Thanks, Vicky! Your Historical Guide to the Long Weekend

Let us pause for a moment on this Friday, as the prospect of the Victoria Day Long Weekend stretches glorious before us, rich with promise, and reflect on the monarch to whom we owe our three-day break. Here's a bit of Victoriana for your contemplation as you prepare the garden, the barbecue, or whatever rite of spring you'll be practicing.

1. She NEVER said "We are not amused", and was said by her family to have an excellent sense of humour.
2. On the throne for 63 years and 7 months, she ruled longer than any other female monarch in history, anywhere.
3. Although she and her husband (and first cousin), Albert, had nine children, she hated being pregnant, viewed breast-feeding with disgust, and thought newborn babies were ugly. She confided:"I positively think that those ladies who are always enceinte are quite disgusting; it is more like a rabbit or a guinea pig than anything else and really it is not very nice." 
4. Victoria was an accomplished artist and produced many paintings and sketches.
5. The term "Victorian" has become synonymous with the notion of sexual repression; that, however, was not reflective of Victoria's attitudes, but those of Albert. According to the Duke of Wellington, Albert was "extremely straitlaced and a great stickler for morality whereas she was rather the other way."
   
 

All righty, then! Dazzle your friends and family with these factoids, have a great long weekend, and we'll talk again next Tuesday.