Apparently, July is National Picnic Month, though I am a firm believer any month the weather is even somewhat warm is a great time for a picnic. You can picnic close to home; you can picnic further afield; you can picnic with a crowd and play some outdoor games, and you can have a lovely solitary picnic with only a good book as your companion. Yes, a picnic takes a little planning and a bit of effort, but fear not, for, as always, I am here to the rescue with my picnic experience, picnic tips, and a picnic checklist.
Sometimes, with all our everyday responsibilities and today’s hectic pace, we forget to slow down and truly enjoy something simpler – and tech free. I feel like I have almost missed a part of summer by becoming bogged down (and rather overwhelmed) by the various things that we all deal with. So, I pondered, I contemplated, and I ruminated (whilst using my handy thesaurus), and I concluded my list of chores will not vanish, but we as a family should disappear from the everyday and go out for a drive, a ramble, and a picnic. Naturally, my decision was correct: the list of chores patiently waited for me, and our family had a delightful day out picnicking in the great British outdoors.
While picnics of yesteryear were certainly lavish – and oftentimes rather posh – affairs, I will warn you that my approach to picnics is a bit more plebeian, as I do not have servants and/or personal assistants to plan and cook for me. Nevertheless, rest assured that I will still deliver recipes for thoroughly tested tasty treats, though you will have to check in next week for them. In the meantime, I have provided some sage picnicking tips.
Picnic tip # 1:
If you are planning a day trip somewhere, give the children a little project and them google the destination. It seems like no matter how hard we try, we never can quite manage to get the children to unplug from their techie world, so I propose that they might as well put it to some productive use; an added bonus is that they might actually become rather interested and they will look forward to the day out. Here is a website from the trusty National Trust to get them started:
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lists/perfect-picnic-spots
Picnic tip # 2:
If you are planning a picnic somewhere close to home – say in a nearby field or park – you could combine your picnic with playing some outdoor games. We at Putterfingers favour portable mini golf – but our bias should not come as a surprise. And why not picnic on the green, whilst putting on the green? Putterfingers are the mini-golf masters (it says so right on our website!), and if you provide the picnic, we’ll provide the mini-golf. I am also reminding all you mini-golf fanatics that Miniature Golf Day is less than two months away (Sept 21st), so make sure you get plenty of practice in.
Picnic tip # 3:
With websites galore to peruse for picnic ideas, it is sometimes easy to be taken in by all the seemingly perfect images. Real life is not like that, and I would advise making peace with the fact that things aren’t flawless. There is rarely a perfect day, and should things not quite go according to plan, then it is best to have a laugh and look on mishaps as an adventure, and as a good story to tell.
Picnic tip # 4:
This probably will not be the most popular tip, but here goes: don’t be annoyed with wasps if they show up at your picnic. I do not jest. Wasps are actually beneficial insects as they are also pollinators (though not necessarily to the extent bees are), and they are natural pest controllers in your garden and in the wild. In case you do not believe me, I have included a couple of rather reliable links below. If wasps do decide to join your picnic, I find what helps is giving them their own little portion of fruit (and/or protein as well apparently) to feast on.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48302414
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-do-wasps-do.html
I hope I have piqued your interest in a great British picnic. Make sure to tune in next week for some truly easy picnic recipes, and my handy picnic checklist.
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