Raining on their parade

Today the Adjutant General's Corps held their 30th Anniversary Freedom Parade in the centre of Winchester.  There were lots of bigwigs there, including the Duchess of Gloucester (who was a cousin of the Queen's?).  The piece of paper thrust into my hand says,
The right of Freedom of Entry is an ancient privilege and allows the Corps to parade through the City 'to the beat of drums, with swords drawn, bayonets fixed and colours flying'

I think in old and less certain times armed soldiers were not allowed to bring weapons into the City.

I got these three shots while they were marching.  You do get good faces in the Army and I particularly liked this lad because he didn't look entirely as glued together as his commanding officer might have hoped ;))

Two more in Extras.

Oh, yes, and the title - I stood and waited by the barricades for twenty minutes for them to arrive, but stupidly lost my first blipping place because I felt faint (not a Miranda thing to do).  So perhaps I was shooting under trickier-than-usual circs.  And as for the Corps, just as they got down the High Street to the Broadway it started to pour - that very fine, absolutely soaking rain.  So perhaps none of us were quite as cheery as we could have been.  But mission was accomplished.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, lovely blippers  xx