God Bless the Queens

Another day, another hat from the Chelsea Flower Show. I loved each and every one, and wish I'd shot them all. I also wish I'd shot the people photographing them - it was quite bizarre, and almost spiritual, as if we were worshipping at some kind of shrine. A rite to spring, in a sense. Funny how my two favourite events at the Chelsea Flower Show this year revolved around hats. The other being, of course, Carry's panama ones (see 'fair trade').

I'm not the only one fascinated with these real floral hats, apparently. As reported in the Times here, so is the Queen. Why do I find this article so fascinating? They also talk about a garden for the show, made of scents originally created for a previous Elizabeth, the 1st, made of cloves, purple fennel for its seeds, Pinus mugo, a dwarf piine species for its needles, iris and roses for their fragrance and elegant white cedars. God Bless the Queen, and God Bless the RHS.