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

And I obviously meant sea and pool. Need to proof read!

There's a walk we do which always makes me feel like I'm in a Famous Five novel. We park in a smal village and walk along a winding country road along which there hardly any cars to a old ramshackle castle, beside a slow, peaceful steam. We often have a 'Enid Blyton-esque' picnic sitting beside the river and I always feel like I should be wearing shorts and carrying a pair of binoculars.

Your walk sounds wonderful, OP with the caves and mineshafts- it sounds like the perfect place for a smuggling adventure 😀

@MrsFionaCharming that does sound lovely. I hope you have a great day and please report back on the success of your picnic!

We haven’t done this stretch before so I’m very excited!

We did the stretch near Bottalack last year, hidden mine-shafts and wild rabbits everywhere. I made up a whole new story in which Timmy chases a rabbit and falls down one of the mine-shafts. Luckily the 5 had a rope, and Julian and Dick were able to lower George down to him. At which point she found the mine full of treasure hidden by smugglers to be picked up later!

Don't forget they have to be 'packets of sandwiches', not just sweaty bits of bread in clingfilm. If you take tinned peaches, then after you've eaten them, you can make a sort of austerity squash by filling the tin with spring water for delicious juice you can gulp down.

You'll also have to remark on 'what a spread!' and 'my! She HAS done us proud!' as you open up the picnic lunch of meat paste sandwiches, pie, hard boiled eggs, tinned sardines, ginger cake, garden salad, and a jar of boiled sweets.

And don't forget to stop for ices from the wholesome farmers wife who churns the milk herself.

Home made lemonade. Cold boiled eggs and tongue are quintessential F5 foods.

Ooh jealous.

You should go to Corfe Castle.

@MrsFionaCharming

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!

Will you be taking your bathing costume? It will be brisk at this time of year, but there's nothing like a sea bathe to whet the appetite.

If you can take a frying pan, what about some sausages. And a couple of eggs, freshly laid that morning (with a little salt carried in a twist of paper).

Sandwiches wrapped in paper, a wedge of fruit cake and tinned fruit a must. And a bar of chocolate to share. Plain I imagine.

Sounds lovely OP!
I read a lot of Enid Blyton growing up in inner city London and always wanted to go cycling down a country lane and go for a picnic etc.
Have fun!

We are doing a Famous Five picnic for my DD's 17th birthday which she missed out on because of lockdown. Her birthday is in winter so she's excited about having a summer one.

Top of her list are tomatoes and salt 'in a screw of paper'.

Wasn't it milk they all drank?

If I were you, I'd pass on the sardine ice cream, though.

(one of her weirder books).

@NeverDropYourMoonCup Was that one of the contrary cousins in faraway tree? I remember a small moral lesson in not being daft because it was horrible

Oh what a brick you are OP!

Wasn't it milk they all drank?

Fresh from the cow preferably.

@DareIask

Wasn't it milk they all drank?

Only if fresh, generally from a "plump" farmer's wife - who lived to feed passing privileged children

Pretty sure it was never brought with them - homemade lemonade and ginger beer possibly for a picnic but it was mostly water (from wells and spings).

@ScrollingLeaves

Here is an excerpt describing a high tea.🥮

I am taking bets that Dick grew up to be a food bore. Possibly even a Greggggg.

[quote FelicityBeedle]@NeverDropYourMoonCup Was that one of the contrary cousins in faraway tree? I remember a small moral lesson in not being daft because it was horrible[/quote]
Might have been Connie? I really didn't get on with the Christian allegorical stuff.

My thing was definitely the 1946 Nature Lover's Book my mother had been bought for her 9th birthday. Really irritated that the ex chucked it out with all my other books including a first edition of The House at Pooh Corner - mostly because I can still remember the smell and feel of the pages and partly because something that had no worth to him was a) actually quite technical and useful in identifying various species and b) now goes for about eighty quid a pop.

Adding that I didn't see it as a loss, as a passing cat got the ice cream, which made it her asking for something that was nice for an animal.

I suspect I wasn't given any more of those books because I was clearly a soulless heathen.