Picnic in a Den - What A Treat!

Think back to your own childhood for a moment and I’m sure some of your most treasured memories are of long summer days outside playing with friends and siblings, adults a mere fuzzy haze in the background. You can help your own children on their way to creating their own summer holiday memories, sometimes they just need a little spark to get their outdoor adventures started. The Cottage Garden Den Kit makes an ideal base camp in the garden. Instantly inviting to children, it’s their space to play and develop as they will… adding blankets, cushions, books and favourite toys to make their den cosy. On a warm summer’s day what could be nicer than sharing a picnic lunch outside in their den?

Keep the picnic simple so you don’t end up spending all morning creating it. Get the children involved, they will eat it all if they have prepared it themselves. Little sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, fresh strawberries, chopped red peppers and cucumber, dried apple rings and some small fruit buns will do the trick. Plenty of drinks will be required and perhaps some books and a blanket for that post lunch rest in the den.

We all know the benefits of being outside in the fresh air, eating outside also offers that time for calm and reflection, for peaceful chatting, eating together is a shared experience where we learn to be social beings.

My own mum was very adept at keeping us outside for as long as possible by arriving with a basket of refreshments just as we were beginning to wane. She still remembers finding us in the early afternoon snoozing happily in the shade of our camp, on a blanket, full tummies, surrounded by the flotsam of the morning’s adventures - camps and hideouts, pretend fire pits and traps to catch would be marauders from the house next door.

- Jo Jones