Picnics are one of my greatest pleasures; I remember sandy sandwiches as a toddler and what I thought was sheer sophistication – salmon out of a tin eaten with plastic forks and washed down with orange juice. The fact that it rained most of that day failed to dampen my spirits but of course fair weather is always welcomed for picnics nowadays. As you can see from the photo above, we have tremendous spots nearby. This one is a favourite spot for a thermos of coffee after walking the dog.
When the children were young most of the picnics were on beaches and usually involved collecting wood, making a fire and cooking sausages. We didn’t often have the “lashings of ginger beer” that End Blyton talks of, but on occasion a thimbleful of pink martini made an excellent aperitif. Friends joined in and we soon formed an encampment staked out with windbreakers, seats and rugs. Mosts of the beaches were of the deserted but beautiful and inaccessible type, so we might have had to carry cool-box, drinks and accoutrements a long way and even down a cliff.
Nowadays, picnics are more sedate varying from today’s dog walk followed by afternoon drinks to a full meal parked up in the campervan. Having doggy company is de rigeur, as is the boiled egg with a twist of salt.
Undernoted is a picture of cairn being where a cairn should be……. dreaming of picnics past and future. Where was your favourite picnic place? Or maybe you don’t like them.
Picnics and I inhabitants of separate worlds. I love the idea (for other people that is), but detest al fresco eating/drinking. Not quite sure why but it could have something to do with the fact that every insect known to man sees me as ‘lunch’.
I swear even if there are no insects to be seen, within 10 seconds of my appearing the creepy/crawly bush telegraph has invited cousins, aunts et al and I am chewed and bitten to within an inch of my life.
No, my favourite picnics take place behind glass. (Preferably double-glazing)!
The picnics I remember were mostly in the mountains where the air was cool in the shade of the tall pines and aspens, sometimes on a picnic table, other times on a homemade quilt, handiwork of my mother or grandmother, spread on the ground. The most frequent fare was cold fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans and cake or pie. On occasion, we had sandwiches of coldcuts or sometimes the leftover roast beef, either sliced or ground and seasoned with pickles, onion and mayo. If there was a stream nearby, we kids sometimes waded in the ice cold water, freshly melted snow from up the mountain, and if Dad wanted to fish, he went upstream from us with threats against our wellbeing if we came close enough to scare the fish away! Those were fond memories. Thanks for eliciting them!
Ahhh! picnics! It is a luxury to me that oue van gives us the freedom to picnic , either planned or impromptu, rain or shine. The only requirement is that temperatures are not outrageously and unbearably hot. A favorite picnic memory was in the clouds July 2010on the Blue Ridge Parkway, photos at http://www.retirementdaze.com/2010/07/early-morning-on-blue-ridge-parkway.html.
A wonderful picnic place, LC. Now all we need is a summer…… it’s still grey and cold here in our part of Scotland.