Camilla can be seen smiling and wearing a blue floral Sophie Dundas dress in the photo, in which she sits at a garden table with flowers, plants, some peaches and – most importantly – a cuppa. The peach bowl is significant, as her son – food writer Tom Parker Bowles – has written an ode to the fruit in Country Life magazine. The Duchess curated the latest issue, which reveals one of her favorite desserts: peach melba. A column written by her son reads: “My mother is a keen grower of white peaches (the subject of this month’s column was largely her idea) and they certainly don’t want attention.” The peaches were grown where Camilla’s new photo was taken – the gardens of her Raymill country retreat in Lacock, Wiltshire, about 17 miles from the Prince of Wales’ Highgrove home. She bought the six-bedroom property following her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles in the mid-1990s.
More about the Duchess of Cornwall
Highgrove is the likely setting for what Clarence House said would be a small family dinner to celebrate Camilla’s birthday. Camilla’s daughter Laura Lopez and her son are expected to attend, along with her younger sister Annabelle Elliott, who featured in an ITV documentary following Camilla as she edited Country Life. The program aired this week and revealed that Camilla buried a young Annabel’s favorite teddy bear, Tiddy Bar, in the grounds of their grandparents’ house and only confessed to it years later. Elsewhere, the Duchess used an interview with the Daily Mail to reveal that her grandchildren introduced her to TikTok, although she appeared to bemoan people’s growing obsession with “their devices”. “Families don’t sit down and eat dinner anymore,” he told the newspaper. “Because I’m ancient, we used to all sit down (to eat). Now everyone’s on their devices. It just makes me so cross.”
