Activity: Picnics.

With tea cakes, and fairy cakes and all you see...and won't we have a jolly time at half past three!

That's a song I used to sing in Primary School.

Anyway...Picnics.

Call me a child, or a 1950's housewife, but I have ALWAYS loved picnics. The concept of bringing your indoor food into the outdoors seems, somehow, so much more exciting- a cheap and fun family day out- even if it's in your own back garden! Picnics are relaxing, fun, and more than a little bit tasty.

So, here is the complication of my reasons and opinions as to why I think PICNICS are good.

20 REASONS WHY I THINK PICNICS ARE GOOD

1. Picnics are a great excuse to get the family together...as if you needed one anyway!

2. On July 4th, 2000 French people celebrate Bastille Day in the new millenium by have a massive picnic-style street party. True picnic dedication there.

3. Picnics often involve cake, and cake often involves eternal happiness and bliss. Yum, yum, yum.

4. Eating and sunshine? Excuse me whilst I die of happiness.

5. Picnics are a great way to explore somewhere new for the day.

6. Picnics are enjoyed the world-over so you can happily enjoy wherever in the world you may be.

7. TRIANGLE SANDWICHES...they always taste better that shape, don't they (surely it's not just me?).

8. Picnic food, for some reason, is usually miniature- and that's just cute.

9. Picnic food is treat food- you can afford to be slightly extravagant and disregard your waistline for a day.

10. Picnics are like parties in the day, and do you know what a party means? PARTY RINGS. Awesome.

11. Picnics give a great excuse for home cooking and baking...something I particularly enjoy.

12. Picnics are a great way to escape the rat race for a day, and to be a total calm.

13. Beach picnics can be relaxing and beautiful...just don't get sand in your sandwiches (despite the name, the two sincerely do not belong together...)

14. Picnic Hampers were the best things ever created. Well, says the 1950's housewife living in the wrong decade... If it belongs in the kitchen, I'LL HAVE IT.

15. Picnics, with a loved one, can be very romantic- a great chance to laze away the day with one another.

16. I love baking for family and friends...so what situation could be more perfect than a picnic?!

17. You can try out that new recipe and the guest will HAVE to eat it...disgusting or not...there's no where to hide it...

18. FOOD FIGHTS! Okay...I'll start being mature now.

19. On picnics you can visit some of the most beautiful places in the world, and feel at total relaxation and ease.

20. Any excuse to eat food is a good excuse in my book.

20 FACTS ABOUT PICNICS

1. In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors (al fresco or en plein air), ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance, and usually in summer.

2. Descriptions of picnics show that the idea of a meal that was jointly contributed and was enjoyed out-of-doors were essential to a picnic from the early 19th century.

3. Picnics are often family-oriented but can also be an intimate occasion between two people or a large get-together such as company picnics and church picnics.

4. It is also sometimes combined with a cookout, usually a form of barbecue; either grilling (griddling, gridironing, or charbroiling), braising (by combining a charbroil or gridiron grill with a broth-filled pot), baking, or a combination of all of the above.

5. On romantic and family picnics a picnic basket and a blanket (to sit or recline on) are usually brought along.

6. Outdoor games or some other form of entertainment are common at large picnics.

7. Some picnics are a potluck, an entertainment at which each person contributed some dish to a common table for all to share.

8. When the picnic is not also a cookout, the food eaten is rarely hot, instead taking the form of deli sandwiches, finger food, fresh fruit, salad, cold meats and accompanied by chilled wine or champagne or soft drinks.

9. The first usage of the word is traced to the 1692 edition of Tony Willis, Origines de la Langue Française, which mentions pique-nique as being of recent origin; it marks the first appearance of the word in print. The term was used to describe a group of people dining in a restaurant who brought their own wine.

10. For long a picnic retained the connotation of a meal to which everyone contributed something. Whether picnic is actually based on the verb piquer which means 'pick' or 'peck' with the rhyming nique meaning "thing of little importance" is doubted; the Oxford English Dictionary says it is of unknown provenance.

11. In British and American English, the phrase "no picnic" is used to describe a difficult or trying situation or activity. For example, "Driving in rush hour traffic is no picnic."

12. In established public parks, a picnic area generally includes picnic tables and possibly other items related to eating outdoors, such as built-in grills, water faucets, garbage containers, and restrooms.

13. In Information Technology, a "picnic" is an acronym meaning "Problem In Chair, Not In Computer." Help desk workers use "picnic" to refer to a situation where they helped someone fix a problem with their computer where there really was no problem with the computer, but the user was to blame for the problem.

14. After the French Revolution in 1789, royal parks became open to the public for the first time. Picnicking in the parks became a popular activity amongst the newly enfranchised citizens.

