Dining inside or outside?

[marlingardener]

Here in Central Texas, dining outside is very seasonal--usually it's too hot, too windy, or for a short while, too cold. We like to have coffee on the patio in the morning, occasionally take cheese, crackers, raw veggies and dip and a chilled wine out in the evening. This all happens in late March through May, and again in October through early December.
Do you like to dine outside, or are you not an "al fresco" diner?

 

[Beth_B]

Too funny, seasons are reversed here. I love my mornin coffee outside and dinner/ snacks with friends on the back deck whenever possible.

 

[Owdboggy]

Really dislike eating outside. Too many flies and wasps for us.

 

[nytegeek]

I live in a very green part of the Pacific Northwest with lots of lakes rivers and parks about 30 miles from Seattle. Whenever the temp is over 60 and it isn't raining we try to eat outside. We barbecue at parks a lot. Sometimes we pack a dinner that doesn't need cooking like a picnic and go to a park. We are blessed to live in such a nice area with a temperate climate.

 

[amelia88]

I love eating outside but for me there are just too many bugs here right now! I was out in the yard doing some work earlier today and even with mosquito repellent I have bites all over me! So that's the big deterrent when it comes to eating outdoors.

 

[Corzhens]

When we go to a restaurant, we always avoid al fresco dining because of the pollution. Al fresco here means smoking area so if you hate cigarettes then eat inside the restaurant to be safe from the smoke. At home, we often eat in the terrace especially when the weather is cool. Be it lunch or dinner, it is nice to eat in our terrace because our road is not a busy street as if we have the place all for ourselves.

 

[Caribbean girl]

I dine inside most of the time. Actually, I don't really think of taking my breakfast, lunch or dinner on the patio to dine. I have gotten into the habit of eating inside the house. Dining outside is something I am likely to do if I am entertaining friends for some light evening snacks. On a couple of occasions in the past, I tried taking my dinner on the patio to eat just for a change and I found that the meal lost its warmth fairly quickly and I prefer to eat my dinner with some warmth in it, so I never considered doing something like that again. I do like to eat in the drawing room on occasion though, while watching TV, and I would sometimes open the door to let some light breezes in.

 

[atlmom5]

When the kids were a lot younger and when we lived in a house with a huge deck, the kids and I would eat outside a lot. They just enjoyed eating and drinking out there and just talking. We would actually sit out there for hours and afterwards I never had an issue with them about helping to clean up.

When we moved to the house that we live in now, we didn't have a huge deck, just a small porch in the back. It wasn't big enough to set up any tables or chairs. However, a friend gave us a picnic table to put in the backyard and my kids and I would eat dinner in the backyard a couple nights a week. That table broke a few years ago, I haven't thought about getting a new one until this post.

As you can see, my kids and I love eating outside...now that I have a 20 year old, three teenagers and a 12 year old, we all still try to get together and picnic or just meet up and have lunch at a restaurant during the warmer months, and eat outside. That's just something we all love doing, my husband is the only in the family that just can't stand eating outdoors. He says, he doesn't want to fight with bugs and eat at the same time, but for me there's nothing like nice weather, good food and friends and family to share it with.

 

[darkrebelchild]

I love dining outside but only when the weather is cool, chilly or a little windy.

Dining outside when the weather is hot and still is torture and would only make me uncomfortable. But I would choose dining outside with fine weather.

 

[Caribbean girl]

I should also mention that picnics with the family is a good opportunity for eating outdoors and enjoying nature. Going to the countryside and setting up picnic baskets is always a nice way to relax and unwind. We can take walks around the area while enjoying each others company. When eating outdoors like this, we would take along things like sandwiches, chips, biscuits, other snacks and drinks. These types of foodstuffs do not need to be kept warm. Summertime is always the best time to do this sort of thing, but where I live we can do it all year round since we do not experience winter in this area. Our only drawback in the summertime would be rain, but we could always plan our picnics on days when there is no rain in the forecast.

 

[Elena]

We often have dinner outside, when our friends visit us. If we have a dinner in June, mosquitoes have dinner too. If we have a dinner in July, flies have dinner too. And there are a lot of wasps in August. But we love eating outside.

 

[Vinaya]

I enjoy having dinner outside. In the cold season, I will have a bonfire and have dinner. In the summer, having dinner in the garden is so pleasant than in the dinning hall. However, I avoid having dinner outside in the rainy season.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

We often have morning coffee here. On weekends we have dinner or lunch

here often. Sometime afternoon drinks and apps.

 

[turnb43]

We often have morning coffee here. On weekends we have dinner or lunch View attachment 14043 here often. Sometime afternoon drinks and apps.

Looks absolutely beautiful, sheltered enough to allow you to get some cover from the rain too.
Personally I mainly eat outside as here in Australia its pretty warm most of the year except in summer when its too hot and you want to be inside with the air conditioning on.

 

[Pat]

I would love a structure like that in my back yard to eat or have in drinks. We do have a large deck in the rear but we have so many bugs it is not very pleasant to go out for a long period of time. Early morning is nice and late evening when the sun has started to go down. It can get very hot in the back from the direct sun on the deck.