A Picnic to Remember

Today we went to a spectacular picnic, it brought to mind other spectacular picnics.  They all involved good food, good company and a setting to be remembered.  The first one that came to mind was one in France in 2015 while visiting our friends Jean and Martine.  We stopped in a simple grocery store out in the countryside and bought all the food.  When we got hungry, we stopped by the roadside and sat on a grassy bank all in a row, passing the baguette and soft ripe Brie and delicious sliced ham back and forth.  Nothing ever tasted as good as I remember that food tasted.  I remember picnic dinners at a deserted castle outside of Heidelberg.  I’d pack up the food and we’d put it in our bicycle baskets and all the family would pedal 4 or 5 kilometers on a bicycle path along the Neckar River to the castle where we’d lay down our bicycles and hike up a green shady path to the castle.   We’d put down a picnic blanket and have our picnic dinner on the warm summer evening.  

Today’s picnic involved a trip to Sonoma county, between Sebastapol and Petaluma, to the estate of our friend Whitney with our friends Hanno and Bob.  We were altogether on a birding trip to Chile ten years ago and became fast friends.  For today’s visit, I volunteered to bring a picnic lunch in the wicker picnic basket Bob won at a church event last year.  I wanted to bring food reminiscent of my favorite picnics from Europe.  I bought special cheeses, a a package of prosciutto and even a small tub of truffled pork liver pate all to go on fresh baguette and a loaf of olive bread.  I made a tomato basil  salad with the best freshest tomatoes I could buy.  I bought a package of special curry Chile cashews and a package of dried mango to go with the tub of sweet grapes.  We brought a bottle of 2018 French Pinot Noir I had been gifted when I ended my ministry last July.  And finally I made a pear tart using Asian pears from our tree.  

When we got to Whitney’s place, she greeted us with open arms and showed us all around the place.  We spent lots of time in her garden, which was especially bright and sunny and very peaceful.  We looked at all her plantings and were awed by the views.  She’s on a hilltop with 12 acres.  There are bird feeders all around.  She says she can see Mt Tamalpais and even Mt. Diablo on a good day.  It is only 8 miles as the crow flies to Pt. Reyes and the Pacific Ocean.  

When we sat down in her dining table, she had picked bright flowers from her garden—orange and red and purple flowers—to adorn the table.  She made side dishes of potato salad and beet salad with all fresh ingredients from her garden and an apple pie to boot. We sat and ate and talked and laughed and ate some more and laughed some more.  We must have been at her table more than two hours but no one was counting.  It was a perfect Sunday afternoon picnic meal.  One to remember.