Summer Solstice Picnics
Celebrating the longest day of the year
Three of my all-time favorite picnics were at the summer solstice. The days are long and languid, and the light lingers while the dusk lengthens.
My friends and I would take any excuse for a picnic: birthdays, getting a raise at work, or even manufacturing a reason like “we missed the eclipse, so let’s have a picnic instead,” but the best day was always the summer solstice.
The only actual summer-solstice-themed picnic was held on some wooded land a friend owned, and had two “rules”: Your picnic basket had to have at least one item of home-made cooking in it (even if you bribed someone else to make it for you), and everyone had to wear a wreath of flowers or leaves. I had piles of flowers and greenery ready, so when everyone arrived, I taught them how to make the wreaths, and we put them on and then planted ourselves on blankets around the meadow. Those flowers and leaves added such a sybaritic air as we fed each other all those home-made goodies, I swear we looked like a Maxfield Parrish painting.
I love to hike, and one time on the side of a hill I found an abandoned apple orchard with gnarly…
