It is Easter Monday today. Easter was special to me as a child, because the Easter Bunny (Mom) hid candy eggs for us to find, and the institutions in my life, school and Brownies, made something of it, with songs, Easter Bonnets, and images of bunnies and chicks. There was no religious element to Easter that I was exposed to during childhood. I did know it was a celebration connected to religious beliefs, but that was remote from my experiences.
I continued the celebrations my Mom provided for us as children, with my own children. I poured a lot of love, time, and effort providing Easter and other special family event experiences for my children, for 27 years.
I would still enjoy a chocolate treat at Easter time, but since I don’t eat candy at all anymore, that is fading into the past, a pleasant and warm memory.
Happy Easter to my brother Jeff, if you are reading. And if you aren’t reading, sending warm thoughts your way, and wishing you good fortune. I think of you often.
One thing Easter does represent for me, as it does for those who experience it as a spiritual event, is the concept of hope and new life. Spring is a time for moving on from the unforgiving cold, the harshness of winter, and moving on to the warmth that embraces every living being, in the Northern Hemisphere, as the sun makes it’s journey north.
Having said this, as Attila and I took our morning walk, it was snowing. The sun has emerged since, and what little snow fell has melted away.
A busy day for me in the kitchen today. This morning I had bread set out to rise before we ventured out for our walk. I also had the tea for a batch of Kombucha brewed, strained, sweetened, and cooling before we stepped out the door. This afternoon I will be baking two dozen Chocolate Zucchini Muffins for my breakfasts, adding the cooled tea to the Kombucha starter, and slicing the loaf of freshly baked bread.
We have managed to get the Radon levels in the house below the danger threshold, mostly by opening windows and turning off the heat. This strategy will only be effective if we continue to open the windows. It won’t work in the cold of winter or the heat of summer. It does give us time to strategise though, and take further measures to reduce the radon in the house.
Attila managed to move 94 wheelbarrows full of compost from the front driveway to various locations in the back garden. He is a bit sore, but that will pass. Now he is all set to begin planning, when the weather allows.
He is looking forward to setting up his little greenhouses atop the raised beds. A low temperature of -6C is predicted for tonight and tomorrow night, so it is too early to begin propagation activities out of doors. His focus will be on the rain tanks, now almost completely full of water from the recent rain. The spigots would be damaged by freezing water, so they will be set to drip overnight on both nights, to keep the water moving and prevent it from freezing.
It has been quite the spring for stink bugs and wasps. Every day I capture and kill four or five of these large insects, and wonder just how they got into the house! There are more cracks and crevices to fill, somewhere around here!
Worldly
Weather
3°C
Date: 3:00 PM EDT Monday 6 April 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.8 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 3.2°C
Dew point: -2.4°C
Humidity: 67%
Wind: SSW 23 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.”
Douglas Adams
1952 – 2001
What a complex thing the radon issue appears to be. You need to seal some things to keep the radon out, but you also need to seal other things to keep the bugs out, which keeps the radon in. Quite the puzzle, but I’m sure you’ll sort it out as you always do.
It is complex Wendy!
I think will end up with a full mitigation system, either hiring a company, or Attila might have time to do it. I will be getting quotes on the job in the meantime, so that if we do need to hire someone, I will already have someone in mind to do the job.