Unsurprisingly given attendance at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were spotted this morning arriving and leaving Crathie Kirk, the chapel attended by the Royal Family when staying at Balmoral Castle in the Highlands.

There appeared to be four cars made up of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in one, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in another, the Duke of York, William and Kate in a third, and then the Earl of Wessex with Mike and Zara Tindall in a fourth. Quite the hodge podge of people, quite frankly, particularly given that there was no sign of the Princess Royal and her husband, Timothy Laurence, or the Duchess of York who was spotted arriving with Andrew and Princess Eugenie earlier this month.

One imagines that Prince George and Princess Charlotte were left behind in the nursery with the Tindalls’ young daughter, Mia.

Kate wore three items that we’ve seen before – her brown Hobbs coat, a blue-based, multi-colored L.K. Bennett midi dress and her navy Tiffany hat that she most recently wore for unveiling the war memorial in London this past March. There’s no real rhyme or reason to these items, though I actually like the idea of that hat and dress together, but I think what you get here is a sense of Kate dressing for her personal life.

It’s a little more dressed-down, a little less polished and it’s refreshing. You can see from the photos that she’s wearing less makeup and did her own hair.

Hopefully William and Kate’s presence indicates they made a solid several-day stint of their time in Scotland. Balmoral isn’t a regular fixture on their summer/autumn calendar – and certainly not for very long – so I do like the idea of them making a trip of it and spending a bit more time there with the Queen and Philip.

No sign of upcoming engagements for Kate beyond the fact we know they’re due to settle down in London before George has to start school.

As for other royal news, there was a story this weekend that Prince Harry has arranged it to so that Meghan Markle can skip security and move directly from the tarmac to the car when she arrives at Heathrow to visit him. Seems like a good move given the number of airport pictures we’ve gotten over the last few months.

And finally, there has been push back on the story circulating last week that the Queen might step down, allowing Charles a regency and to take over day-to-day duties. Personally, I am not completely ruling this out – or something akin to this – as a possibility, however much it would definitely be surprising. It does also occur to me that last week would have been perfect timing for Clarence House to leak a story like that to help lessen the negative press swirling around the coverage of the late Princess of Wales. Not sure I would have led with a story about Charles governing in the wake of all those polls, but between that and the engagement with William, it certainly helps draw eyes forward.

If and when news hits, I’ll update accordingly!