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May 20 – The Queen Visits Catherine’s ‘Back To Nature’ Garden

The Duchess of Cambridge showed off her ‘Back To Nature’ Garden to The Queen and other members of The Royal Family after an earlier engagement with school children. It’s truly amazing to see The Duchess enjoying herself after working so hard on this project since January. The hard work truly shows.

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May 20 | The Queen Visits Catherine’s ‘Back To Nature’ Garden

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May 20 – ‘Back To Nature’ Garden At The RHS Chelsea Flower Show

On May 20, 2019 The Duchess of Cambridge officially opened her Back To Nature’ Garden At The RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Ahead of showing off her project to The Queen and other members of the Royal Family, The Duchess joined local schoolchildren for some outdoor activities, including reed boat baking and marshmallow toasting. The Duchess designed her ‘Back to Nature’ Garden to inspire children, families and communities to get outside and enjoy the huge benefits that nature has on our physical and mental well being.

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May 20 | ‘Back To Nature’ Garden At The RHS Chelsea Flower Show

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Official Portraits – ‘Back To Nature Garden’ with RHS Chelsea

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge revealed photos from a private visit to Catherine’s ‘Back To Nature’ Garden with George, Charlotte, and Louis. The Palace also revealed that over the past months, the children have helped The Duchess gather moss, leaves and twigs to help decorate the garden. Hazel sticks collected by the family were also used to make the garden’s den.

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May 19, 2019 | ‘Back To Nature Garden’ with RHS Chelsea

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Official Portraits – ‘Back To Nature Garden’ with RHS Chelsea

The Duchess of Cambridge offered a sneak peek of her Chelsea Flower Show Back to Nature’ Garden! Kensington Palace revealed details of the garden on Twitter saying: “The garden includes a swing seat, hanging below the garden’s centrepiece, a high platform tree house. The high platform tree house is inspired by a bird or animal nest and provides a wonderful place to retreat and look out through the trees. The treehouse is made from chestnut, with hazel, stag horn oak and larch nest cladding. The ‘Back to Nature’ Garden is aiming to inspire interaction with the natural environment through its multi-sensory, green and blue plant scheme. The garden is also filled with incredible edibles, plants for craft activities, forest scents and a diverse range of plants, shrubs and trees of different heights and textures.”

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May 18, 2019 | ‘Back To Nature Garden’ with RHS Chelsea

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May 14 – The Duchess Of Cambridge Visits Bletchley Park D-Day Exhibition

On May 14, 2019 The Duchess of Cambridge visited Bletchley Park to view a special D-Day Exhibition in the newly restored Teleprinter Building. The exhibition marks the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings and the new exhibition ‘D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion’, is based on newly declassified material, showing how the intelligence efforts coordinated at Bletchley Park helped specifically in the success of the D-Day landings at Normandy. Visiting Bletchley Park holds extra meaning to Catherine as her Grandmother and Great Aunt, Valerie and Mary Glassborow, worked at Bletchley Park as “code-beakers” during the Second World War. She was surprised to find that her grandmother and great aunt’s names were the latest additions to Bletchley’s Codebreakers’ Wall. Once inside Catherine joined students taking part in interactive activities using a real Enigma machine. The Duchess also met with veterans Elizabeth Diacon, Georgina Rose, Audrey Mather and Rena Stewart — who all worked to feed crucial information to Allied forces in the critical months, weeks and days leading up to D-Day.

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May 14 | The Duchess Of Cambridge Visits Bletchley Park D-Day Exhibition

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The Cambridges & Sussexes Launch Mental Health Texting Service ‘Shout’

It’s been a busy week for the royals, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcoming their first child, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge traveling to Wales for a day of engagements, and Prince Harry visiting the Hague to launch an Invictus Games 2020 countdown. And now, both royal couples are coming together to launch an initiative that speaks to an issue they’ve long championed: mental health awareness.

The Cambridges and Sussexes have teamed up to debut Shout, a text messaging service available 24/7 to those struggling with mental health in the U.K. The program pairs users with trained volunteers to help those in need “move from a moment of crisis to a calm state and form a plan for next steps to find longer-term support,” according to a Kensington Palace announcement.

Shout is a part of the Royal Foundation’s Heads Together initiative, a campaign established in 2016 that works with a variety of charities to break the stigma around conversations surrounding mental health issues.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a joint statement about Shout:

“We are incredibly excited to be launching this service, knowing it has the potential to reach thousands of vulnerable people every day. Over the last few months Shout has started working quietly behind the scenes. We have all been able to see the service working up close and are so excited for its future. At the heart of this service will be an incredible national volunteer community, one which needs to grow to allow us to support more people in crisis. We hope that many more of you will join us and be part of something very special.”

Prince William also appears in a launch video for the service, discussing the work that went into the launching the program. “Over the past few months, Shout has started working quietly behind the scenes,” he says. “Harry, Meghan, Catherine and I have been able to see the service working up close, and are very excited for its future.”

Shout already has a volunteer base of 1,000, but the organization hopes to increase that to 4,000 by the end of 2019. Prince William closes his message with a final call to action: “This will make a huge difference to people’s lives, and I really hope you will come and join our team.”

