Days Out: Picnics at Knepp Castle

There something so lovely about eating outside, and as we don’t have a garden we have to get our al-fresco food fix in the form of picnics. A couple of weeks ago we picked up a picnic backpack at a car boot (brand new for £2!) and it was full of cutlery, plates, ice blocks and plastic glasses, even tiny little salt and pepper shakers! Then a couple of days later a little delivery arrived from Miu Color; a lovely huge picnic blanket and a gorgeous blue water bottle. The picnic blanket is HUGE, five feet by 6.5 feet, so plenty big enough for all of us to sit on, plus friends! The underside is a thick waterproof layer of PVC so it’s perfect for the beach or for slightly soggy ground with nothing soaking through the blanket. It folds up easily and neatly, with a velcro fastening and a carry handle. The top layer is soft to sit on and can be easily cleaned if (more likely when) the kids spill things on it!

It was absolutely perfect for our picnic last Sunday at Knepp Castle, we went for the ‘fairytale fringe fair’ and had a lovely day – morris dancers (With a difference, they were all wearing masks and clompy boots with fishnet nights!) vintage cars, delicious ice cream and proper cider, it was lovely! With the castle to one side and the huge lake next to us we sat and scoffed our picnic before the girls went off to do a childrens yoga session (complete with bubbles and mandala colouring in!)

The water bottle is glass so it doesn’t retain smells, tastes or stains like plastic bottles do. I’ve gone through more than a few plastic bottles that have got stained beyond use and ended up smelling a bit funky too so I’ve just chucked them. Arriving with two sponge bottle cleaners with extending handles there is no way this will end up with the same fate as the other ones. The lid screws on to a neck that’s wide enough to pop some berries or fruit slices in for flavour but not too wide to drink from easily. The silicone cover means you’re not going to drop it and makes it look funkier too, it’s available in a few different colours too, so you can differentiate between family members.

Around the same time Petit Fernand had asked if the kids would like a personalised lunchbox each,which are absolutely perfect for picnics! They are so cleverly designed, like bento boxes! Each Lunch box has a completely customisable lid design, they’re microwavable but also have an removable ice pack for keeping things cool when needed, which slots into the bottom of the upper tray to keep everything cool. The bottom of the box has two removable trays to keep things separated, or you can remove this for larger things like sandwiches. Both kids are utterly over the moon with them, and all Athena’s little preschool friends seem to love it too, when she adds it to the lunchbox trolley in the morning it gets lots of admiring glances!

All the 100% customisable products are so easy to order, I got Athena to pick the colour lunchbox she wanted and she went for pink, though it’s not a garish baby pink its more mauve. She chose the flamingo pattern and the text she wanted. I chose to use her full name on the lid, and did the same for Arlo. I let Athena choose the design for Arlo too, but he loves the cars on his so she did well!