Kitties In The Sun for A to Z, Awww Monday, Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday

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To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.     

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.

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

A couple of kitties in the sun, our Link, and Ms. GA and Mr. BA's Abigail.

photo by Sweetie

photo by me, the whole table was a sun puddle

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Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  She and Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey take turns providing a theme each week.   Charlotte/Mother Owl almost always participates, too.  This week the theme is My Favorite Lunch.          

A wonderful thing is a lunch,

And i really do like it a bunch

When someone out there

My lunch does prepare,

Others cooking makes me want to munch!

As with every meal,

My favorite lunch always

Is cooked by others

Someone else did cook

Oh what a very happy day!

To eat my lunch in peace,

Someone else cleans and puts away!

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Today is:

Anniversary of the Election of Pope Francis -- Holy See (Vatican City)

Bisket Jatra -- Nepal (Nepali New Year)

Day to Give Thanks for Fish/Seafood -- anniversary of the US Fishery Conservation and Management Act 1976

Easter Monday -- Christian; related observances

    Dyngus Day

    Egg Races -- Rural Northwestern Switzerland (traditional Easter Monday races with competitors carrying large numbers of eggs from village to village)

    Emaishen -- Luxembourg (traditional market)

    Family Day -- South Africa

    Hallaton Hare Pie Scramble & Bottle Kicking -- Hallaton, Leicestershire, England (traditional celebrations dating back at least 600 years)

    Memorial Day -- Republic of Georgia

    Seu Harvest Parade -- Curacao

    Sham el-Nessim -- Egypt (Smell the Breezes Day, a spring celebration for all religions; celebrated by getting outside, greeting neighbors, enjoying spring, and eating salty raw fish)

Environmental Protection Day -- anniversary of the 1962 publication of Silent Spring

Feast of Rotten Endings -- because some stories just don't end well

Huguenot Day -- Huguenot Society of the US (anniversary of the 1598 Edict of Nantes, in which King Henry IV promoted peace between Catholics and Protestants)

Ides of April -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also

    Festival of Libertas -- personification of freedom and political liberty

    Festival of Jupiter Libertas

    Festival of Jupiter Victor

International Plant Appreciation Day -- unsponsored by any but those who love plants

Laotian New Year's Eve -- Laos (celebrations of Pi Mai, the new year, last through the 15th and sometimes beyond; at the start of the monsoon season)

National Peach Cobbler Day

Poshui Jie -- Jinghong, China (Water Splashing Festival; a 3 to four day festival around this time)

Scrabble Day -- anniversary of the 1899 birth of its inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts

Songkran Festival / Chiang Mai Songkran / Tamil New Year / Bangla New Year / Bisket Jatra -- Bangladesh; Cambodia; India; Laos; Myanmar; Nepal; Singapore; Sri Lanka; Thailand (New Year festivals, celebrated over the next few days, as the sun enters the zodiac sign of Aries)

Squashing of Moonhopper Day -- Fairy Calendar

St. Hermengild's Day (Patron of converts; against drought, flood, and thunderstorms)

Thingyan -- Myanmar (Burmese Water Festival; through the Myanmar New Year on the 16th)

Thomas Jefferson Day -- US

U.S. Elephant Day -- marking the arrival of the first elephant in the US in 1796

Vaisakhi/Baisakhi -- Sikh (celebration of the spring grain harvest and of the rebirth of the Sikh religion in the 15th Century)

Vayoi Matsuri -- Nikko, Japan (five day spring festival)

Birthdays Today:

Jonathan Brandis, 1976

Rick Schroder, 1970

Garry Kasparov, 1963

Saundra Santiago, 1957

Max Weinberg, 1951

Peabo Bryson, 1951

Ron Pearlman, 1950

Al Green, 1946

Tony Dow, 1945

Lowell George, 1945

Jack Casady, 1944

Bill Conti, 1942

Paul Sorvino, 1939

Lyle Waggoner, 1935

Don Adams, 1926

Howard Keel, 1919

Eudora Welty, 1909

Samuel Beckett, 1906

Butch Cassidy, 1866

F.W. Woolworth, 1852

Thomas Jefferson, 1743

Guy Fawkes, 1570

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Avengers: Age of Ultron(Film), 2015

"Arcadia"(Play), 1993

Casino Royale(Film), 1967

Silent Spring(Publication date), 1962

"El Capitan"(Operetta), 1896

"Messiah"(Oratorio, HWV 56), 1742

Today in History:

The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt with the capture of Louis IX of France, 1250

Henry IV of France signs the Edict of Nantes, granting freedom of religion and political rights to Huguenots (French Protestants), 1598

John Dryden, age 36, becomes the first English Poet Laureate, 1668

George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland, 1742

The first elephant seen in the Western Hemisphere arrives from India, 1796

The British Parliament grants religious freedom to Roman Catholics, 1829

Hungary becomes a republic, 1849

The first US Pony Express run is completed, 1860

George Westinghouse patents a steam powered brake, 1869

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded, 1870

J.C. (James Cash) Penney opens his first store, 1902

British troops fire on unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India, killing at least 379 and wounding over 1,200 more, 1919

Helen Hamilton becomes the first woman US Civil Service Commissioner, 1920

Lord Clydesdale makes the first flight over Mt. Everest, 1933

The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated on the 200th anniversary of his birth, in Washington, D.C., 1943

Van Cliburn becomes the first American to win the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, 1958 

Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor Oscar for Lilies of the Field, 1963

An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon, 1970

The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan, 1972

Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1, 1974

Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999, 1987

Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament, 1997

Former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak and sons, Alaa and Gamal, are detained for 15 days of questioning regarding charges of corruption and abuse of power, 2011

The People's Republic of China and the U.S. agree to work towards eliminating nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula, 2013

The world’s largest plane by wingspan (117m/385ft), built as a flying launch pad for satellites and called the Stratolaunch, takes its first flight from Mojave, California, 2019