Getting your umbrella in the right spot can be a surprising cause for concern as the summer sun hits. So much so that many of us, myself included, have jettisoned the idea of an umbrella altogether in favour of a sail, an extremely large hat, or a tree. And at the beach nowadays, I've noticed there is trend toward rolling up and pitching a tent for the picnic. Last summer looked more like an afternoon on K2 than rather than an afternoon at Takapuna Beach.
But back to the brolly. During the last few years I've had the pleasure of lunching with some friends who are brolly people. No sails for them, although they do have big hats. And I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with their set-up. Firstly, they don't have one of those weighted stand things that you either stub your toe on or that fall over when the wind gets up. They certainly don't have the brolly banged in the middle of the table, which to me has always seemed a little anti-social, usually because I'm the one who gets stuck in front of it.
I do concede it is a good thing to butt your plate up against when you're trying to push the remnants of the coleslaw on to your plastic fork, but that's about it. During my lunch under the umbrellas, I realised that I didn't feel impeded by a couple of poles sticking out of the pavers off to one side. That way the protection from the sun, like the lamb, was excellent.
The reason for this unrestricted shade was that instead of the umbrellas being set up on some kind of stand, holes had been punched directly into the pavers. These holes were strategically placed so the sides of the umbrellas touched, making the protection from the sun seamless. Better still, later in the afternoon the umbrellas could be moved to different positions, or closed, to let us bathe in the last of the summer sun.