Sadness, a drizzle and a strange shower filled the air in Edinburgh as the Scottish capital prepared to receive Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin this weekend.

The monarch died at her Balmoral estate in Scotland on Thursday and the arrival of the coffin in Edinburgh will be the first stop on the way to a state funeral in London.

On a damp wall in Holyroodhouse, the royal palace in Edinburgh, the mass of flowers continued to grow.

Gary Millar, a 45-year-old technician, added a bouquet of flowers to the pile that was beginning to pile up when news of the Queen’s death broke.

He stepped back and paused in a silent moment of contemplation.

Millar had arrived early that morning to show his “respect” and “honor the lady”.

“She has honored us throughout her reign by doing her duty and I think it’s time the public gave that a little back,” he said, his voice strained.

In Scotland, which is run by a government that wants independence from the UK, the Queen is far more popular than the monarchy itself.

For Millar, the late sovereign “held the country together”.

“She was the face of our Union of Great Britain. She’s been at it my whole life,” he continued, praising her “hard work” and “dedication.”

Holyroodhouse is expected to receive Queen Elizabeth’s coffin over the weekend.

Her body is then carried in a procession along the Royal Mile, the Scottish capital’s main thoroughfare, to a service at St Giles Cathedral.

The Queen’s children are expected to hold a “princes’ vigil” while the coffin lies in the cathedral. Members of the public are to be admitted later to pay their respects.

The coffin is then flown to London.

At the foot of the wall, gardeners were preparing the lawn for the occasion. The castle grounds echoed with the sound of mowers, and a damp smell of gasoline and cut grass hung in the air.

Moved to tears, Rebecca Evans, 44, simply said she was “sad”.

“She only welcomed the new Prime Minister on Tuesday and to get well from Tuesday and then leave us by Thursday, that’s just very, very sad,” she sobbed.

“There’s so much going on in the UK right now,” Evans said, listing Brexit, the energy crisis and the forecast recession.

“I think we’re notoriously grumpy people in Scotland,” she added. “But… we love the Queen. We love the royal family.”

Evans, who works for a global warming think tank, predicted that King Charles III would be “the right monarch for these times.”

“He has been mocked for his views, but this is a time for action, for people to stand up and say we need to do something about climate change,” she said.

The fact that the Queen’s coffin will rest in Edinburgh is a source of great local pride, Evans said, “because so many things in Britain are centered in London”.

“Especially when you saw the mountain beyond in the fog. It’s so beautiful and I can’t think of a better way than to just pass away peacefully in the mountains,” she added, visibly moved.

Out of respect for the Queen, postal workers and railway workers have called off planned strikes.

“That’s maybe the most British answer you can find… that railway workers and postal workers don’t go on strike because they never went on strike, right?” Evans added.

Orla Bell, a 48-year-old Irish woman living in Edinburgh, came to lay flowers for her mother, who is a “huge fan of the royal family”.

25 years ago, she and her mother left a bouquet of flowers when Princess Diana died.

“The Queen was like a mother to everyone in the country,” she said.

“Even if you’re not a fan of the royal family or you’re not British, I think it’s important for everyone.”