Source: Harpers Bazaar

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May 08 – The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Visit North Wales

Today, May 08, 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge traveled to North Wales to meet individuals and organisations in the region who are encouraging people to look after their communities and protect the natural environment. Their fist stop was to Caernarfon Coastguard Search and Rescue Helicopter Base where Prince William had the pleasure of catching up with two individuals whom he worked alongside during his time as a Search and Rescue Pilot. They also got the chance to view Caernarfon Coastguard Search and Rescue’s new Sikorsky S92 helicopter, before sitting down with individuals from Maritime and Coastguard Agency to talk about mental health.

There next stop was to Halen Mon Anglesey Sea Salt, a local business which has been operating for over two decades which harvests culinary salts by taking sea water from the Menai Strait, passing it through a series of carbon filters, which concentrate it into stronger brine and allows it to flow into crystallization tanks. The water is then further concentrated using heaters which causes salt crystals to form on the surface, and as these become heavier they drop. Then each morning the harvesters scoop the crystals out of the tanks and rinse them in more brine to reach the desired taste and appearance. The salt is then packaged and sent out for people around the world to enjoy. During their visit The Duke and Duchess got to witness the salt making process from hand harvesting to packaging.

After a change of clothes William and Catherine headed to Newborough Beach where they joined pupils from local primary schools on a beach clean-up organised by the Isle of Anglesey County Council and marine conservation group Surfers Against Sewage. In April, Anglesey became the first county in the UK to be awarded Plastic Free Communities status by the group, in recognition of its work to reduce the impact of single-use plastic on the environment through its the ‘Plastic Free Anglesey’ campaign. Their Royal Highnesses’ then joined the 1st Menai Bridge Scout Group to explore the beach’s wildlife habitat, and hear more about the importance of the nesting bird colonies on neighbouring Llanddwyn Island.

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May 08 | The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Visit North Wales, Part 1
May 08 | The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Visit North Wales, Part 2

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May 07 – The Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge Launch The King’s Cup Regatta

Today, May 07, 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made a previously unannounced visit to Cutty Sark, to launch The King’s Cup Regatta. The event coincided with the announcement that The Duke and Duchess will host the new annual sailing event in August on the Isle of Wight as well as go head to head as skippers of individual sailing boats in an eight boat regatta race, to raise awareness and funds for eight of their Patronages. The winning team will be awarded The King’s Cup, a historic trophy first presented by King George V at Cowes’ Royal Yacht Squadron in 1920. The Duchess’s chosen charities are Action on Addiction, Place2Be, The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, and The Royal Foundation in connection with Her Royal Highness’s work on Early Years. Today, The Duke and Duchess joined children from Place2Be and other charities in trying out sailing simulators and they also unveiled the King’s Cup. Upon their departure they took a moment to greet crowds in an impromptu walkabout.

VIDEOS: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Face Off in Virtual Sailing Race

In even more exciting news, The Duke and Duchess also spoke about the birth of their new nephew.

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May 07 | The Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge Launch The King’s Cup Regatta

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May 01 – The Duchess Of Cambridge Opens Anna Freud Centre Of Excellence

On May 01, 2019 The Duchess of Cambridge, Patron of The Anna Freud National Centre for Families and Children officially opened the Kantor Centre of Excellence at Rodney Street, London. The new building is a purpose-built space where leading neuroscientists and practitioners in mental health, social care and education will work together with children and young people to transform mental health for them and their families. At the heart of the new centre is the ground-breaking Pears Family School, a school for children who have been excluded from mainstream education and focuses on re-integrating them back to a mainstream school. During her visit The Duchess met students who are benefiting from the centre and ‘young champions’ who are advocates for the centre. Before unveiling a plaque to mark the event The Duchess gave a short speech:

“We are all here today because we care so much about transforming the mental health of children, young people and their families. I have learned so much about early childhood development and the importance of support for parents through your work here at the Anna Freud Centre. This is something I really do care about. The ambition for the new Kantor Centre of Excellence is hugely inspiring; bringing together research, education, practice and policy all in one place will take the Anna Freud Centre mission to the next level. It is testament to what can be achieved when people work together to realise a shared vision”.

VIDEO: Duchess of Cambridge in Hysterics with Staff at the Anna Freud National Centre

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May 01 | The Duchess Of Cambridge Opens Anna Freud Centre Of Excellence

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April 25 – Anzac Day Service Of Commemoration

Yesterday, April 25, 2019 The Duchess of Cambridge accompanied by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attended the Anzac Day Service Of Commemoration and Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey. ANZAC Day honors the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who died during the landings at Anzac Cove in 1915. It is considered a national day of remembrance and ceremonies take place in various locations. Prince William was not in attendance as he was in New Zealand paying tribute to those affected by the Christchurch mosques terrorist attack. Although, he also attended a civic service to mark ANZAC Day, laying a wreath on behave of The Queen at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland. After the service Harry and Catherine met with guests and representatives before departing together.

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Engagements & Tour Photos – 2019 – April 25 | Anzac Day Service Of Commemoration

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April 21 – Easter Service At St George’s Chapel

On (April 21, 2019) The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined The Queen and members of the Royal Family at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle for an Easter Service. The day was extra special as it was also The Queens 93rd birthday.

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Engagements & Tour Photos – 2019 – April 21 | Easter Service At St George’s Chapel