Replace Your Brunch with a Picnic This Spring

Now that spring has arrived, what I want to do most is not to go and crowd in with everyone else to admire the cherry blossoms, but to go on a relaxed, leisurely picnic.

Among the spring solar terms, from the Beginning of Spring, Rain Water, Awakening of Insects, and Spring Equinox to Pure Brightness, any day that is not drizzly is suitable for a picnic. When the weather warms and the flowers suddenly bloom red, there is no need to hesitate - hurry and get ready to go on a picnic. Because once spring has passed, it gets too hot to stay out under the sun; by autumn the wind sometimes blows in a way that is not quite suitable for picnics, and in winter you may as well just curl up at home and drink hot tea.

During the Beginning of Spring, both the temperature and the wind are gentle, and the rain is not yet so wet and drippy. The chinaberry tree (Melia azedarach) has just put out soft pinkish-green buds, the old banyan tree is full of fruit, and every day is a feast time for the birds, chirping and chattering with great liveliness, while people join in the fun and go picnicking together.

When preparing for a picnic, the food can be simple or lavish as you like - what matters most is that it is easy to carry and easy to eat; bread, fruit, sushi, and rice balls are all fine, and bring some drinking water, hot tea, or coffee. Usually the portions do not need to be too filling - enough for about seven-tenths full is fine, so that it is convenient to move around and get the body active afterward.

You need a large mat, long and wide enough for an adult to lie down on. A foil mat used for mountain climbing or a piece of plastic canvas cut from a canvas shop will do, and a plastic tablecloth is fine too, but the size needs to be sewn and pieced together. If it is paper or fabric, it will let the moisture of the grass seep through, and your bottom will quickly get soaked, which is not ideal. A mat like this is very useful when camping or for temporary covering or laying on the ground when out and about - not just for picnics.

But the most annoying thing at a picnic is the blackfly. When you are lying there comfortably, the most hateful thing is for a blackfly to come and kiss you. In early spring the blackflies are not yet too active, but you still need to have a bottle of citronella oil ready and spray it on your pant legs and the back of your collar. With that, the picnic is roughly ready.

For the rest, prepare entertainment and fun items according to your own preferences. Soft tee-ball, badminton, and frisbees to play with the children are all suitable. What I recommend most is to bring a book you like and lie on your side on the grass under a tree reading, with birdsong, hot tea, and a good book - truly lazy and comfortable, and that is the very best of it.

Do not look down on this picnic - although it is just moving breakfast out onto the grass, every time we picnic we cannot help saying: "How can our family be enjoying ourselves this much!", and compared with brunch at a restaurant it clearly gives a sense of a higher level of comfort in life. If you are in a bad mood at a brunch coffee shop and the salad is made all sloppily, your mood for the day is greatly discounted by it, and it feels as if the money you paid has been cast into gloom; when the coffee shop gets busy, the noisy bustle annoys your leisure, and there is no way to stay for very long even if you want to. But a picnic is different: the food you prepare tastes pleasant and good even if it is nothing special, you can eat as long as you want and sit as long as you want, and it does not matter how you lie down. Once you have been on a picnic you will probably understand and fall in love with this kind of weekend morning time - getting up quickly in the morning, excited and happy, preparing to go on a picnic, a holiday beginning with such high spirits. Compared with sleeping until full, eating brunch and then lunch and dinner, and then being listless on Monday, a picnic is much healthier.

While eating the picnic food, you watch the young people's ball skills in the distance. When you have eaten about enough, next comes baseball and reading time. The children look forward to this dad-and-baseball time, and it is also very suitable for a fierce badminton match. When you are tired from playing, read and rest, then lie down well under the sky and take a nap, and the picnic comes to an end.Such a wonderful picnic enjoyment - once you have tried it you will know how pleasant it is.

With commercial encouragement, many people's holidays have become busier. Driving to rush off on a trip and then rushing to Grandma's house, back and forth, consumes a lot of energy and stamina, and it is hard to really get rest and recuperation during weekday holidays.

Cancel the usual Saturday and Sunday outings and long trips, and use the seasons to arrange seasonal trips or long-distance travel during winter and summer vacations, while on ordinary Saturdays and Sundays have picnics in nearby parks, browse bookstores, and take gentle walks.

Try adjusting the structure of your time off, and perhaps the quality of family life for many families will be relieved.

Let quietness and steadiness build the rhythm of days off; spiritually it can help you think better and lay out your life.

A small reminder: at picnics, please try to use ordinary dishes from home; disposable plates thrown away once create more garbage, and in that moment you would be letting down Mother Earth beneath your bottom.