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We love reading in our family. As well as reading picture books, I have always read Chapter books to the kids since they were very young. Now of course, Danny and Rebecca can read them to themselves but still love for us all to take it in turns reading so they get to listen too.
One of the series that really caught our imaginations was “The Enchanted Tales Trilogy” by Enid Blyton. It is so magical.
We love recreating moments from the books, such as, making homemade lemonade, Lemon Pop Cakes or toffee. I promised the kids that we could have an Enid Blyton Style picnic during the Summer Holidays holidays. I had planned to take them to our own Enchanted Woods, but Danny reminded me that at the top of The Faraway Tree they get to go to different worlds and on new adventures so in fact we could go anywhere.
Therefore, we decided to visit Llawhaden Castle. There are lots of magical castles to choose from in Pembrokeshire, Llawhaden is always very private and peaceful so that was our first choice.
First we had to go to Tesco to buy goodies for our picnic and ingredients for our Homemade Lemonde and Flora Sticky Ginger Cake.
You can see our shop in our Flora Vintage Picnic Shop Google Plus Album.
Once home, I got busy making the refreshing lemonade and the gorgeously sticky, ginger cake. We also made traditional sandwiches, such as Cucumber and Ham. When making simple sandwiches like this, it’s important that the spread is tasty.
I used Flora Original Spread as it has just, after popular demand, gone back to it’s original taste. It was lovely and the kids kept asking for more bread and butter as I tried to make the sandwiches!
I packed up our picnic hamper- usually I just pack a picnic in our lunchboxes or rucksack, so using the hamper is a huge treat!
Then we were transformed back into 1950’s Enid Blyton land for our family picnic. Danny poured out the lemonade. So much tastier when made fresh.
Water, sugar, lemons…so simple.
Hard boiled eggs, another simple yet delicious and nutritious picnic food.
Boil them, cool them, pack them, eat them.
The girls loved their Flora Original and Cucumber Sandwiches. Dave and Danny enjoyed Flora and Ham. I went less traditional and had a Quorn and Flora sandwich. Sandwiches taste so much nicer in the fresh, outdoor air.
A couple of plums.
Then we opened up our delicious Flora Sticky Ginger Cake…and wow it was fiery! Dave and I loved it but it was a little strong for the girls. Fine once washed down with lemonade though!
Then we took out our traditional sweets from Truly Scrumptious.
Our Welsh Humbugs.
Our Sherbet Lemons. I asked for Lemon Sherbet at first in the shop so nearly got the wrong thing. Luckily, I realised my error in time. I love Lemon Sherbets now!
Then it was time to play and explore the Castle.
The Sun began to set.
So we packed up our picnic.
We walked back to the car, dreaming up our next magical adventure…
You can see more photos from our picnic in our Enid Blyton Style Vintage Picnic Google Plus Album.
ooh I think I need to make that ginger cake, it looks & sounds lovely! looks like you had a lovely day…& no rain!
Yes, thank you. I thought it was lovely! I love ginger! It was a good evening weather wise. Our rain just started yesterday, however only showers in between the sunshine so not too bad. 🙂
This looks like such fun! I loved Secret Seven and Famous Five when I was little. I loved how the Famous Five would round up ginger beer, ham and fresh tomatoes and that would fuel a whole adventure on Kirrin Island!
Looks like an amazing day. I used to love Enid Blyton.
What a lovely idea, theming a picnic. I LOVE Enid Blyton too, got every single book 🙂 x
I love that idea of having days out based on books. I was also a fan of the Magic Faraway tree books. Loved Enid Blyton!