Awww Monday: Swan Hearts

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee, of Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that 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!

Perdido Key is a beautiful island with sugar sand beaches and part of it is preserved as a state park.  The condos where we stay are touted as a garden paradise, and this is what awaited us in the master bathroom of our unit:

What a pretty welcome!

Talk about island magic!  And you don't have to leave the panhandle of Florida to get it.

Right here i'm going to take a moment to make a correction.  Last year, we went to the Worship on the Water church service at the Flora-Bama Bar Sunday morning, and it was at 10am.  This year, i found out the hard way that enough people now attend that they have 2 services, 9am and 11am!  Just thought anyone who reads this should know, in case you ever want to come on down here.  This week's sermon was on speaking encouragement into people's lives as part of reining in our tongues.

Today is

Arrival of the Swiss at the Port-Noir -- Switzerland

Dia da Crianca -- Cape Verde (Youth Day)

Dia de la Marina -- Mexico (Day of the Navy)

Early Bird Day -- an internet derived day that reminds us the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese

Famadihana -- Madagascar (from now until November, various areas celebrate the Malagasay culture's "turning the bones," a fascinating reburial of the dead ceremony)

Feast of St. Justin Martyr (a/k/a Justin the Philosopher; Patron of apologists, lecturers, orators, philosophers, speakers)
 
Festival of Non-Linearity -- another one you find on the internet, no meaning or rhyme to it, but if you like to think in non-linear ways, enjoy today!

Festival of the Oak Nymph -- Celtic/Pagan (around this time of year, the Celts took a day to honor all hamadryads, the female nature spirits who inhabit oak trees)

Flip a Coin Day -- as noted by The Ultimate Holiday Site, which claims Julius Caesar invented it (doubtful, but the Romans did toss coins)

Gawai Dayak -- Sarawak, Malaysia (harvest festival begins today)

Global Day of Parents -- UN

Go Barefoot Day -- originally sponsored by Soles4Souls, which recycles shoes to those who have none; while i cannot find if they are sponsoring a day or week this year, it's a good reminder not to let your old shoes end up in a landfill 

Hari Lahir Pancasila -- Indonesia (Pancasila Day)

Heimlich Maneuver Day -- Dr. Heimlich first published his suggestion for aiding choking victims with "subdiaphragmatic pressure" on this day in 1974

Helen Keller Day -- sponsored by the Lions Clubs

Hen-Peeler's Holiday -- Fairy Calendar

Independence Day/National Day -- Samoa

International Children's Day

Kaiko Kinenbi -- Yokohama, Japan (Yokahama Port Opening Festival; through tomorrow)

Kalends of June -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances:
     Day Sacred to Tempestas (goddess of storms)
     Festival for Juno Moneta (Juno as goddess of money)
     Festival of Carna (goddess of health and vitality, and also of doors and locks, which were to be repaired today)

Madaraka Day -- Kenya (National Day or self-rule/responsibility day)

Mint Julip Day -- Oxford University, England (the drink was introduced there this day in 1845, and they liked it so well, they dedicated a day to it!)

Mothers' and Children's Day -- Mongolia

National Hazelnut Cake Day

National Leave the Office Earlier Day -- sponsored by Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro, who urges people to maximize productivity so they can leave the office earlier every day 
     note that some websites say this should be the first Monday, and some the first Wednesday, of June

National Tree Planting Day -- Cambodia

Oscar the Grouch Day -- according to the Sesame Workshop, today is his birthday

President's Day -- Palau

Say Something Nice Day -- as declared by the mayor of a town in South Carolina who is tired of all the negative talk all the time

Fashion in Colonial Virginia --  Jamestown Settlement, Williamsburg, VA, and Yorktown Victory Center, Yorktown, VA, US (spend time this month exploring how clothing of the period was fashioned, how dyes were made, and lots more)

Queen's Birthday -- New Zealand; Niue

South Carolina Festival of Flowers -- Greenwood, SC, US (thirty-six events, something for everyone; through the 28th, but the displays are through the month)

Sovereign's Birthday -- Cook Islands

Stand for Children Day -- stand.org founded this day as a rally in 1996, seeking to ensure all children graduate from high school

St. Theobald Roggeri's Day (Patron of church cleaners, cobblers, porters, shoemakers; against fever and sterility)

Summer Library Book Club Season begins -- anywhere that school is out, check your local library for a summer book club for children or adults; you never know what world you will discover when you read

Superman Day -- publication of the first Superman comic was this day in 1938

Victory Day -- Tunisia (anniversary of the Adoption of the Constitution of Tunisia in 1959)

Western Australia Day -- Western Australia (formerly called Foundation Day)

Yobuko Otsunahiki -- Higashi Matsuura, Saga prefecture, Japan (two day Big Tug-of-War Festival, with one team representing the land and the other the sea; victory for the land means good crops, for the sea means good catches)



Anniversaries Today:

Charlie Chaplin marries Paulette Goddard, 1934
Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, is founded as the first US land-grant university, 1808
Tennessee becomes the 16th US state, 1796
Kentucky becomes the 15th US state, 1792
Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen Consort of England, 1533


Birthdays Today:

Justine Henin, 1982
Alanis Morissette, 1974
Heidi Klum, 1973
Mark Curry, 1964
Lisa Hartman Black, 1956
Ron Wood, 1947
Jonathan Pryce, 1947
Frederica von Stade, 1945
Robert Powell, 1944
Rene Auberjonois, 1940
Cleavon Little, 1939
Morgan Freeman, 1937
Colleen McCullough, 1937
Pat Boone, 1934
Edward Woodward, 1930
James Hadley Billington, 1929
Bob Monkhouse, 1928
Andy Griffith, 1926
Marilyn Monroe, 1926
Nelson Riddle, 1921
Brigham Young, 1801
Jacques Marquette (Père Marquette), 1637


Debuting/Premiering Today:

FX(TV network), 1994
Gremlins(Film), 1984
Cable News Network/CNN(TV network), 1980
"Live and Let Die"(Song release), 1973
"The Prisoner"(TV), 1968
"Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"(Album release), 1967


Today in History:

Hugh Capet is elected King of France, 987
Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols  under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing, 1215
Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky, 1495
Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England, 1533
Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1660
The battle of the Glorious First of June is fought, the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars, 1794
U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom, 1812
James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gives his final order: "Don't give up the ship!" 1813
James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole, 1831
American adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua, 1855
Treaty of Bosque Redondo is signed allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico, 1868
Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine, 1869
Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War, 1879
The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns, 1890
Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court, 1916
The First Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires, 1929
Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months, 1958
New Zealand's first official television broadcast commences at 7.30pm from Auckland, 1960
Kenya gains internal self-rule (Madaraka Day), 1963
The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine, 1974
The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power, 1979
The Warsaw Pact officially dissolves, 1991
Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupts for the first time in 600 years, 1991
Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil, Killing all 228 passengers and crew, 2009
General Motors files for chapter 11 bankruptcy, 2009
Russia enacts a country-wide smoking ban, effecting most public places, 2013