A Picnic Supper To Remember: Part I

It started like a "normal" trip upstate for a picnic supper with family.  We hurriedly changed into long pants (to ward off bugs) and threw blankets, pillows and bedrolls into the trunk of the car (for the kids).  I grabbed the berry-filled fruit salad I had made hours earlier and as if we were headed to the "Magic Kingdom," we were off!

 

There was some fishing (although most of the fishers came up empty handed), wonderful kayaking,  much-needed visiting and lots of garlic peeling (keeps the bugs away).  

In retrospect, the first sign that this was not to be a "normal" picnic supper should have come as we toured the impeccable gardens of the old estate, smiled at the proud peacock, or laughed at the frog who jumped in the pool right in front of our eyes; however, it really wasn't until many hours later, as the morning sun kissed me in the lean-to, that I realized the strangeness of the happenings that summer evening on the banks of the pond in the woods.

Our hosts cooked the entire dinner, right in this fire pit, slowly tempting us, on nickel-sized slivers of oak that slowly turned into bright orange. fire-hot, embers.  It might have been all the garlic, or it might have been the power of home-grown veggies, but there was not a bug in site as day-turned quickly into night and we gobbled down cucumber salad down and garlic-infused pasta fagioli.

There was a part or me, who at moments, realized I should be heading home; however, it was almost as if the fire pit, alive with hot embers, and the family, so full of love and laughter, required me to stay and be part of what was to happen soon. 

Part II - Coming Soon :)