{"id":3152,"date":"2026-01-19T11:25:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianregency.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/28\/a-picnic-or-al-fresco\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T11:25:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:25:25","slug":"a-picnic-or-al-fresco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/19\/a-picnic-or-al-fresco\/","title":{"rendered":"A Picnic or . . . Al Fresco"},"content":{"rendered":"

My husband and I did not get to go on vacation this year. We have a 14 year old lab that literally doesn\u2019t get around much anymore. We used to take her with us, but she cannot travel anymore, so our \u201cvacations\u201d are one-day adventures that don\u2019t take more than six hours. One of our favorite \u201cmini\u201d vacations is to take chicken salad sandwiches, lots of chips and snacks, some fruit and whatever dessert I have on hand and drive up on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a picnic nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. <\/p>

\"Fire<\/a><\/div>\n

My friend and colleague, Kristy Cambron, did a marvelous post on many of the f\u00eates London was famous for during the Regency period. But I have always been fascinated by the al fresco <\/em>luncheons popular during the Season. Merriam-Webster\u2019s dictionary defines al fresco<\/em> as \u201ctaking place or located in the open air.\u201d Somehow al fresco <\/em>sounds more\u2026Regency\u2026.than an ordinary picnic.<\/p>\n

And our simple chicken salad would never have done for an al fresco <\/em>outing.

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo from the Movie Emma (1996 British TV)<\/figcaption><\/figure>No, no, there could have been as many courses as with a sit down dinner. One could have expected chicken pudding, a joint of cold roast beef (along with the tongue!) and\/or pigeon or onion pie.<\/p>\n

Cheese and fruit would certainly have been in the \u201cbasket.\u201d Who could forget the scenes from Emma as they picked strawberries, eating some as they went, then feasting on them as they played the unfortunate game that created hurt feelings with both Miss Bates and Mr. Knightley? <\/p>\n

\"Emma<\/a><\/p>\n

But fresh fruit along with pastry biscuits with orange marmalade would have been the least of sweets for the palate. A nearby stream or creek would be keeping clotted cream chilled. There might be a plum cake, a whypt syllabub or several sponge cakes to round out desserts.<\/p>\n

And libations of ale, lemonade, sherry, cider and claret would have flowed freely.<\/p>\n

I confess that I often wondered at those attending these al fresco <\/em>affairs. I believe the very young ladies and gentleman thought of the opportunities to outdo chaperones and snatch a few minutes alone. However, I picture the mature ladies and gentlemen more concerned with the neck cloths they spent so much time tying, wilting in the afternoon sun and the ladies worried their gowns might become creased. But perhaps most were not so fastidious as I imagine and enjoyed a picnic as much as my husband and I do, our only worry which backdrop to choose and . . . ants.<\/p>\n

Oh my, do you suppose they had to worry about ants as well?<\/p>\n

Sources
\nPictures from Miramax Film, Emma 1996<\/em>
\nPicture from Jane Austen World.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally posted 2013-06-28 10:00:00. <\/small><\/p>

\"Listen<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband and I did not get to go on vacation this year. We have a 14 year old lab that literally doesn\u2019t get around much anymore. We used to take her with us, but she cannot travel anymore, so our \u201cvacations\u201d are one-day adventures that don\u2019t take more than six hours. One of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3152"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3154,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3152\/revisions\/3154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}