Fun | Games for Picnics

A picnic isn’t complete without a run about and a bit of competition after your sausage rolls and strawberries. We’ve rounded up a few of our favourite games for a picnic

Tug of War

Best for: A gang of mates at the beach.

You’ll need: A long, thick rope.

How to play: You (literally) know the ropes. Mark a line in the sand or chuck a jumper down to be ‘the line’. Split into two equal teams, taking into account size, strength etc (you may need one extra person on one side to even it up). Line up on either side of the rope with the middle of the rope over the line. On the count of three, both teams should pull on the rope. The winning team is the first to pull one of the other team over the line. 

Capture the Flag

Best for: Family groups in the woods.

You’ll need: Two ‘flags’ (they can be t-shirts, napkins, toys or anything else).

How to play: Divide the space into two ‘territories’ (an invisible line between two trees will do) and nominate a space to be a ‘jail’. Split into two teams. Each team should hide the other team’s flag somewhere on their territory. Both teams then compete to find their flag and get it back to their own territory without being tagged and thrown in jail. You can only be tagged on the other team’s territory. A member of your team can release you from ‘jail’ by running to the jail to ‘untag’ you. 

French Cricket

Best for: Neighbours in the park.

You’ll need: A cricket bat and a tennis ball.

How to play: One person is the batter. Everyone else fields in a circle around them, taking turns to be bowler. The batter’s legs are the stumps. The bowler bowls at the ‘stumps’ and the batter must hit the ball away with the bat. If the ball is caught the batter is out and replaced by whoever caught them out. If the batter has hit the ball they may then turn to face the next bowler. If they didn’t hit it they must play the next bowl facing the same way, twisting to defend their stumps from whichever direction they choose to bowl. 

Cats or Dogs

Best for: Couples or anyone getting to know each other

You’ll need: Nothing!

How to play: You don’t even need to get up for this one. Simply sit back over a glass of something chilled and take it in turns to fire ‘choice’ questions at each other. Start with ‘cats or dogs?’ and move on to ‘sweets or chocolates?’, ‘oranges or lemons?’, ‘Piers Brosnan or Daniel Craig?’ and wherever your fancy takes you. 

This blog was inspired by our feature ‘Delicious, Fictitious Picnics’ in our June issue, in which we take a look at picnics from novels. Buy a copy of our June issue in shops or from our online store and join us on the picnic blanket.

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Make | A Solar Oven From a Pizza Box

A bright idea for when the sun is baking hot 

1 Leaving a gap from the edge, cut three sides of a square into the pizza box lid. Score on the fourth side to make a liftable flap. 

2 Tape foil over the inside side of the flap.  

3 Open the box and tape a tight layer of hole-free clear plastic over the inside of the lid (including over the flap-hole you just made).  

4 Tape foil over the rest of the inside.  

5 Add a square of black card to the inside base of the box.  

6 Get ready for use on a hot and sunny day by sticking in direct sunlight for as long as possible with the flap held open. Angle the flap so the foil directs the sun towards the plastic.  

7 Wait until the box/oven gets hot and pop something inside on the card to cook (marshmallows are probably a better option than pies for now). Use oven gloves to get out when ready. It takes a while but who needs to be anywhere on a sunny summer day, anyway? 
 
 This make was from our July Miscellany pages, but we thought it was fun enough to share now. Find more miscellany in every issue of The Simple Things.

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How to | make a kite

We’re all about the gusty adventures this month. Let’s go fly a kite!

We hope you like the kite illustration on our Blossom front cover for March. Inside the issue Jo Mattock has written a piece to inspire you to take your kite on an outing. If you don’t have time to dig yours out of the shed, here’s how to make one in moments.

You will need

• 2 straight sticks or pieces of cane (raid last year’s runner beans patch), one around 50cm and one around 60cm but you can make them bigger or smaller as you wish

• String

• Washi tape (you knew you’d find a practical use for it one day, didn’t you?)

• A piece of light fabric or strong paper to fit your kite frame (a bin liner will do in a kite-building emergency)

• Suitable glue

• Masking tape

• A long piece of fabric for your kite tail, plus fabric remnants
  
  
  

How to make your kite

1. Arrange your two sticks in a T-shape, with the shorter stick crossing the longer stick about a third of the way down. 

2. Wind string around and around at the point where the sticks join and tie it securely. Cover over the join with washi tape until you are certain the structure is secure. You can use a blob of superglue if you prefer, to anchor the string.

3. Use a pair of scissors to saw a small notch at either end of both sticks (4 notches), each about 3cm from the end. 

4. Tie a piece of string around the edge of your shape, forming a diamond, using the notches to secure the string with a knot at each corner.

5. Place your diamond shape on top of your fabric, paper or bin liner and draw around the outside of the shape, approx 5cm bigger all the way round, then cut out your shape.

6. Place the diamond frame back on your fabric. Squirt a line of glue all the way around the edge of the fabric diamond and then fold the edges over the string frame to stick down.

7. Use masking tape to secure the fabric to the frame all around the edge and across the stick frame.

8. Cut a length of string a bit longer than your spar (the shorter stick). We used 65cm of string for the 50cm cane. Tie to each end of the smaller stick so the string has plenty of slack.

9. For your flying line, tie a long piece of string to the middle of the slack string. Make it as long as you dare.

10. Create a tail for your kite with a long piece of string from the bottom and decorate it with pieces of fabric tied on. Decorate the front and back of the kite as you wish. 

11. Go fly a kite and send it soaring!

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The rules of petanque

Nothing quite says summer like the clink of pétanque balls. Lager and Gallic shrugs optional

Pétanque (or boules) is played in two teams with two sets of differently marked boules. You can play in teams of two (3 boules each); three (2 each) or one against one (3 each).

1 Draw a circle on the ground (or use a coiled rope), 50cm in diameter.

2 A player from team one stands in the circle and throws the jack (the wooden boule) to land 6-10m from the rope, a metre away from any other object. Team one throws a first boule as close as possible to the jack.

3 A player from team two tries to get a boule closer. If successful they ‘have the point’ and play returns to team one. If not, they continue to throw until they do and play passes back.

4 Play continues until one team has played all their boules. The other team then throws the rest of their boules.

5 The team with the closest boule to the jack wins and gets a point for each of their boules closer to the jack than the other team’s nearest boule.

6 The winning team draws a new circle round the jack and throws it to start the next round. Play ends when one team reaches 13 points.

You will find lots more fun for outdoor gatherings in our July ‘Embrace’ issue. It’s in shops now.

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