? Also what is this movie about?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE that movie! And Scotland. Been there twice and was utterly enchanted by it. @Enough Already – it’s a story of a young woman (Wendy Hiller) who goes to the Hebrides to marry her older, terribly rich fiance. Bad weather prevents her from taking the boat to the fictitious island of Kiloran where he lives, so she waits it out in a small village where she meets a very interesting man who is quite taken with her. There’s a castle, a curse, a scary boat ride, love and Scotland – who could ask for more??
This sounds like a winner for my highlander loving heart 🙂
I love I Know Where I’m Going! And I know who’s going with me! I know who I love, but the de’il knows who I’ll marry.
I wouldn’t either. I want to be there for Christmas and Hogmanay one year.
@Enough Already – first stop for me in Leicester (I have not, alas, managed to get there yet) would be a visit to the Cathedral to gaze on Richard III’s tomb. I have always had a weakness for RIII and thought him horribly treated by history because of Sir Thomas More’s hatred of him and the Tudors’ insistence that he be vilified in order to shore up their (IMHO, inferior) claim to the throne. Shakespeare I think was pretty much between a rock and a hard place, and it was as much as his life was worth to tell the truth . . . I think Buckingham did away with the two Princes, not RIII.
I’m with you, seesit. I’d be at the cathedral to see Richard’s tomb. I think there’s a space center there and a RichardIII visitor center. Plus I think they have an old market.
@bluhare – this column is a bit old by now, but for those who care, I believe today is the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, and the end of the last Plantagenet King of England. Wish I could be at the cathedral today!
Me too! I plan to find Jamie Fraser and steal him away from Claire. He’s real right?
It would be nice to spend time there and really explore it.
magnoliarose, I have made “Finding Jamie Fraser in Scotland” my mission the past twenty years. Sorry, I have first dibs on him. He is mine, mine, mine! I will be on an “Outlander” tour next year. I will chain myself to a large stone and never leave until I go back in time.
I live in Inverness just a couple of miles from Culloden Battlefield. Daughter is working in the gift shop there this summer and tons of Outlanders stuff. Also near by are Clava Cairns which are like the Cairns in Outlanders.
Charles has his own home at Balmoral – Birkhall – where the old Queen Mother used to live. He also goes there for new year. Charles and Camilla are Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland.
There is a big lodge on the Balmoral estate, Craig something where the Queen stays at the very beginning of her holiday when the tourists are still allowed into Balmoral. Charles and Diana used to stay there when at Balmoral.
The Queen is at Balmoral from last third of July to beginning of October but Duke stays at Sandringham the first part. She also goes there once or twice a year for brief spells. know someone who spent a weekend with them at Balmoral last summer. Don’t think they were keen on the Yorks.
Awww. No Scotland pix? Pooh.
It’s her in a car, wearing a coat you have seen before, you are not missing anything, other than she is sitting in the back alone as William rides shotgun with his uncle.
+1000
And first after six years marry in…wow!
Ahhh that girl! Just makes me so angry. Do the bare minimum! What is your job really?! Get dressed pretty and smile. She is like the most expensive hostess ever. No offense.
I hope William makes you angry, too. My sense is that HE sets the expectations in the household & she will happily rise (or fall) to meet them.
He’s the one who was raised to appreciate the responsibility of his public role. She just falls in line with what he wants.
I think so too. It isn’t like he is a workhorse.
Waity carol and middletons are the common marry in – Unearned useless and entitled on raxpayers Duchy millions.
Kate won’t get pregnant again until she has an inside line on whether/when on Harry and MM. She has to time it so that she can show up to the wedding looking good. Announcement this autumn, wedding in spring, Kate puts it off till after the wedding, especially given her dire morning sickness issues in first trimester. New Year’s or February announcement means wedding July, she might just make it for a May birth now if she hurries, and gets a two-month window to get slim again . . .
I’d put money on that, too, but I’m already in on the PH/MM engagement.
The funnies out of the way, royals across Europe usually take August off, with the younger ones doing very occasional work.
Biology really doesn’t work that way.
I got pregnant every time I tried-it’s my only skill.
@cynicalann
It is not just getting pregnant, it is the theory of the pregnancy and weight loss schedule. Could she get pregnant on schedule? Maybe. Lose weight on schedule? Again maybe, but it gets harder with each pregnancy. Plus there are things with pregnancy that you just can’t plan for.
There are so many factors it would be hard to guarantee. Like Cynical Ann it happened very fast. Mine are close together even Irish twins in the mix.
If she is like that then she can plan but there really are no guarantees at 35.
I thought he only wanted two though. Maybe I misread that though.
I was able to plan my pregnancies so that there was at least three or four months space in between the birthdays of my kids so that I could afford the presents and birthday parties….my no planning at all mother had three children all born in May! Ugh! She used to give them joint birthday parties…eyes roll!
Every recent photo I see of her the resemblance to Carole becomes stronger!
Stand up straight! Shoulders back!
