Our Snowbirds (Wordless Wednesday) and 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 River at Drifting Through Life.    

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. suitable 

2. rapturous 

3. smeared 

4. snuffle 

5. bookmark 

6. scoop 

and/or: 

1. snick 

2. funny 

3. twilight 

4. espionage 

5. synchronicity 

6. feisty

"What SYNCHRONICITY, kiddos, that I'm back in town just in time for this!"

FEISTY Aunt Marigold was back, and at the moment she was RAPTUROUS as she danced around the kitchen making her special deviled egg recipe, wielding the SCOOP to mound up the yolk in the center of each egg just right as if she were a queen  waving around her scepter.  Even the pepper that she'd accidentally breathed in, which had caused her to SNUFFLE uncontrollably for several minutes, hadn't been able to put a damper on her spirits.

Her apron was SMEARED with ingredients -- "I've always been a messy cook, June, but don't worry, I always clean my mess!" -- and she had bought a special tray just for presenting the dish.  "Have to have a SUITABLE platter for showing off your wares at the county fair!" she'd said when she came back with three of them, asking June and Alan to help pick their favorite.

The contest at the fair was the next day, so Aunt Marigold hauled herself off to bed right at TWILIGHT.  "Gotta get my beauty rest, and besides, I fell asleep reading last night, didn't even have a chance to put my BOOKMARK in before I nodded off.  Not going to let that happen again tonight, kiddos!"  

She had wrapped her eggs and stowed them comfortably in the second fridge, where Alan had obediently emptied a shelf just for her, and she closed her bedroom door with a SNICK sound.

June, as she always did when Aunt Marigold closed a door, sighed and then giggled.  She found her husband's aunt to be fun and FUNNY and exhausting.  Since the first visit six months before, June has asked Alan a lot about his Aunt Marigold, and she wasn't sure what to think.

"How is it that she is well off enough to travel the world, money seems to be no object with her," June had noted once, when they got a postcard from Tasmania.

"She is well off enough that money is not a problem for her," he answered.  "She married a man who had inherited a fortune.  Uncle Julius was from a very wealthy political family, he was an ambassador to several countries.  'Veiled ESPIONAGE' is what Aunt Marigold called his job.  They traveled all over and the travel bug bit her hard and never let go.  No kids, and she inherited everything he left, so she does as she pleases."

"I know her eggs are delicious, I tasted them last time she was here, and they are different and unique, but she's so sure she's going to win that contest.  What will she do if she doesn't?" June asked.

Alan shrugged.  "Knowing her, she will 'retire from the battlefield, bruised but determined to come back' as she once said when her cherry pie only took second place.  That's when she decided to always stick to the eggs.  No matter what, she's having fun, and after tomorrow's contest, she will probably pack up and head back on another adventure."

"Well, I'm a bit worried," June said.

"About what?" Alan asked with concern

"She's starting to grow on me!" June answered, and they both laughed then headed for bed.

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Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Mexico

Birthday of Minerva -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Birth Anniversary of Shivaji -- Maharashtra, India

Carnaval de Ponce -- Ponce, Puerto Rico (through Mardi Gras)

Chaoflux -- Discordianism

Chief Leschi Day -- US, especially Washington State (Native American chief wrongly executed for murder on this date in 1958; fully exhonerated 2004)

Cracker Jacks Prize Day -- the first prizes were added to the boxes of carmel popcorn this date in 1913

Flag Day -- Turkmenistan

Fly-By for Goblins and others -- Fairy Calendar

National Chocolate Mint Day (because every day needs chocolate in some form)

Prajatantra Diwas -- Nepal (Democracy Day, celebrating the overthrow of the Rana Dynasty in 1951)

Solar System Day -- birth anniversary of Copernicus

St. Conrad of Piacenza's Day -- (Patron against hernias)

Straw Wrapper Appreciation Day -- an internet spread holiday to remind you of how much fun it was as a kid to blow the wrappers off the straws

Temporary Insanity Day -- anniversary of the first time someone successfully pleaded temporary insanity in a court of law; Daniel Stickles, in 1859

Vassil Levski Day -- Bulgaria (Bulgaria's "Apostle of Freedome")

Anniversary Today:

Knights of Pythias founded, 1864

Birthdays Today:

Haylie Duff, 1985

Andrew Shue, 1967

Benicio Del Toro, 1967

Justine Bateman, 1966

Jonathan Lethem, 1964

Seal, 1963

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, 1960

Ray Winstone, 1957

Jeff Daniels, 1955

Margaux Hemingway, 1955

Amy Tan, 1952

Stephen Nichols, 1951

Lou Christie, 1943

Smokey Robinson, 1940

Lee Marvin, 1924

Merle Oberon, 1911 (some sources say Feb. 18)

Willam III, 1817 (last king of the Netherlands -- there have only been queens since)

David Garrick, 1717

Nicolas Copernicus, 1473

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Woman of Independent Means"(TV Miniseries), 1995

"Crazy For You"(Musical), 1992

"Eastenders"(TV), 1985

"Rumours"(Album release), 1977

The Feminine Mystique(Publication date), 1963

"Picnic"(Inge Play), 1953

"Alexander's Feast"(HWV 75), 1736

  

Today in History:

Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus' defeats beats Clodius Albinus at Lyon, 197

Emperor Constantius II shuts down all pagan temples, 356

The second Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstates veneration of icons in the churches, 842

Jews of Tyrnau, Hungary (then Trnava, Czech) are expelled, 1539

The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America, 1600

Britain and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, and New Amsterdam formally becomes New York, 1674

British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III, 1819

The first practical coal burning locomotive in the US makes a trial run, in Pennsylvania, 1831

Tin-type camera is patented by Hamilton Smith of Gambier, Ohio, 1856

Daniel E. Sickles is acquitted of the murder of his wife's lover, Phillip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key), on the grounds of temporary insanity, the first time this defense is successfully used, 1859

Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom in Russia, 1861

Thomas Edison patents the gramophone (phonograph), 1878

Kansas becomes the first US state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages, 1881

WK Kellog and Charles Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co., 1906

The first prize is inserted into a Cracker Jack box, 1913

Ed Wynn becomes the first talent to sign as a regular radio entertainer, 1922

Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize for poetry, 1949

Bill Keane's "Family Circus" comic strip makes its debut, 1960

Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital, 1985

The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft, 1986

NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system, 2002

NASA loses communication with the International Space Station's for three hours as a result of updating the station's command and control software, 2013