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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.
Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays. Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.
Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you. What better way to start the week than with a smile!
Mr. Binx has been recovering from an injury that left him with a crooked walk and a tendency to fall over sometimes. He was allowed to free roam in the kitchen until he got better, and is now up for adoption.
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Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week. While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.
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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border. Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog semi-break and her poetry is sorely missed, we hope she comes back soon. Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too. Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!
This week the theme is Poinsettia or Potted Plants.
Pretty poinsettia
it's a good thing you are just
made out of red silk
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I can't grow plants,
it's like they don pants,
and all run screaming away,
to the garden in the sky
in the great by and by,
and my black thumb avoid with dismay!
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Poinsettias, the holiday plants
with colorful leaves called bracts
are actually perennial woody shrubs!
and here are more fun facts.
They originated in Mexico
and the Aztecs grew them for dye,
as well as to lower fevers,
and the plants can grow 15 feet high!
No, they are not poisonous
though their sap does latex contain,
for some it can be an irritant
so uneaten it should remain.
The colorful leaves can vary,
see two colors? it's not a dream,
as well as white, pink or purple,
even yellow, orange or cream.
The little yellow cyathium
in the middle of the leaves,
those are the actual flowers
which some find hard to believe.
They need short days and long nights
for their bloom and colors to show,
don't leave them 24/7
in artificial light's glow.
Joel Poinsett from South Carolina
first brought them up our way,
he died on this date in 1851,
so it's National Poinsettia Day!
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Today is:
Bonza Bottler Day™
Constitution Day -- Russia (constitution approved in nationwide referendum 1993)
Feast of Masa'il (Questions/Mystery) -- Baha'i
Gingerbread House Day -- because today is as good a day to start making one as any
Hovercraft Day -- the first prototype of a hovercraft was patented this day in 1955 by British engineer Christopher Cockerell
Independence Day -- Kenya (Jamhuri)(1953)
Miracle of the Roses / Our Lady of Guadalupe -- Catholic Christian; related celebrations
Fiesta del Virgin de Guadalupe -- Mexico
Las Mananitas -- Puerto Rico
National Ambrosia Day
National Cocoa Day
National Ding-A-Ling Day -- an unofficial day on which to honor all the ding-a-lings you know, and even act like one yourself if you wish
National Tree Planting Day -- Malawi
Neutrality Day/National Day and Student Youth Day -- Turkmenistan
Poinsettia Day -- death anniversary of Joel Roberts Poinsett
St. Finnian of Clonard's Day (Father of Irish Monasticism; going to bed without supper tonight means you risk being carried away by the fairies)
St. Lucy's Eve -- Austria (night of the shining that some use to predict the future)
Unmentionable Thoughts Festival -- Fairy Calendar (Imps, Goblins, and naughty Fairies)
Yuletide Lads' Days -- Iceland (Jolasveinar trolls, children of Gryla and Leppaludi, who come one each day to bring gifts and mischief from now until Christmas)
Yuletide Lad of the Day, Stekkjarstaur -- Sheepfold Stick, who will try to drink the milk from the farmers' ewes
Anniversaries Today:
Jerry Lee Lewis marries his cousin Myra Gale Brown, 1957
Pennsylvania becomes the 2nd US State, 1787
Birthdays Today:
Mayim Bialik, 1975
Rey Mysterio, Jr., 1974
Madchen Amick, 1970
Jennifer Connelly, 1970
Tracy Austin, 1962
Sheila E. 1957
Cathy Rigby, 1952
Robert Lindsay, 1949
Tom Wilkinson, 1948
Emerson Fittipaldi, 1946
Dionne Warwick, 1941
Connie Francis, 1938
Robert Lee "Bob" Pettit, Jr., 1932
Edward Irwin Koch, 1924
Bob Barker, 1923
Bob Dorough, 1923
Joe Williams, 1918
Frank Sinatra, 1915
Edward G. Robinson, 1893
Edvard Munch, 1863
Gustave Flaubert, 1821
Stand Watie, 1806
William Lloyd Garrison, 1805
John Jay, 1745 (Old Style date)
Erasmus Darwin, 1731
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"La Valse"(Ravel ballet), 1920
St. Louis Post-Dispatch(First edition), 1878
Today in History:
The Battle at Ninevah: Byzantine emperor Heraclius defeats Perzen, 627
The Order of the Dragon is created by Sigismund, King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje, following the battle for possession of Bosnia, 1408
Isabella crowns herself Queen of Castile and Aragon, 1474
Jews are expelled from Schlettstadt Alsace by Emperor Frederick III, 1479
In Vienna, Ludwig von Beethoven receives his first lesson in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn, 1792
Mexico is officially recognized as an independent nation by the US, 1822
The first Canadian coins are circulated (1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent and 20 cent), 1858
Rudolph Dirks' first Katzenjammer cartoon strip appears in the NY Journal, 1897
Belo Horizonte, the first planned city of Brazil, is founded, 1897
George F Bryant of Boston patents the wooden golf tee, 1899
Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland, 1901
Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India, 1911
Oscar Straus becomes US Secretary of Commerce, the first Jew to be a US Cabinet member, 1906
The first all metal aircraft, the Junkers J-1, is test flown in Dessau, Germany, 1915
In Nebraska, Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys, 1917
The first prototype of a hovercraft is patented by British engineer Christopher Cockerell, 1955
Guinea joins the United Nations, 1958
The Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR, 1991
An asteroid named 4179 Toutatis, over 3 miles wide, passes within 4.3 million miles, or 18 lunar distances from Earth, 2012
An asteroid named 4179 Toutatis, over 3 miles wide, passes within 4.3 million miles, or 18 lunar distances from Earth, 2012
The International Space Station suspends some of its non-critical systems after an ammonia cooling pump fails; the station and six crew members aboard were not in danger, 2013
French President Francois Hollande proposes that terminally ill patients should have the right to be sedated until death; the proposal does not suggest assisted termination of the patient's life, 2014
Bill English is sworn in as New Zealand Prime Minister, 2016
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev compete a complex spacewalk to fix a hole in their Soyuz spacecraft, 2018
A point of land 3.5km (11,500ft) below sea level under the Denman Glacier in Antarctica is identified as the deepest point of land on Earth, 2019