Easter weekend was not a washout as ALL the weather folks predicted, so they get a collective slap on the hands for making some people cancel their outdoor plans in favor of a drier venue.

Sadly, I’ll just bet that many early morning Easter egg hunts were foregone, because who really wants to be running around the soggy grass, peeking under wet bushes, or peering behind dewy daffs and waterlogged tulips in search of Easter eggs?  Those eggs may have been beautifully colored and decorated with a loving touch at one time, but rain would likely have rendered those delicate shells a runny mess.

I’ve written in the past about my grandmother, who followed the tradition of her mother, and, in anticipation of Easter, boiled several dozen eggs in a huge pot where she put in all the onion skins she had been saving from every Sunday’s pot roast dinner. She’d add those onion skins to the water and when the eggs were finally hard boiled, each egg would be a unique shade of brown … some darker than others, depending on how many skins were crowded in that part of the pot.  Nanny didn’t do any more decorating than that, so, yes … the eggs were colored, not beautifully – let’s just say they were functional.  We got a bag of eggs to take home and had egg salad for days afterward.

The poor egg has been maligned the last decade or so. I clearly remember that sing-song commercial many years ago by the American Egg Board, “The Incredible-Edible Egg”, which touted the many benefits of eating eggs.

But, then people worried the egg yolks would raise their cholesterol levels and clog their arteries, so they began eating “Egg Beaters” or egg white omelets. Well, that’s no fun.  I cut down on eggs myself, based on all the dire news stories about them.  Now, just in the last week, the nutritionists say “go ahead and have the one egg a day, if you’re healthy – there are so many benefits to eating eggs.”  Sheesh – if you live long enough, you will hear the good and the bad for every food and beverage, so who do you listen to?

As for the eggs, maybe the revised nutrition benefits by the experts are valid after all … stay with me here. Last week, the oldest person in the world died.  She was a 117-year old woman who lived in Verbania, a town on Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy.  She died in her armchair according to a caretaker who stopped by daily to check on her.

Her name was Emma Morano, and, she was the last known person to have been born in the 1800s. That claim to fame is because she was born on November 29, 1899, so, yes – she just squeaked into that century under the wire.  I listened to an excerpt of a radio interview that had taken place with a CBS newsman a few years before her death.  Of course, you know that one of his questions was “what do you attribute your longevity to?”  So, I listened to hear her secret to living a long life.  The response was that she had a raw egg daily.  Yuck!  So, that’s the secret to longevity?  So, the yolk’s on us that we non-believers either gave up or limited eating eggs after listening to the health experts.  While, I am not sure I want to be around at age 117, I must confess that I did buy more eggs than usual when I went to the grocery store yesterday.

Speaking of eggs, that sun looked like a big, bright-yellow yolk suspended in the sky when I returned from my walk this morning. Yesterday was a blah day which I spent running errands.  Though I hated to waste a perfectly beautiful walking day running errands and grocery shopping, I did manage to eke out three miles from those tasks, plus completing a few laps at Meijer while I was there, and, I put 17 miles on the car as well – woo hoo.  The car needed a long run, as it only gets the stops and starts in the City, and, with the I-75 detour, Fort Street is forever bottlenecked due to the extra heavy traffic.

Spring may finally have sprung and is here to stay, albeit today’s chilly start. My boss was out again this morning, so I went to the Park, camera and peanuts in tow, and escaped for a breath of nature.  Along the way, every single tree and flowering bush seemed to be on parade as I walked past.  At the Park, lots of squirrels were eager to see me – perhaps I should have bought animal crackers instead of two more bags of peanuts yesterday – today is National Animal Crackers Day … do you think the squirrels would have come running for them?  Maybe with a little dab of peanut butter – I know I would have.

[Image of multi-colored Easter egg by Geralt from Pixabay]

[Image of brown Easter eggs by Pezibear from Pixabay]

[Image of colorful Easter eggs by Alex_Fotos from Pixabay]