15. In 2000, a 600-mile-long picnic took place from coast to coast in France to celebrate the first Bastille Day of the new Millennium. In the United States, likewise, the 4 July celebration of American independence is a popular day for a picnic.

16. In Italy the favourite picnic day is Easter Monday.

17. "Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe" (1865–1866), often referred to as "The Picnic" or "The Luncheon on the Grass" in English, was one the earliest works of Manet.

 

18. With Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Peter Weir constructs a film of haunting mystery. Three girls and one of their teachers on a school outing mysteriously disappear. The only one that is later found remembers almost nothing. It is based on a 1967 drama and mystery novel of the same name by Australian author Joan Lindsay, .

19. Early in the 19th century, a fashionable group of Londoners formed the 'Picnic Society'. Members met in the Pantheon on Oxford Street. Each member was expected to provide a share of the entertainment and of the refreshments with no one particular host. Interest in the society waned in the 1850s as the founders died.

20. The image of picnics as a peaceful social activity can be utilised for political protest too. In this context, a picnic functions as a temporary occupation of significant public territory. A famous example of this is the Pan-European Picnic held on both sides of the Hungarian / Austrian border on the 19 August 1989 as part of the struggle towards German reunification.

20 WORDS ASSOCIATED WITH PICNICS

1. Sandwiches

2. Sunshine

3. Friends

4. Family

5. Woodland

6. Beach

7. Holiday

8. Trip

9. Day Out

10. Car

11. Journey

12. Crisps

13. Outdoors

14. Table

15. Sleep

16. Lemonade

17. Nibbles

18. Plates

19. Ikea

20. Bowls

20 OPINIONS OF PICNICS

(In response to the previously posted question 'How much do you enjoy a picnic on the beach?' by smalltroll, via Yahoo Answers)

1. The last time I had one it was really something else, amazing :) The ice cream melted...but hey maybe that was a good thing?- Basket-santa, via Yahoo Answers.

2. Nah...don't like sand..wiches!!!- prettywoman, via Yahoo Answers.

3. ....Fairly....but the word picnic sounds stupid to me....I like picnics...I just dont like telling people I went for one....- Buttsmear, via Yahoo Answers.

4. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being low and 10 being brill)

It's have to be a 0 zero...... Nothing worse than sand in your sandwiches!!!!

Ha Ha- elly, via Yahoo Answers.

5. Love em as long as its not too windy- murphy, via Yahoo Answers.

6. I love a picnic on the beach as it is simple and doesnt take a lot of effort and there is always plenty for everyone to do on a beach. Also the best food comes out of the picnic type food- Swizzle, via Yahoo Answers.

7. A picnic most anywhere is good. People have forgotten the simple basics of enjoying life with our busyness. We need to slow down, fry some chicken and head outside for some relaxation. Enjoy the blessings of God.

Thanks for reminding me that spring is on the way and I need to find the picnic basket and wash the blanket. :)- Lilly K, via Yahoo Answers.

8. Wonderful - highlight of the summer, especially if the tide's in!- jet-set, via Yahoo Answers.

 

9. Better in the park, can't stand sand in my pork pie!- Michael P, via Yahoo Answers.

10. Too much sand in your sandwiches! lol Brings me back to my youth - crunching your marmite and butter sandwiches lmao- raptureinkisses, via Yahoo Answers.

11. I love the beach and it's not far from me but i prefer picnics in the woods...Too much sand on the beach,gets into places it shouldn't !!!!- trish s, via Yahoo Answers.

12. Very much, nothing like a good summers day spent on the beach with a nice big picnic hamper to dig into when your hungry- cubalishis, via Yahoo Answers.

13. Its nice on the beach, but i'd rather go to a cafe, on the way home. The best place, i love a picnic, is by a stream. Its very relaxing- sweeties, via Yahoo Answers.

14. It's the best place

They dont call them 'Sand'wiches for nothing u know!- DiggerG, via Yahoo Answers.

15. Everything's more enjoyable at the beach! But my perfect picnic would be nothing but Champagne and strawberries, leaving plenty of room in the basket for suntan oil...-?, via Yahoo Answers.

16. Very much as long as there is no wind to blow the sand into our food!- TheatreFan, via Yahoo Answers.

17. I love a picnic on the beach!!! Of course, I live in Illinois and we really don't have a lot of beaches, so anytime I get to a beach "Woo Hoo"- Kathleen M, via Yahoo Answers.

18. Depends on the weather!
Living in Scotland it can be boggin' miserable
Or fantastic...-jayjay, via Yahoo Answers.

19. It's awesome and funny.Lot of eating, drinking,singing,swimming and playing ball games- Carla, via Yahoo Answers.

20. Oh I love picnics even if the sand gets in my food. But only if it is very sunny- wendy wee wees, via Yahoo Answers.

20 IMAGES OF PICNICS