Indeed you are confused. You americans just don't understand. A picnic is: a blanket a basket and food in a field or a park hopefully with your sweetheart if you are lucky, but not necessary. Not this mamby pamby eating a sandwich outside. BBQ are allowed too but only in a public place, at your own home or a friends is not a picnic. You do need to understand that England has lousy weather a lot of times too so a picnic is not always possible.

@Jolanta When you go camping, you are not at home. You certainly have to eat. That is a picnic. I'm from Philadelphia, we don't have namby pamby sandwiches, we have giant hoagies. I've never owned a classic British picnic hamper and I've never done high tea. We drink coffee and eat donuts. No. It's not sad.

@barjoe No, no no no. You Americans do not even speak proper English like the Queen does. One can eat a sandwich anywhere does not make it a picnic. I know you don't eat proper cucumber sandwiches like the Queen does, you don't even cut off the crust. And yes your so called sandwiches are the size of a dinner plate, no wonder there are so many shop for larger sizes ladies. I guess there is a reason why they are called hoagies, just like the pigs. You don't even know how to make proper coffee, it taste like dishwater to me, and don't make me start on donuts. He, he.

@Jolanta Hoagie is a sandwich on Italian baguette, made in Philadelphia. It's like a po-boy, sub, hero, grinder. No we don't cut the crust off bread or eat cucumber sandwiches. I only drink tea when I'm sick. I drink French press and espresso and it doesn't taste like dishwater. I'm not big on donuts, make people fat. So if I have a bag of food and sit on a beach blanket that's a picnic, it doesn't matter what's in the bag provided its food. I don't have to sit in a meadow with a blanket and a proper hamper with plates and cutlery. I don't make fun of how Brits talk or how they spell out how they eat. It's all good.