I’m such a home bird …I love the idea of sun soaked days in the garden savouring pineapple wedges like when we were kids
Hoovering plates piled high with pasta, naming tunes, nattering anecdotally, and all the while sipping on some fruity chilled wine like a Woody Allen ingénue. Bare with.
But alas, my summer-season… Where’d she go? Sun-trap blessings have been a little hit and miss this side of the Watford gap.
Still when Gallo Family Vineyards asked me to collaborate on their new Spritz range, my creative juices were flowing. I’m a huge picnic/party person but with these bi-polar rain showers and every person I know working weekdays… I planned something special for me and you know who.
Getting to steal an afternoon mid-week with Mr. Luxe was a treat. It’s only recently I’ve started sharing my down time at home, odd given how happy I am here, a regular on the dog-walking circuit, found in my fluffy *borrowed-from-Champneys-robe, padding around the garden looking for Boo (the dog) or spooling through the forest when he’s spotted a deer.
Beyond the forest we’ve a sort of secret garden that comes alive this time of year. Photogenic hedge rows and luscious greens. So we bundled down there, me with my plastic kelly and the camera, J with everything else.
I’d prepped ahead and stocked up on the usual suspects; the posh pasta, the first thing I ever learned to cook at uni. A deli treacle tart I’d topped with raspberries and forgotten the cream. A rhapsody of slightly-crushed vegetable crisps favourites for dipping …and lashings of Gallo Family Vineyards Spritz perfectly fruity just the way I like it.
For me the key to prepping a great picnic is in the detail. Pretty serving plates, proper knives and forks, wine pairing with thankfully a label to direct. I served up the pineapple wedges with the spritzed Pinot Grigio, the sweetness of pineapple & passionfruit flavours reminds me of a holiday we had in California. Then for dessert we glugged my new bff Raspberry & Lime White Grenache Rosé. She washed the berry-topped tart down a treat. Try saying that when you’ve a mouthful of pesto pasta.
So rare are these warm days, I sort of want to picnic like a boss at every opportunity. Yep Gallo Family have awakened something inside me and J… we’re now planning optimistically another picnic, same wine, different crisps.
L x
wearing shirt H & M | sunglasses Taylor Morris Ldn | skirt Miss Patina | shoes Converse | bag vintage Hermés