Citizens!

Here's one of our new dahlias, on our new patio table. I love the color of the dahlia but the plant, along with almost all the rest of our dahlias, has been attacked by powdery mildew. It's a problem they often face as the summer wanes, and it's especially bad this year, I suspect because of that dubious compost I planted them in. The stuff is like sawdust and doesn't hold moisture well, so the plants dry out quickly, and repeatedly drying out puts a plant at risk for powdery mildew.

I read online that spraying them with a milk solution can help, and although skeptical I tried it. Hard to say whether they benefitted or not, but they did briefly smell funny.

Anyway, enough of that. I know you're all wondering about our citizenship ceremony!

Yes, Dave and I are now citizens of the UK. Here we are with the Camden borough mayor, Cllr. Eddie Hanson, holding our citizenship certificates. Hanson has an interesting backstory -- he came to the UK as a teenager from Sierra Leone and is the first Camden mayor of West African descent. In his brief speech to all of us, he used his own experience to illustrate the opportunities available in the UK.

The ceremony went like this: After registration, we all sat in the Camden council chamber, an ornate room where borough council meetings are normally held. There were 61 of us being sworn in as citizens, and we were separated into two groups -- the "swear" group (who took a traditional oath mentioning God) and the "affirm" group (who pledged a more secular affirmation). Dave and I chose to be in the "affirm" group, which was the larger of the two, but honestly it wouldn't have made much difference to me. I don't particularly believe in God but I don't have a problem saying his/her name.

A professional photographer took our pictures when we first arrived:

See those big cloth flags? There's a story attached to them. When Dave and I first moved into our flat, in 2014, those flags were in the closet. I kept them, always planning to use them if and when we became citizens. So when the opportunity finally arose I brought them with us. We were also given little cardboard flags like the small one I'm holding. There were plenty of Union Jacks on hand! I'm also holding a printed copy of our citizenship affirmation.

As we waited for the ceremony to start, an acoustic mix of Beatles songs played softly in the background. I thought this was both enjoyable (being a Beatles fan) and kind of funny, as hearing "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid" and "Norwegian Wood" at such a ceremonious occasion seemed a bit incongruous.

We were sworn in all together, first the "oath" group and then the "affirm" group, pledging our adherence to British laws and values and our allegiance to the King, his heirs and descendants. The mayor gave his brief speech. Then we were called individually to the front of the room to collect our certificates, which is when the photo with the mayor was taken. Interestingly, Dave and I were the only family group -- everyone else was being sworn in singly.

The people came from all over the world -- the clerk read out many of the countries and they included many of the nations in continental Europe, as well as Taiwan, India, South Africa, Eritrea, Colombia and Brazil (and the USA, obviously). An Italian guy sat next to me during the ceremony. As the clerk said, "I think we've hit every continent!" (I don't remember Australia or New Zealand being mentioned, but maybe they were.)

There were several other Americans among the crowd, including a guy sitting in front of us wearing a "Denali" t-shirt. (I chose to believe it was his silent protest against Trump renaming the mountain McKinley, but I didn't get a chance to ask him.) One American we spoke to said she'd lived in London for 40 years, but was only prompted to seek citizenship when Trump came to power.

After the ceremony, Dave and I went to the OXO Tower Restaurant on the Thames and had a fancy, leisurely lunch on an outdoor terrace with pink champagne and a view of the river. It was a great way to cap off the special occasion.

The restaurant gave us congratulatory plates with our desserts. (I told them what we were celebrating when I made our booking.)

So that was that! We came back to the flat, Dave promptly fell asleep (he's still a bit jet-lagged from his visit to the states) and I did some necessary stuff around the house in preparation for going back to work today -- which I am about to do now. Nose to the grindstone!