Help me plan an Enid Blyton-esque Picnic

[MrsFionaCharming]

I’ve got a walk and a swim planned for tomorrow in a very Enid Blyton like place, and I want to theme a picnic around it!

So far I’ve thought of ginger beer and a bag of toffees! I don’t really fancy meat paste sandwiches

Sadly no dog, I wish I knew one I could borrow for such days, and give back on rainy days when I want a lie in.

Here you are:

www.borrowmydoggy.com/

All the food mentioned above and a red and white checked blanket to sit on!

Didn't they sit on rugs?

This probably suggests I'm a nerd, but fun fact, no one ever had lashings of ginger beer in a Blyton book!!

Ham or cheese sandwiches
Pork pie
Sausage rolls
Lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes
Hard boiled eggs or scotch eggs
Rock buns or scones
Apples
Ginger beer and lemonade
All in a basket with a red and white gingham cloth over the top.

sausage rolls, ham sandwiches, apples, buns, sponge cake, lashings of ginger beer!

A ham (no need to keep it cool )
Rolls
Tinned sardines

You have to have barley sugars op!

I think I need some brown paper and string. It seems wrong to transport it all in Tupperware!

What a thread! I might have to bookmark this.

“Chicchicchicchiclana

Egg mayo sandwiches,”

I don’t think mayonnaise was around at the time of that pre-European life style.

@ContinuousMonotoneBeep Huh? Where on earth does the saying come from then?

Egg and salad cream sandwiches?

No I think maybe the eggs would be just boiled eggs, and the sandwiches would be something more traditional. Ham and cheese or fish paste maybe

Here is an excerpt describing a high tea.🥮

Definitely adding radishes to the shopping list.

I’ve never had Barley Sugars, but I remember Darrell taking Sally a bottle of them when she was in the San, and I assumed it meant a bottle of squash.

@AcornAutumn

Don't you need tongue sandwiches and tinned peaches?

I'm not convinced it would be a great picnic tbh...

And remember to forget the tin opener for the tin of peaches. That will give Julian a chance to open it with his handy tin opening penknife attachment, George to scowl because she isn’t allowed a penknife because she’s a girl , and Anne to cry because she thinks it’s her fault the tin opener got forgotten.

[quote FurrySlipperBoots]@ContinuousMonotoneBeep Huh? Where on earth does the saying come from then?[/quote]
From the Five Go Mad in Dorset (comedy) film.

It's a funny one, isn't it. Not sure if it classifies as an urban myth or the Mandela Effect. But you do really feel it's in the books - they do have lashings of other things but never gingerbeer!

Don’t forget to find a rosy cheeked farmer’s wife, preferably one who speaks in a sing song welsh accent, who will let you have the picnic in her garden because she will know that you are jolly well not the sort of rotten oafs who would leave litter.

Ooh, maybe I’ll insist on being called by a boys name all day, just to add to the atmosphere.

In the boarding school books ISTR they used to press sardines into ginger cake, for midnight feasts.

Poor matron can seldom have had a night off from running round the dorms with buckets...

Don't forget you've got to say “i do think that food tastes much nicer outdoors” as Anne does in every story.

Sardines mashed on to Ginger Cake a la St.Claire’s.

Tesco didn’t have barley sugars, so I bought some rhubarb and custards because they strike me as old fashioned.

Also got proper ginger beer in glass bottles because it seemed more appropriate than cans.

There’s a fantastic John Finnemore sketch In which George and Julian meet in later life, Julian has become an import and export strategy consultant (smuggler), George is trying to persuade him to call her Georgina and that she isn’t a lesbian, and Anne is in prison for snapping and killing a man who kicked his dog

I want to know what a "very Enid Blyton-esque" place is, and I want to come on your picnic please.

I seem to remember jugs of cold creamy milk but I suppose those might have been at farmhouse teas not picnics.

It’s a walk along the south west coast path, which always makes me think of the Famous Five. Lots of caves, hidden mineshafts, blinking lights out at see, etc.

The particular stretch we’re going to do goes past the Trevone rock pall, aka the Mallory Towers swimming pool!