Friday evening at 5pm is not, I can confirm, the time to just ‘pop someone down into town.’
It took me an hour and a quarter to drive about six miles, and by the time I got home at 6.15pm I was not in the mood for cooking. Jolly handy then than Friday was indoor picnic night. Having been bribing Belle all week to go to after school club with the promise of Jonathan Creek, Friday was a celebration of having finally reached the weekend, and a chance to crack open our very pretty new Emma Bridgewater picnicware.
Belle and I had already been shopping, and picked up some picnic bargains – 9p for a swiss roll! – so we were ready to get stuck in:
Unfortunately our mini fruit kebabs had to be abandoned when we couldn’t find the cocktail sticks, but we made the best of it and used some grapes as a garnish and whizzed the strawberries up into a milkshake.
As with all good picnics, the secret is in the presentation and although there is only so much you can do to make a white bread marmite sandwich look enticing, we tried our best:
It would be fair to say I was perhaps a little fraught during the picnic making process, (Boyfriend: ‘I told you it would take you a long time to get into town’. Me (screeching between gritted teeth): ‘Well that’s really helpful, thanks for that!’), but it’s surprising how soothing it can be cutting pizzas into circles and arranging swiss roll.*
Belle declared it ‘the best day ever’, so I consider it a successful indoor picnic. Boyfriend is now considering replacing all of our crockery with melamine though. Apparently I am clumsy. I don’t know what he is talking about, I can’t help it if we have plates that chip easily.
Check out my Facebook page to see my indoor picnic collage!
*Small stretch of the truth.
My boys still enjoy indoor picnics (age 28 and 30!)
In our house it’s known as Pick for Tea, beacuse our oldest boy couldn’t say buffet!!
Better when the picnic comprises of late afternoon bargains from the supermarket!!