Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Just a Beautiful Day(Wordless Wednesday) and Aunt Marigold (Words for Wednesday)

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     





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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Mark Koopmans, and are being posted by Elephant’s Child.           

  1. Deviled/which might also be spelt devilled
  2. Interdependence
  3. Watery
  4. Figs
  5. Zoom
  6. Headphones

        
And/Or

  1. Gargled
  2. Presence
  3. Yelling
  4. Andalusia
  5. Snowdrifts
  6. Exfoliate

“What is Aunt Marigold doing now?” June asked with concern, listening to what sounded like WATERY YELLING coming from the bathroom.

“From the noise, I would say she is gargling,” Alan answered, mildly.

“If I GARGLED like that, I hope you’d call an ambulance, because something would be wrong,” June noted, shaking her head.

The PRESENCE of Aunt Marigold, who had flown in from her visit to ANDALUSIA, was causing a bit of a ruckus in the house.  She’d come, she noted, “To enjoy your SNOWDRIFTS, kiddos!  This area always has the best snow, and I was getting ready for something different from the south of Spain, anyway.  Next on my list is Tasmania, but meanwhile, I want some cold.”

By this time, Aunt Marigold had decided to quit gargling, and was calling out, “Has anyone seen where I left my loofah?  I can’t be expected to properly EXFOLIATE my skin without my loofah!”

Before either of them could answer, she could be heard to exclaim, “Here it is!  I left it in the suitcase by the preserved FIGS.  Excellent, now I’ve found all the gifts I brought, also.”

At breakfast later, June asked with a bit of trepidation, “What are your plans for today, Aunt Marigold?”  This eccentric, globe trotting aunt of her husband’s, whom he took with the aplomb indicative of long INTERDEPENDENCE between family members (that is, nothing she did shocked his side of the family any more), certainly kept June off balance.

“Oh, I thought I’d knock around and enjoy the snow, and maybe make some of my famous DEVILED eggs for lunch.  Everyone has to taste my eggs to believe them, right Alan?” Aunt Marigold smiled at her nephew, and he smiled back.

“Yes, your eggs were always the best at the county fair, when you were in the country to make them and enter the contest,” he noted.

“Well, you can’t expect me not to ZOOM off when adventure calls just to enter my eggs in a contest, although now that you mention it, I might come back next September for just that purpose.  You know, relive old times!”

Alan noted something to the effect that this might be a good idea, and Aunt Marigold excused herself from the table.

“Well, kiddos, I’m going out there to enjoy your snow, and stop at the store for supplies.  Got to get my ingredients lined up, you know!”

Alan smiled and told her to have fun, while June looked a bit shellshocked as Aunt Marigold got up and gathered herself together to leave.  Once the door was shut, June said, “I love your aunt, I love her sense of adventure, but she’s always so enthusiastic that she kind of scares me!”

“You’ll get used to her,” Alan said, then seeing June’s face he added, “but don’t take that to mean she will be here long.  She never stays long when visiting family.  Something about fish and company stink after three days, is her usual saying.”

“Well, no matter how long or short her stay, I’m going to hunt up my noise cancelling HEADPHONES that I wear on planes.  That gargling is just too much for me!”


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Today is:

Answer Your Cat's Questions Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays; meditate on what your cat's question might be, then answer it

Celebration of Life Day

Come in From the Cold Day -- somebody at an ecard company decided today would be a good day to do that 

Day of Unity and Liberty of Ukraine -- Ukraine

Dia de la Fundacion del Estado Pluinacional de Bolivia -- Bolivia

Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition -- Rockford, IL, US (frozen art fun; through Saturday)

National Blonde Brownie Day -- i thought these were just called "blondies."

