Oh, to be in England, now that there's weeding to be done

Admittedly, she's not the wealthiest woman in the world. That would be French L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, followed by the Widow Koch, Julia, an Iowa farm-gal who caught the eye of David of Koch Brothers fame. As he was 22 years her senior, it's no wonder she outlived him and has plenty of good years left to enjoy her windfall. Then there's heiress Alice Walmart, errrr, Walton. MacKenzie Scott, divorced from Jeff Bezos, is right up there, but at the rate she's giving her money away - yay, MacKenzie! - she won't be up there for long. Rounding out the Top Five is Jacqueline Mars, who was smart enough to be born into the Mars candy fortune. Sweet!

No, Queen Elizabeth isn't even a billionaire. Estimates are that she's only worth a paltry $500 million. This, of course, doesn't account for the family fortune. The Royals, with all their landholdings and whatnots, are estimated to be worth about $88B.

Still, Queen E is a recent widow, and may be trying to conserve funds until she gets all the widow's mite stuff squared away. Plus she's well in her 90's - 96! - and no matter how spry she is, it's probably not that easy to get down on her knees and weed the gardens at Sandringham.

While these are legit excuses, surely the Queen could afford to pay gardeners to keep up appearances, rather than ask for volunteers to yank weeds out for her. Nonetheless, she's put out the call for volunteers - 20, in all - who later this week will be working the gardens on her 20,000 acre estate. 

The invitees will be chosen from those who are already members of Sandringham, who pay £45 a year to get unlimited access to roaming around the grounds, on those days when commoners are allowed to roam around the grounds, and to receive a discount on many of the items in the estate gift shop. And I'll guess that there'll be plenty of folks vying for the honor of working - for free - for the Queen. 

Volunteers will work from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and are asked to bring their own gloves, sunscreen, and water bottles. 

The email "invite" offered this in return:

“You’ll learn a little bit about weed identification, followed by methods to use for the management of plants growing in the wrong place.

“The day is designed to be interactive with a chance for you to help and be involved in vital work that’s needed to care for the spectacular landscape at Sandringham.” (Source: Joe.ie)

Well, sure, I guess weed identification is a good thing to know about. And, sure, the work is vital. But part of what makes it vital is that the Royals make some coin off of the entrance fees, and from goods sold in the Sandringham gift shop

From preserves and chutneys to boxes of confectionery, ports and liqueurs, many of our products are proudly made using ingredients from the wider Estate.

Or tasty items served up for afternoon tea:

Enjoy a luxurious afternoon tea experience served with Sandringham teas and coffees using the finest local ingredients, traditional recipes from the Royal archives and many products grown here on the Estate.

I see. You come and weed for free, then get to use your 10% discount for chutney and/or afternoon tea. Cool! 

Not sure if the discount applies, but one item you can find in the gift shop is Sandringham Gin. This was introduced late last fall and among its ingredients - many taken from plants on the estates - is the myrtle that:

"...originated from a cutting taken from Princess Alexandra’s wedding bouquet on her marriage to Prince Albert Edward, who later became King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra." (Source: Bustle)

Surely, there's a drinking game in there somewhere. For $67 a bottle, there ought be. Drink!

Anyway, while there are plenty of Brits who'd like to see the Royal Family jettisoned, especially after the Queen passes away (as surely she will at some point), I'm sure there will be plenty of royal-loving, gardenering volunteers looking to help the Queen out here, even if there's no promise that she'll show up to look in on their work. She probably won't be there, anyway. Sandringham's more the Christmas Estate. Balmoral in Scotland's where the Royals summer. Because who wouldn't want to summer in cool, gloomy, dank old Scotland.

Rule Britannia, and all that, but does the Queen really need volunteers to help with the gardening? Couldn't they pay gardeners to to the work? Or at least give the volunteers something more than "tuition" in weed identification?

Guess there's always this truism:

One thing we're sure of,

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

In the meantime, in between time, ain't we got volunteers to weed the Queen's myrtle plants.