Life's a picnic - Times of Your Life

Vibrant Life, July-August, 2002 by Celeste perrino Walker

Ah, the lazy, hazy days of summer. These are the moments we've been dreaming about ever since the seed companies mailed their first catalog the week after Christmas. All winter I pore over those catalogs, trying to remember what the flowers smelled like and tossing coins to see which ones will be condemned to my garden when the ground thaws. One of the things I like most about summer is how simple everything is. You can have the time of your life without having to break the bank ... which is helpful when you don't have a bank to break.

Picnics are a perfect example. They have to be one of summer's most overlooked, understated joys. Where else can you tickle your toes in the grass while dribbling peanut butter and jelly down the front of your blouse? The great thing about picnics is they can be as fancy or as primitive as you like. Bread, cheese, fruit, and a bottle of sparkling cider taste like ambrosia eaten outdoors on a hike. Or use airy table linens spread on the grass, with crystal, china--the best of everything, but on the grass. Think how many years you'll shed climbing down from "Grown-up Land" to eat on the ground.

Each year designers come out with more interesting outdoor lanterns. They think of the nearest ways to light up the outdoors. But the best summer lantern you'll ever find is flying around outside already. Make or buy a butterfly net and go catch a jar "of fireflies. Eat dinner by their light. (Then be kind, and let them go.)

One of the greatest adventures I remember from childhood is tenting in the backyard. We could have been on the top of Mount Everest for all the difference it made ... come to think of it, we were on Mount Everest, or Mount Hood, or anywhere we wanted to be. It was dark out, after all--who could tell? If you don't have a backyard, open the windows and tent in the living room. Most modern tents allow you to set them up without pegging them down to the ground. If you don't have a tent, rig up some sheets. It's the spirit of adventure that really counts.

Sometimes it's the unorthodoxy of the thing that makes it so novel. Seeing tables and chairs on the lawn, set with a formal place setting, always takes me aback. We're so used to seeing these things inside that viewing them outside gives us a whole new feeling toward them. And there's something about eating alfresco that makes food taste even better. For the really creative, set up sheets or netting on poles over the table to create an outdoor "room" for dining. It's guaranteed to be a meal you won't soon forget--no matter what is served on the plates.

And what better way to wrap up an outdoor meal than lying on the grass, gazing up at the stars, while slurping a Popsicle? Not for the faint of heart, maybe, but definitely for the young at heart. In the end, isn't that what summer is all about? It's a time for letting go of our grown-up hang-ups and being a kid again. Life is simple--stark even. We're the ones who complicate it.

Let this summer teach you how to really relax and slow down. Play lawn games, fly a kite, run your errands on bicycle, take a pitcher of lemonade outside in the shade and read a good book out loud to your kids, nap in a hammock, soak your feet in a stream (or a fountain if a stream isn't handy). Experience all the little things that make life a picnic.

Celeste perrino Walker enjoys having a spontaneous picnic at her home in Rutland, Vermont.