Coward? and Sign of Spring

"I never meant to harm him" he said softly,  "and I almost feel like I took the chicken way out of this whole situation."

"Your enemy meant to harm you," the Temple Guardian replied.  "No matter what you had done, even if you had given him the Djinn bottle, he would never have stopped trying to harm you and your family.  In the end, you did not send him to the other side, his own anger and hate did that."

"I feel sick," he said, and the Temple Guardian remarked, "You do look a bit green."  The ground beneath them began to rumble as the Guardian added, "You are not meant to be here now that your work is done, and as mine is done, too, neither am I."

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue is Chicken.

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Gosia, of Looking for Identity, has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit others to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.

There's a decorative fence near here that changes with the seasons.

It says, "Keep on the Sunny Side!"

Today is:

Bird Day -- anniversary of the first Bird Day declared in 1894 by the Superintendant of Schools in Oil City, PA, Charles Babcock

Cassinga Day -- Namibia

Childhood Depression Awareness Day / National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day -- US (sometimes also called Green Ribbon Day, SAMHSA's "Caring for Every Child's Mental Health" public awareness event) 

Compliment Someone's Smile Day

Declaration of Independence Day -- Latvia

Dodenherdenking -- Netherlands (Remembrance of those in the armed forces who have died in war or peacekeeping missions.)

Fairy Ring Day (Giving) -- Fairy Calendar

Festa Dei Serpari -- Cocullo, Italy (The Procession of the Snake Catchers, in honor of the city's patron, St. Dominick, whom they believed could cure snakebite)

Festival of Nations -- St. Paul, MN, US (cultural exhibits, food, dance, and folk art from 90 ethnic groups in a celebration held each year since 1932; through Sunday)

Frustrating the Fairies Day -- Ireland (a day to confuse the fairies so they may not cause any mischief, although i can't find any details about how to frustrate them)

International Firefighters' Day 

Kansas Barbed Wire Swap/Sell -- La Crosse, Kansas (held by the Barbed Wire Collectors Association, and no, i'm not making that up! through Saturday)

Make-a-Book Day -- the Thursday of Family Reading Week 

May Fourth Movement

     Literary Day -- Republic of China

     Youth Day -- People's Republic of China

Memorial Day -- Curacao (military ceremonies to honor victims of WWII, not a government holiday)

Midori no hi -- Japan (Greenery Day/Arbor Day)

National Candied Orange Peel Day

National Day of Prayer -- US / Interfaith

National Day of Reason -- US Humanist alternative to the National Day of Prayer

National Kids Fitness Day -- this one doesn't seem to have any particular sponsor or organization behind it, but please get those kids outdoors to do something fun, any time you can!

National Orange Juice Day

National Weather Observers Day -- another fun day that doesn't seem to be sponsored by anyone, but Family Crafts has suggestions for how to celebrate 

Petite and Proud Day -- i've never heard of this one until now, but it's the one for me!

Relationship Renewal Day -- because someone, somewhere, wants you to stop taking the ones you love for granted

Remembrance Day for Martyrs and the Disabled -- Afghanistan

Respect for Chickens Day -- International (United Poultry Concerns) 

Richmond Mushroom Festival -- Richmond, MO, US (arts and crafts, carnival, barbecue contest, bike and car show, bands, and stage shows, all to celebrate the fun fungus; through Sunday)

Sagami Giant Kite Festival -- Sagami, Japan (through tomorrow; giant kite that requires a team of 100 people is flown on the banks of the Sagami River)

St. Florian's Day (Patron of brewers, chimney sweeps, coopers, drowning victims, fire prevention, firefighters, harvests, soap-boilers; Austria; Chur, Switzerland; Linz, Austria; Poland; against battle, drowning, fire, and flood)

     a recognized holiday in Austria

St. Venerius of Milan's Day (Patron of lighthouse keepers)

Star Wars Day -- greet others with "May the 4th be with you!"

Upper Canada Village -- Morrisburg, ON, Canada (through early October, various programs that let visitors and students enter the world of the 1860s)

Youth Day -- China

Birthdays Today:

Erin Andrews, 1978

Dawn Stanley, 1970

Randy Travis, 1959

Pia Zadora, 1956

David Guttersn, 1956

Jackie Jackson, 1951

Richard Jenkins, 1947

Nicholas Ashford, 1942

George F. Will, 1941

Roberta Peters, 1930

Audrey Hepburn, 1929

Heloise Bowles Cruse, 1919

Horace Mann, 1796

Bartolomeo Cristofori, 1655

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Beatles at Hollywood Bowl"(Album), 1977

"Another World"(TV), 1964

"New Girl in Town"(Musical), 1957

Today in History:

Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance, 1415

Peter Minuit becomes director-general of New Netherlands, 1626

A French manufacturer debuts the first folding umbrella, 1715

Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III, 1776

Mary Dixon Kies becomes the first woman in the US to obtain a patent, for a method of weaving hats with straw, silk, and thread, 1809

Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile, 1814

The Haymarket Square Riot takes place in Chicago, 1886

The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal, 1904

The Royal Canadian Navy is created, 1910

May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, 1919

Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion, 1932

Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea, 1953

The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South, 1961

The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation", 1972

An all-female Japanese team reaches the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak, 1974

Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979

Latvia proclaims the renewal of its independence after the Soviet occupation, 1990

The Scottish National Party wins the Scottish general election and becomes the largest party in the Scottish Parliament for the first time ever, 2007

The last nuclear reactor in Japan is shut down, leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970, 2012