You might think that a picnic is an informal outdoor meal consisting of a few baloney sandwiches, bags of chips, and cans of soda tossed into a wicker basket. Au contraire! Picnics are not just for parks anymore. Have you considered having a picnic on a train, at your desk, or even in bed? The picnic enthusiast will find beautiful photographs, tips, inspiration, and easy-to-prepare recipes in this handy guide to picnicking. Authors Hilary Heminway and Alex Heminway provide inventive yet sensible ideas for preparing and enjoying meals in the field, as it were. Indeed, certain occasions-a day fishing at the lake, a hike in woods, a summer road trip-shouldn't preclude a thoughtful meal: chilled tomato soup and cold artichokes with curry mayonnaise, for example. Meals away from the confines of the dining room, with its breakable china and linen napkins, offer limitless possibilities for experiences brimming with thoughtfulness, creativity, and soul. Grab a quilt and a copy of Picnics; lounge outside under an oak or just on the floor of your living room and enjoy planning your next hearty celebration of nontraditional dining. Hilary Heminway's curly hair requires little upkeep, so she has plenty of time to arrange picnic baskets.

Hilary lives in Connecticut and Montana. For the next author photo, she wants her picture taken with cowboys, not a lion. Alex Heminway knows a thing or two about picnicking: management rarely lets him eat indoors. Alex holds an MFA in poetry from Columbia University. He lives in New York City. He and Hilary are coauthors of Guest Rooms (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2005). Audrey Hall's photographs appear regularly in Western Interiors and Design, Mountain Living, and the Big Sky Journal. Her images from the documentary Frontier House were critically acclaimed by 13WNET in New York and Wall to Wall Television in London.

Working also as a writer and producer, Audrey has completed over forty feature, commercial, and editorial projects, including the independent film Steal Me, selected to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.