I think to get through to her you need to be even more explicit….”tits to the wind” explicit, as per Aunt Jeep in Rita Mae Brown’s novel “A Nose for Justice”……
Off topic. But I watched a Diana documentary and I can’t believe the level of cosplay that Kate does. She must have been the biggest royal fan before dating Wills.
See, I’m often oblivious to these sort of things. Can you give any examples?
Start with an image search for 1996 Princess Diana at Shaukat Khanum Hospital In Lahore, Pakistan, and then Kate at mosque in Malaysia in 2012.
@Deedee….Oh my….the color and the buttons and everything.
There’s even the clothes she wears to the clothes George and Charlotte wears. Charlottes hair is even cut the same as Diana’s when she was a kid. It’s bizarre.
http://www.instyle.com/celebrity/princess-diana-and-kate-middletons-similar-style#2973986
http://www.rd.com/culture/kate-middleton-princess-diana-fashion/
(Reader’s Digest noticed! Lol)
Her affect speech, accent, and cadence
The way she dress the kids
Her jewelry:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4806752/How-Kate-s-jewellery-box-tribute-Diana.html, CLK Tiara, Large Pearl earrings that belong in the ’80’s
Poses:
http://www.vogue.com/article/kate-middleton-princess-diana-germany
I think it’s her mother. From what I understand Carole is hugely into Diana. She probably influences Kate a lot in that way.
I agree. I don’t think that Kate has single independent thought in her head. Carol tells her what to do and what to think. I think they actually have a very unhealthy relationship, Carol living vicariously though Kate who’s unable to take a step without her mom.
I think it is a combo of Carole and Will. I think Carole wants the comparison and Will wants George and Charlotte to have the childhood he feels he missed out on.
I think so too and it doesn’t help her.
Gee, I always worn royal blue, red, white, yellow, AND I have two polka dot shirts, too! I even had an amazing plaid skirt! I’ve been cosplaying Diana all my life, and I didn’t even know it! SMDH! Honestly, Diana didn’t invent the colors, patterns, or necklines…of course Kate will “wear the same thing as Diana”, as will/do millions of others. Honestly, the reaching! Get on her for a lack of work ethic, for sure, but “copying” clothes??
Oops! Sorry, wrong place! This was meant to go under Lindsey’s comment ☺️
Going to church counts as an engagement?
Between you and me, the younger royals are conscious of the Queen and Phillip’s advancing ages and who knows how many more Balmoral Holidays they will have. Kate and Willy want to make sure people notice how loyal they are, and given the fact that he will one day be head of the Church, though not in Scotland, they should do more than attending Xmas and Easter.
Only for these two
Seeing all the specials on Diana and her public appearances drives home how little Kate is doing. Was this photo op with all the royals to take focus away from these specials?
Sebastian Shakespeare has a piece in DM from a couple days ago, how Charles just lost his right-hand man, Mark Leishman. His departure seems a bit odd since he has been with him for 14 years. The DM says he ‘dramatically quit’ hmmm. I haven’t seen any other articles, please share the tea if anyone knows.
Wow that is some scoop.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/15/holyrood-pressured-publish-prince-charless-lobbying-letters
Ok was just reading this at Guardian. Something up re interference in Scottish parliament by Prince Charles or perhaps Mark Leishman on his behalf. Seems questions have been raised for over a year but are heating up in past week. Dunno if this applies but maybe
The letters have been a thing for decades. Finalky a few years ago, tye guardian managed to get a court order to publish them. It was rather a letdown and actually made Charles look good whilst the guardian looked like they’d been pursuing a vendetta and a witchhunt.
The problem was in the reporting. For years nee decades, the guardian and other papers railed from rooftops about Charles lobbying or interfering in govt for seemingly personal gain.
The letters published showed Charles lobbying for community and welfare of various British groups. They also showed his commonsense where most people assumed he had none.
It backfired on the guardian and other media and helped make Charles more popular and the more pertinent point about his lobbying was lost.
All these specials in a short time can create a false impression.
And August us supposed to be holiday month at Balmoral.
Seeing fotos of Diana make me feel nostalgic. As a Princess, she fitted right in. The world has not seen another Princess like her.
Isn’t it comforting?
The U.S. is being hijacked by a madman whose FLOTUS is on permanent strike, Nazis are back in business, the planet is melting, and half of Africa is on the way to Europe. But there still is one thing you can count on: August means Balmoral for the British Royals. Must be nice if your whole life is a long quiet river no matter what.
Enjoy it while it lasts – after Brexit and the Queen’s passing, they will be told that Downton Abbey has been cancelled and that they will have to tighten in their belts.
She’s pregnant
Who is? Waity?
Maria, that is the name the media gave her back in her dating years to William, they called her Waity Katie. I personally call her Chutney, because she likes to make that crap at Xmas and give it as gifts, and Willy I call Chopper because he is a most serious helicopter pilot, NOT!!!!
Did she Maria Von Trapp it to make that first dress? It looks like curtains from the 70s.
All this laying bare of emotions on the loss of their mum on tv makes you realise how utterly vulnerable Wills must still have been at university.
Chutney, will put this Royal sighting of her in the back of a six figure car as an official engagement!!!