The NEbloggers Summer Picnic at Jesmond Dene

Myself and Karen are immensely proud of our NEbloggers network which now has an impressive 241 members! As well as the group being a place to ask for advice and share tips amongst our peers, we also run a weekly post sharing thread, have regular discussions and debates, hold a fortnightly twitter chat (follow us here) and are generally a lovely supportive environment for all things blogging! The Summer Picnic was our first event and despite the start of the week looking dull, rainy and dreary the sun decided to shine and we all have a lovely day.

Our venue of choice was Jesmond Dene, somewhere that is both child and dog friendly with picnic tables, a park and lots of green space plus fairly central. What more could we ask for? I absolutely adore Jesmond Dene (see here) and arrived nice and early for our little soiree.

I had been sent some goodies from Aperol to make an Aperol Spritz. Aperol is an award winning Italian apertif which started life back in sun-soaked Padua in 1919 and it seemed like the perfect drink to sample in the beautiful outdoor countryside on a sunny afternoon.

Aperol Spritz

3 PARTS PROSECCO | 2 PARTS APEROL | 1 PART SODA

Our Aperol Spritz was super easy to make (I didn't even need anything to measure the quantities) and tasted nice and refreshing. It has a slightly earthy and bitter orange taste to it and is probably best served with a slice of orange - unfortunately we only had strawberries in our picnic basket but I still think this was a winning combination. This video demonstrates a lot better than I can how you can recreate your very own Aperol Spritz at home however as this drink only requires 3 ingredients, it's definitely a simple drink to take and put together on a special picnic this Summer.

We were joined by Karen, Helena, Kate, Mandy, Rachel, Emma and Katie plus a large brood of children. The location really was wonderful as it was so close to the park and pets corner when the children fancied a toddle. We mixed playing with bubbles to chatting about travel, blogging and our Summer plans as well as sharing amusing tales from previous holiday encounters.

The real talking point of the day though were the gorgeous Holly and Alfie who were perfectly behaved and even shared their special doggy treats nicely with each other.

The picnic lasted a good 2 1/2 hours - I couldn't believe we had so much to chat about! Of course we had to ride the Jesmond Dene Thomas train and sing-a-long before we packed up to go home.

Thanks to everyone for a thoroughly enjoyable, relaxed afternoon with good company, good food and a lovely new Summer drink! Same time, same place next year?