Picnic season

<p>Close your eyes and dream of lazy summer days ahead. A wicker picnic hamper rests on a checkered tablecloth spread on the grass near the shade of a towering oak tree.</p><p>In Wine Country, the gourmet basket will be filled with a favorite bottle or two of the best from local vineyards, as well as artisan cheese or pate, perhaps some olives, stone fruit and a fresh baguette locally made. There are ritual foods and favorite sites.</p><p>Summer picnics become part of community life, as culture lovers pack up treats to take along to see Shakespeare in the park or to a winery for a live jazz concert.</p><p>And picnics become family traditions, the stuff of fond memories rooted in childhood or a way of keeping romance alive year after year.</p><p>“Every wedding anniversary is celebrated with a sunrise picnic,” said Pam D'Angelo of Santa Rosa. “We take turns planning it each year, always a surprise for the other.”</p><p>For Pam and her husband, Casey, the ritual dates back 35 years.</p><p>“We met one summer while working an Easter Seals camp in the Santa Cruz mountains,” she recalled. “Because we were still on duty at night, the only time to be alone together was sunrise. We'd hike the surrounding mountains and have a picnic.”</p><p>Over the past few decades, the couple has picnicked from Sausalito to Mendocino, in friends' vineyards or on their decks, at Doran Beach on Bodega Bay and even in a canoe on Santa Rosa's Spring Lake.</p><p>Casey surpassed himself on their first anniversary, setting up a card table with fancy linens, flowers and china at Twin Peaks in San Francisco.</p><p>“A pickup truck drove up which had a full-sized piano on it,” Pam recalled. “A man in a top hat and tails bounded out, handed me a long-stemmed yellow rose and said, ‘Happy anniversary from your husband.'”</p><p>For some picnickers, the traditions take an artistic turn.</p><p>“Our favorite picnics are journeys into the countryside with former neighbors, poets who have founded an organization for aspiring authors,” said Joyce Power of Healdsburg.</p><p>Power and her friends have very specific tastes in both venue and menu.</p><p>“Some of our traditional locations are plant nurseries; our most recent was the Sonoma Horticultural Gardens,” she said. “The shared menu is usually the same: a deli barbecued chicken, scallions, cheeses and a baguette, with fresh fruit and homemade cookies. A chilled dry rose wine and sparkling water complete the lunch.”</p><p>Some people associate picnics with a particular day and place.</p><p>“Every year for the Fourth of July, my husband and I take a picnic to the Monte Rio Beach,” said Twila Le Page of Cazadero.</p><p>The menu, served at 4 p.m., is basic but satisfying: fried chicken, homemade potato salad, brownies or cookies and wine. And the entertainment is free.</p><p>“We watch the kids swimming, and the boats skimming along the river, joined by the ducks, and often taking a dip ourselves, if it's hot,” Le Page said.</p><p>Plain or fancy, far away or close to home, on a special day or any nice one, a picnic is easy and pleasing. Shared with friends or family, a simple meal out of a basket becomes a memory to cherish and share.</p><p>D'Angelo vows to continue her yearly wedding anniversary picnics for a lifetime.</p><p>“I love our sunrise picnic tradition,” she said. Then, with a dash of humor, she added, “I just wish I was a morning person.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@ pressdemocrat.com. See his ARTS blog at http://arts.blogs. pressdemocrat.com.</p>