Friendly Reminder (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 Hilary Melton-Butcher and are posted by Elephant's Child.            

This week's words are:

water

haggard

procession

juniper

drips

and/or

disdainful

stream

weed

chalk

treasure

He was always certain he'd find a TREASURE by the STREAM, so he spent as much time there as he could.  During the school year, it was only weekends or maybe an hour after classes, if the daylight held long enough.

Summer was when the PROCESSION of days saw him in and around the WATER so much he seemed to be a part of it.  He learned what plants were edible, and what was not, researching every WEED.  He would dig under the JUNIPER bushes and other foliage, make his own lean-to shelters, and bring clay from the banks for his mom to use for making pottery.

It was the perfect place, also, for him to make his own bow and arrows and practice with them.  He got pretty good at hitting a CHALK mark bull's eye on the big rock he'd decided was the best target.

Catching snakes was his favorite thing, and he'd sometimes bring one home and keep it in his tank, feeding it with the small fish he'd catch for it.  He was quite DISDAINFUL of those who were afraid of the creatures, he found them amazing.

Once in so often, a homeless person would make camp in one of the culverts.  He always befriended these HAGGARD looking men, sneaking them canned goods out of the pantry.  They knew not to stay long, the neighbors always found out and called the sheriff if they stayed more than a day or two, but he liked hearing their stories and couldn't understand why it upset people that they were there.

He asked one of the men once, and he said, "They're DRIPS, that's why!" and they both laughed, although he really didn't know what that meant.

Eventually, of course, he outgrew treasure hunting, but he never outgrew fishing, and hunting, and camping.  He never outgrew his enjoyment of snakes, either.  Some things never change, the tank in his apartment is still occupied.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May joy and peace surround you,

Contentment latch your door,

And happiness be with you now and bless you evermore.

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Today is:

Dieticians Day -- Canada   

Ennensai -- Kyoto, Japan (festival and traditional performances)

Evacuation Day -- Suffolk County, Massachusetts, US (day the British troops left the city in 1776)

Festival of King Amenhotep I -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (rituals dramatizing his death and burial, held in the Valley; date approximate)

Kustonu Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (no planting today, to ward off insects)

Liberalia -- Ancient Roman Empire (fertility festival in rural areas)

National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day

Rubber Band Day -- patented in England this date in 1845 by Stephen Perry

Saint Patrick's Day (Patron of engineers, excluded people, ophidiophobics; Ireland; Nigeria; over 20 other towns/dioceses around the world; against fear of snakes, snakes and snake bite)

     a public holiday in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Montserrat, and Ireland, and widely celebrated throughout the world, especially with parades

     Trefuilnid Treochair (Feast of Triple Bearer of the Triple Key) -- Ireland (Ireland's National Day)

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Birth Anniversary -- Bangladesh

St. Gertrude's Day (Patron of cats, for accomodations and lodging while traveling, gardeners, mentally ill people, pilgrims, poor people, sick people, suriphobics, travellers, widows; Nivelles, Belgium; against fear of mice and rats, fever, insanity and mental disorders, mice and rats)

St. Joseph of Arimathea's Day (Patron of funeral directors, morticians/undertakers, pallbearers, tin miners, tin smiths; Glastonbury Cathedral)

Submarine Day -- the sandwich or the submersible, your choice

Anniversaries Today:

Wellesley Female Seminary is established, 1870

Franklin D. Roosevelt marries Eleanor Roosevelt, 1905

Birthdays Today:

Caroline Corr, 1973

Mia Hamm, 1972

Rob Lowe, 1964

Arye Gross, 1960

Vicky Lewis, 1960

Gary Sinise, 1955

Lesley-Anne Down, 1954

Kurt Russell, 1951

Patrick Duffy, 1949

John Sebastian, 1944

Paul Kantner, 1941

Rudolf Nureyev, 1938

Paul Horn, 1930

Nat "King" Cole, 1919

Bayard Rustin, 1910

Bobby Jones, 1902

Shemp Howard, 1895

Jim Bridger, 1804

Roger B. Taney, 1777

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Camino Real"(Play), 1953

"Kiss and Tell"(Play), 1943

"Welded"(Play), 1928

"The Girl Friend"(Musical), 1926

"Wilhelm Tell"(Play), 1804

Today in History:

In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda, BC45

Marcus Aurelius dies leaving Commodus as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire, 180

Led by Muhammad, the Muslims of Medina defeat the Quraysh of Mecca in the Battle of Badr, 624

Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy made in England, 1337

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern), 1756

George Washington grants the Continental Army a holiday "as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence," 1780

The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King, 1805

Henry Jones of Bristol patents "self-raising" flour, 1845

Stephen Perry of London patents the rubber band, 1845

John Joseph Montgomery makes the first glider flight, in Otay, California, 1884

The first practical submarine leaves the dock at NYC and submerges for one hour forty minutes, 1898

A showing of seventy-one Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation, 1901

Luther Gulick and his wife Charlotte found Camp Fire Girls (now Camp Fire USA), 1910

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "Californium", 1950

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India, 1959

Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel, 1969

A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%, 1992

President Bush delivers an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein: leave Iraq within 48 hours or face an attack, 2003

Scientists discover that a large number of bacterial life forms live in the deepest part of the world's oceans, the Mariana Trench, which is about 6.831 miles, 2013

Archaeologists announce the discovery of an iron age warrior king burial ground that is about 2,500 years old and has 75 graves in Pocklington, Northern England, 2017

Africa's only female head of state, Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, confirms she is resigning amid an expenses scandal, 2018