I didn’t talk much about King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Order of the Garter service on Monday, so here you go – some photos of their arrival and exit at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor. It honestly felt like this year’s Garter service was kind of subdued – there was no huge controversy, no big briefing war ahead of the event, and Prince Andrew was basically banned and he still hasn’t said anything about it. Camilla is a lady of the Garter, which means she got to wear that velvet robe and the feathered hat and everything else. It feels like a lot of layers for two septuagenarians in June.

Charles and Camilla will reportedly attend every day of Royal Ascot this week, and then they’ll go to Scotland in the first week of July. I don’t know if that’s when they plan to start their summer holiday in Balmoral and Birkhall, but I did see this interesting little piece about how Charles and Camilla won’t stay in Scotland as long as QEII used to.

King Charles will gather the Royal Family together at Balmoral for summer holidays but with an important change from tradition. Balmoral Castle, in Scotland, was a favourite of the late Queen Elizabeth and the royals would spend the summer there since the time of Victoria when she acquired the estate. But this year the family’s stay at the 50,000-acre estate in Aberdeenshire is likely to be shorter.

Currently the grounds, gardens and exhibitions at Balmoral are being redecorated and they will remain open to the public until mid-August, giving a shorter window for the royals to stay.

The late Queen would typically stay at the castle until October but it is expected that Charles and his family will head off before that to get back for public engagements.

“We expect the family will be together there in the summer. But diaries are still being sorted,” a royal source told the Express. It is understood that at least some of the family will stay at the castle.”

Charles and Camilla have continued to stay at their Jacobean home, Birkhall, on the edge of the estate since the death of Queen Elizabeth.

[From The Daily Mirror]

Balmoral, Birkhall and Castle of Mey are all privately owned by Charles now, although I think he “gave” Castle of Mey to his charity to operate as a tourist attraction/rental. Charles prefers Birkhall and that’s where he wants to stay, and he apparently plans to use Balmoral for, like, family dinners and such. It’s true that QEII liked to stay at Balmoral all summer, through late September and even into early October some years. It’s interesting that Charles will not only refuse to stay at Balmoral, but he’s refusing to stay in Scotland for the whole summer. Interesting.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.