Happy Valentine’s Day! (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

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Words for Wednesday is a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts that encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.  This month, the prompts are being posted by River at Drifting Through Life.    

This week’s words and story:

1. caldera

2. Merlin

3. unicorn

4. crossbow

5. thoughtless

6. stunning

and/or:

1. glinting

2. crop

3. valley

4. particular

5. deliberately

6. cave

He had no clue the VALLEY in which he played was really an ancient CALDERA, and it would have made no difference to him.

Not that he was a THOUGHTLESS boy, just that he was more interested in pretending to be MERLIN, the magician he loved to read about in the legends, or in using his toy CROSSBOW or in searching for the UNICORN he could almost convince himself was just around the corner.  (He knew if he caught it, he could make a wish, so even though he knew it was just a story, he would keep a lookout anyway.) 

He did not realize how STUNNING the view was where he lived as he was so used to it.  The sun GLINTING off the crags, the CROP of wildflowers that bloomed every spring, they simply were in his mind.  He did not DELIBERATELY take the small, hidden CAVE where he played for granted.  It is just the PARTICULAR nature of all of us to be habituated to what we see each day.

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Today is:

Ash Wednesday -- Christian (beginning of the Lenten Fast)

    Oskudagur -- Iceland (with the special tradition of hanging oskupokar [ash bags] on people, as girls try to hang bags of ash on men's clothing, and boys try to hang bags of stones on women's clothing; begins Langafasta, and during the fast, you may not even mention meat at all)

Bird Mating Season begins -- according to legend, in honor of St. Valentine

Blessing of the Salmon Nets -- Norham, Northumberland, England & North Shields, Northumbria, England (just before midnight, nets are blessed and right after midnight, the first nets of the season are thrown out; anything caught is presented to the officiating vicar)

Day Sacred to Juno Lupa -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Juno of the Wolf)

Feast of Vali -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan (archer god, an Asatru answer to the Valentine celebration, which is really a thinly disguised Lupercalia)

Ferris Wheel Day -- birth anniversary of G.W.G. Ferris, Jr.

Fjortende Februar -- Denmark (Danish lovers send each other snowdrop flowers.)

International Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day

League of Women Voter's Day -- US

Library Lovers Day -- for those whose favorite companion is a great book

Maha Shivaratri -- Hindu (festival in honor of Lord Shiva and his marraige to Goddess Parvati.)

National Call In Single Day -- what a lot of men who feel pressured to be romantic on this day wish they could do, i'm sure!

National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day

National Have-a-Heart Day -- to create awareness of the impact of our food choices on the environment, world hunger, animal welfare and human health—especially heart health

National Nest Box Week -- UK; US (begun in the UK, this is a week to build or put up a nest box in your yard to encourage our avian friends and give them safe places to raise their young)

National Organ Donor Day -- US, but no matter where you live, consider leaving instructions about this to your loved ones

Quirkyalone Day -- for those who prefer to be single and not dating just for the sake of dating, a day to value your individuality, whether you are partnered or not  

Race Relations Day -- originally on Lincoln's birth anniversary, now on the day promoting love

Rafik Hairi Memorial Day -- Lebanon

Read to Your Child Day -- to start their love of learning early (and do it daily!)

Sts. Cyril & Methodius' Day (Patrons ecumenism, unity of Eastern and Western Churches; Bohemia; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Europe; Moravia; the Slavic peoples)

Trifon Zarezan -- Bulgaria (Viticulturists' Day; since Thracian times, a day to celebrate Dionysus and wine)

Valentine's Day (St. Valentine of Rome, Patron of apiarists/beekeepers, betrothed couples, greeting card manufacturers, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, travellers, young people; Bussolengo, Italy; against epilepsy, fainting, plague)

Anniversaries Today:

Jerry Garcia weds Deborah Koons, 1994

US League of Women Voters formed, 1920

Arizona becomes the 48th US state, 1912

Oregon becomes the 33rd US state, 1859

Birthdays Today:

Drew Bledsoe, 1972

Jessica Yu, 1966

Zach Galligan, 1964

Enric Colantoni, 1963

Meg Tilly, 1960

Renee Fleming, 1959

Raymond Joseph Teller, 1948

Gregory Hines, 1946

Carl Bernstein, 1944

Michael Bloomberg, 1942

Andrew Prine, 1936

Florence Henderson, 1934

Vic Morrow, 1932

Hugh Downs, 1921

Mel Allen, 1913

Jimmy Hoffa, 1913

Jack Benny, 1894

George Washington Gale Ferris,Jr., 1859

Winfield Scott Hancock, 1824

Frederick Douglass, 1817

Mary Ann "Aunt Mary" Prout, 1801

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Cloud Nine"(Play), 1978

"The Maltese Falcon"(Publication date), 1930

"Sinbad"(Musical), 1918

"Importance of Being Earnest"(Play), 1895

Today in History:

The annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg make the first known mention of Lithuania, 1009

Approximately 2,000 Jews are burned to death by mobs or forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg, 1349

Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases the Jews out of Vienna, 1670

The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, 1778

James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii, 1779

John Jervis and Horatio Nelson lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar, 1797

The apple parer is patented by Moses Coats of Downington, Pennsylvania, 1803

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of the US Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void, 1803

The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio, 1835

In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken, 1849

Esther Hobart Morris is appointed the first female Justice of the Peace in the US, in South Pass City, Wyoming, 1870

A.G. Bell and Elisha Gray both apply for a patent for a telephone; Bell first by only 2 hours, and is ruled the rightful inventor, 1876

The first trainload of California grown fruit, oranges, leaves L.A. for the east,1889

Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections, 1899

The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar, 1918

The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois, 1920

The Bank of England is nationalized, 1946

ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled, 1946

The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time, 1949

Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California, 1961

The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit, 1989

Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system , 1990

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft becomes first vehicle to land on an asteroid (433 Eros), 2001

Love letters written between poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are published online by Wellesley College and Baylor University, 2012

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, now the world's largest solar energy plant, opens in the Mojave Desert; the $2.2 billion plant, owned by Google, NRG Energy, and BrightSource energy, spans five square miles and can provide power to 140,000 homes, 2014