Polka Dot Day -- looking up why they are called "polka dots" gives lots of stories, but no concrete evidence; they were probably named after the dance craze that became fashionable around the same time the pattern appeared

Sioux Empire Farm Show -- Sioux Falls, SD, US (great winter farm show, since you can't be planting, come out and have fun; through Friday)

St. Vincent of Zaragoza's Day (Spanish martyr and Patron of vine dressers, vinegar makers, vintners; Lisbon, Portugal; Portugal; vicenza, Italy; Vilamalla, Catalonia, Spain)
    a sunny day today indicates a good wine crop next season

Zehnder's Snowfest, Ice Carving, and State of Michigan Snow Sculpting Competition -- Frankenmuth, MI, US (fun for the whole family; through Monday)


Birthdays Today:

Christopher Masterson, 1980
Balthazar Getty, 1975
Olivia D'Abo, 1967
Steven Adler, 1965
Diane Lane, 1965
Michael Kelland Hutchence, 1960
Linda Blair, 1959
Steve Perry, 1949
John Hurt, 1940
Joseph Wambaugh, 1937
Seymour Cassel, 1937
Sam Cooke, 1935
Bill Bixby, 1934
Piper Laurie, 1932
Ann Sothern, 1909
Robert E. Howard, 1906
George Balanchine, 1904
Rosa Melba Ponselle, 1897
D.W. Griffith, 1875
Grigori Rasputin, 1869
August Strindberg, 1849
Richard Upjohn, 1802
Nat Turner, 1800
Lord Byron, 1788
Andre Ampère, 1775
Sir Francis Bacon, 1561


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Emergency!"(TV), 1972
"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In"(TV), 1968
"The Crucible"(Miller play), 1953
"Our Town"(Wilder play), 1938
"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"(Opera; Shostakovich Op.29), 1934


Today in History:

The first contingent of Swiss Guards arrive at the Vatican, 1506
Postal service between NYC and Boston is inaugurated, 1673
The Native American Iroquois tribes renew their allegiance to the British against the French, 1690
Spain ceded the Falkland Islands to Britain, 1771
A severe earthquake in southern Syria kills thousands, 1837
The Zulus attack the British Army camp in Isandhlwana, South Africa, 1879
The Ancient Egyptian obelisk "Cleopatra's Needle" is erected in Central Park, 1881
After 63 years, England stops the sale of Queen Victoria postage stamps series and begins King Edward VII series, 1901
First live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury, 1927
KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood, California, 1947
Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space, 1968
The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service, 1970
The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued, 1971
The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial, 1984
Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm, 1990
Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, 2002
Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president, 2006
Water vapour is detected on the dwarf planet Ceres, 2014
Winter storm conditions strand 500 motorists for 24 hours on the New Jersey turnpike in Pennsylvania, 2016
Netflix becomes the largest digital media and entertainment company in the world worth $100 billion, 2018

18 comments:

  1. I love how you managed to weave those words into a coherent story. I'm currently ignoring the whole list in the hope that something will write itself.

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  2. Huge smiles at Aunt Marigold. Earphones sound like an excellent idea.

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  3. Love your story as always. Aunt Marigold sounds a larger than life character.
    The sky is a beautiful blue. I can't see ours through the heavy mist this morning.

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  4. What a beautiful park in your photo. Wonderful day.

    God bless.

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  5. I agree LQQKS beautiful nice photo :-)

    I liked the story I want an Aunt Marigold :-)

    Have a tanfasticatedtastic week :-)

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  6. I'm singing "Happy Birthday" to my computer...
    (okay, wrong generation but the idea is sound.)

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  7. I think we all have relatives a little bit like that...the key is "a little bit". Beautiful blue sky in your photo.

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  8. That aunt Marigold sure sounds like a handful (if you can use this on grown ups). Well writen and kudos for getting all those words together in one story.

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  9. We could answer our cats questions today I guess, but all they want to know is why they have to live with us dogs!

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  10. That is a beautiful day indeed. Sun shining and I'll bet it's even warm.

    Aunt Marigold reminds me of Dr. D. That was my first thought. Well done.

    Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. Big hug. ♥

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  11. That was a terrific story and that blue sky is so pretty!

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  12. That was a fun story. Thank you for the kind words you left on my blog for the loss of Millie. XO

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  13. good story today !! tuna mackerull and dai$y have yet to ask anything that they haven't already asked 100 million times; you know what they say about cats and change :) ☺☺♥♥

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  14. Happy Wordless Wednesday!!! We just love the beautiful photo that you shared. Thanks for sharing. Have a fantastic rest of your day.
    World of Animals

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  15. Gorgeous blue sky in your lovely photo and wonderful story ~

    Happy Moments to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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