Well, what happened was Paulette rang me and said, "Ah well Janet it's going to rain and we don't have many ladies coming to the picnic, so do you think we should cancel it?" And at the end of the conversation I had persuaded Paulette that I would lead a walk at La Hulpe at 11am, and that we would meet up with Sheila (and Keith as it turned out) at 12.30 for lunch.
Rain! Pooh! We can walk in rain! And if we can't picnic in it we can still have a nice lunch!
So we gathered in a shower (of rain) at 11am. Me, Kyung-Sook, Patricia (new walker who must think we are very pathetic), Joan, Cathy, Melly (sorry Melly, I didn't take any photos until after you'd left) and Truffles. We walked about 50m from the car and by then the rain was coming down in stair rods.
"Shall we shelter under this tree for a while" I asked? Well - let's just say if we'd been at sea it would have been a mutiny. Unfortunately we were about 500m from the Blue Man (sorry, L'homme Bleu) and by the time we got there we were soaked! Some more than others. Melly now knows that her blue jacket really isn't waterproof. Patricia was lucky as the wet patches on her blue top were so apparent she was able to swap it for my summer fleece. Kyung-Sook and Cathy had water creeping up their jeans. And I know my lovely boots need waterproofing! And that my rucksack is NOT waterproof!
We tried to ring Sheila to tell her we were abandoning our walk, but after spending about 10 minutes trying to get a signal we had to ask the cafe to borrow their phone - and it was too late!
But it didn't matter! We had a lovely morning drinking coffee and chatting, and then had a light lunch with Sheila and Keith: who arrived in brilliant sunshine and looked enviously dry to us!
As you can see from the pictures below, the rain got into the camera and the shutter didn't open properly! But here we are. Damp squids and Folon!
On the way out of the park we noticed that there is a picnic area designated within the grounds - but the opposite side of the park from the cafe. Maybe next year we could have a very simple picnic - each bring their own - and carry it to the picnic area from the Folon car park, and then finish at the Blue Man for coffee? And if it rains, we simply don't make our picnic that morning and have a lunch in the cafe instead. Just an idea!
In the meantime, if anyone could tell me what to do with 9 boiled eggs .......
1 comment:
Good try! You get points for the effort. What a shame that the weather gods did not cooperate. I can certainly remember a few "damp" June "picnics" in my time. It is really NOT fair, that Belgium summer weather!
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