The Early Heron Catches the Fish (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, i am providing the prompts.  You can write your story on your blog and leave a link here, or write your story in the comments, your choice.

Pick words from the list, or use the photo, or both, or even none.  The whole point is to get us writing, so please have fun with it!

The prompts are:

brush

soar

distribute

allowance

debt

elegant

This week, let's add a picture:

“Come, child.  Come sit on the log with us.  Just be sure you enter the circle through the gap between the sticks in the front.”

The dark-eyed woman sitting on the log was dressed like a gypsy, or at least what Meredith would have thought a gypsy would look like.  Sitting on the log with her were Jamal and Nydia, whom she had met at school.  Meredith knew they lived on the same block as she did, right across from the beach.

She did not know the name of the dark-eyed woman, whom her parents had met while she was at school and they were moving furniture into the house.  All Meredith knew was she lived in the house with the turret, the one she just “felt in her bones,” as she would have said to herself, had to be enchanted.

“BRUSH some of the sand off the log and sit,” the woman invited.  “I am Tamira, and you have probably met my other two friends here at school.”

“Yes, I have,” Meredith said.  Then she ventured a question, “Why do we have to enter the circle from one special place?”

“So we do not anger the sand fairies, of course,” Tamira said.  “You do not want to anger them and be in their DEBT.”

Meredith’s eyes grew wide, then twinkled.  Sand fairies?  She knew just what to say to that.  “Of course we can’t anger them.  They would make us pay them in coin that would not be covered by the ALLOWANCE my parents give me.”

“Of course not,” Nydia said, then smiled.  “They only take sand dollars!”

“Yes,” Tamira said as they all laughed, “but that is not what we have come out here for tonight.  Tonight I have other tales to tell.  Sit softly, children, DISTRIBUTE your weight evenly, focus on the horizon and let your imaginations SOAR into the ELEGANT sunset before us.  Tonight’s story is of sailing on the moonglade in a boat made of pearl.”

As Tamira wove her story, Meredith felt something tight inside her relax.  It was as if a muscle she did not know she had tensed, ever since she knew her family was moving, had finally let go.  Swept away in the tale, sitting with two children she realized were dreamers like her, she knew now that even though everything had been changed in her world, all would be well.

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Today is:

Bake Your Own Bread Day -- it's really not that hard

Bunker Hill Day -- Suffolk County, MA, US (actual date)

Dia del Padre -- El Salvador; Guatemala (Father's Day)

Eat All of Your Vegetables Day / Fresh Veggies Day -- yes, i have this listed yesterday, too; internet sites disagree about the actual date, and you need your veggies today, too!     

Independence Day/National Day -- Iceland

International Violin Day -- Stravinsky's birth anniversary

National Apple Struedel Day

Okinawa Day -- Japan/US (remembrance of signing the treaty, in 1971, to return Okinawa to Japan)

Pirate Radio Day -- no actual pirate (i.e., unlicensed) radio stations will admit to declaring this a holiday, but what do you expect?

Soviet Occupation Day -- Latvia

St. Botulph of Ikanhoe's Day (Patron of agricultural and farm workers, sailors, travellers; Bossal, England; Boston, England; Boston, MA, US; Botesdale, England; Botolph Bridge, Huntingdonshire, Englad; Botolph's Bridge, Kent, Englad; Botolph, Sussex, England)

St. Herve's Day (Patron of the blind; against eye diseases and problems)

Toadstool-Squatting begins -- Fairy Calendar (Leprechauns)

Vice President's Remembrance Day -- not officially, just a day to see how many vice presidents you remember

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought -- UN

Anniversaries Today

Orpheus marries the nymph Eurydice, Ancient Greek traditional date

Birthdays Today:

Mark Walker, 1999

Lee Ryan, 1983

Venus Williams, 1980

Will Forte, 1970

Dan Jansen, 1965

Greg Kinnear, 1963

Thomas Haden Church, 1960

Mark Linn-Baker, 1953

Joe Piscopo, 1951

Barry Manilow, 1946

Art Bell, 1945

Newt Gingrich, 1943

Gene De Paul, 1919

John Richard Hersey, 1914

Ralph Bellamy, 1904

Sammy Fain, 1902

M.C. Escher, 1898

Igor Stravinsky, 1882

William Hooper, 1742

John Wesley, 1703

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Oh! Calcutta!"(Revue), 1969

"Barney Google and Snuffy Smith"(Comic strip), 1919

Today in History:

Vlad III the Impaler (a/k/a Vlad Dracul or Count Dracula) attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia, 1462

Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, 1565

Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England, 1579

Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth; her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal, 1631

The Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775

In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands, 1839

1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory, 1876

The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor, 1885

The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT, 1901

"Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premieres, 1919

Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic, 1944

The Wooden Roller Coaster at Playland, which is in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada opens; it is still open today, 1958

The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress, 1961

Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel, 1972

With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct, 1987

The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth, 1991

Australian scientists report that they have "teleported" a laser beam, breaking it up and reconstructing it in another location, 2002

The first condemnation of discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people is issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011

The Incredibles 2 sets a box office record for an animated release, earning $180 million its opening weekend, 2018

Greece signs a historic deal with Macedonia ending years of dispute over its name; after this, it will be called North Macedonia, 2018