Thanks again to everybody who entered our Belvoir On For Britain ‘Perfect Picnic’ competition. Winners have been announced, but don’t despair if your entry wasn’t chosen; we’ll be running plenty more competitions throughout the year. A new one will be announced next week, in fact.

In the meantime, let’s ponder what could be this summer’s most perfect of picnics. It’s on Sunday, 5th July and it’ll take place on Aorangi Terrace.

Any idea why?

Want to hazard a guess?

Okay, here’s a clue: It’d probably involve strawberries and cream washed down with Belvoir’s traditional organic lemonade.

Any closer?

Or still scratching your head?

You probably know exactly what Aorangi Terrace is. And, indeed, where it is. But here’s the twist: You probably don’t know it as Aorangi Terrace.

Baffled?

What if we told you the word Aorangi is the Maori spelling of Aoraki – the official name for Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand.

Does that help?

Maybe not – but Aorangi Terrace is sloped, too.

And perhaps the reason this slope is named after a mountain in New Zealand is because it was used by the London New Zealand Rugby Club. That was until 1981, when the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club asked for it back.

Solved it?

Yes, Aorangi Terrace is in Wimbledon. It’s the slope where fans gather with picnics to watch the big games on a massive TV screen. You might call it Henman Hill, Murray Mound or even Rusedski Ridge (awfully sorry, Greg – but we don’t think many people do).

Monday saw the return of SW19’s big tennis competition for another thrilling fortnight. Expect glorious sun followed by intermittent showers and lots of hyperbole about Blighty’s own Andy Murray.

After Murray’s win at Queen’s, expectation for him to take the men’s title at Wimbledon is so high it’s vertigo inducing. The press have dubbed it – quite brilliantly, may we add – ‘Andymonium’.

He’ll have to get past the brilliant Federer, but if Murray does do it, he’ll be the first Briton to lift the trophy since Fred Perry was victorious on the hallowed grass courts in 1936.

And we’ll be raising a glass of elderflower champagne to the lad.

Do you think Murray can win? Are you attending this year’s tournament? Will you be picnicking on Sunday 5th July on Aorangi Terrace / Henman Hill / Murray Mound / Rusedski Ridge ?

Let us know in the comments!

Maybe it’s our fault. Maybe we were drunk on sunshine. Those two weekends of gorgeous weather that graced us a few weeks ago must’ve made us a bit giddy with excitement. You see, it was during those sun drenched days we came up with the idea of the Belvoir On For Britain Flower Show. We sat back and imagined all these wonderful sunny pictures flooding into the Belvoir Fruit Farms inbox.

And then it clouded over, turned cold and started raining.

So we understand if you haven’t had a chance to take a photo of you and your garden for the competition. But don’t worry. You’ve still got two weeks to capture your back yard in full bloom. And we’re sure the sun’ll come out tomorrow (tomorrow, bet ya bottom dollar…etc).

And even if it doesn’t, you’re a talented bunch so we’re sure you’ll come up with a splendidly creative way to take a good floral snap in the absence of sun.

Once you’ve taken your picture, send it to photos@belvoirfruitfarms.co.uk. Remember: two lucky winners will win a pair of tickets each to RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show on Saturday 11th July.

Picnic rucksack competition winners

We’ve been trawling through all your entries for April’s picnic competition over the last few days and have picked our favourite five.

And here they are. Congratulations to them. And a big thank you to everyone who took the time to enter. We sincerely appreciate your efforts.

Deborah went for a very English approach, including the much underrated hard-boiled egg in her picnic. A terrific choice, we thought.

A picnic for St George’s Day,
By the river, a sunny day,
To a pretty Cotswold town I’d go,
Still & quiet, just me & my beau,
Home-made sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs,
Sausage rolls & chicken legs,
And at the end, to help us digest,
Some Belvoir cordial – Ginger’s best!

A few Sherlock Holmes wannabes in the office think Yvonne is giving her nationality away in the first sentence of her winning entry. We’re inclined to agree.

My ideal picnic would be next to the loch with my wee daughter. We would have ham sandwiches, sausage rolls, fruit, any other foods that take our fancy and Pear & Elderflower Pressé to wash it down with. After our food we would feed the swans and ducks, then I would let my daughter play at the little park. And before we head home we would stop of for an ice cream.

Lorna puts Bono in his place and brings a Bear along as a contingency plan. Superb!

As nice as Scotland is for picnics – generally it ends up with everyone sitting in the car munching on soggy sandwiches waiting for the rain to go off so we can rescue the soaking wet tartan blanket – my ideal picnic would have to be on a huge yacht in the middle of a turquoise sea – sounds nice eh!! We would be eating prawn cocktail, then black forrest gateau for dessert ,washed down with a huge Dragon’s breath cocktail. Padraig Harrington would be there teaching us a thing or two on the onboard golf course (as you do) and just because he looks really nice. U2 would be singing for us, but Bono would be banned from talking and of course we couldn’t leave out Bear Grylls incase we ended up shipwrecked on an island and had to live off berries and frogs.

Kerry dreams of Belvoir, dashes around au naturel and then heads off on a picnic – all in one wonderfully epic poem!

BY GEORGE! LET’S HAVE A PICNIC!

In my dreams, I’m packing hampers,
Filled with caviar, Belvoir and champers.
A handsome prince in a sweeping cape,
Moistens his lips with some Muscat Grape,
Before carrying me off on his dashing white horse,
To enjoy a fruitsome picnic of course after course.
He holds my hand as we sip chilled Belvoir,
Before crushing me juicily with ardent “fervoir”!
But, alas! Alack! My alarm clock goes!
Where are my maidenly, demure, wee clothes?
I dash to the mirror-what a bummer!
I’m an ordinary mum in the British summer.
I pack my cool bag and summon my kids,
I ensure all my presses have nice tight lids.
We jump in the car, setting off at full throttle,
Before stopping to sip from our Belvoir bottles.
We’ve Dragon’s Breath Cocktails, they’re fruity and fun,
We eat soggy sandwiches and stroll in the sun.
We’re fortified by flavinoids, we never feel annoyed,
Our entente is so cordiale at the day we’ve just enjoyed.
The bairns are bathed, we’re home at last, the picnic’s packed away,
Belvoir’s brought its sparkle to another summer day!

Nicola would talk cathedral construction and the Chronicles of Barsetshire over cucumber sandwiches and cordial down by the Cam.

Dream picnic?
I’d love a lazy sunday lunch with Sir Christopher Wren on the backs in Cambridge. It’d be good to get author Anthony Trollope and my favourite monarch Richard III along too. And who could resist a guest appearance from Colin Firth?
I reckon they’d like the traditional picnic fare – cucumber sandwiches and strawberries and cream washed down with ginger cordial.
With all that talent we could discuss everything under the sun, literally. Perfect.