Garden Decor (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

 ***********************************

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

***********************************

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 Lissa at The Memory Tourist.   

This week's prompts are:

orphan

island

farm

brother

freckles

red-haired

imagination

friend

charm

home

"Here you go!"

The words were as precious to her as "Welcome HOME" would be to an ORPHAN.

In her IMAGINATION, she'd always wanted to move to a FARM and having a FRIEND like this.  When grown people asked if she didn't want a BROTHER or sister, she'd always said "No!" decidedly.  Then she would add, "I'd rather live alone on an ISLAND!"  This made the grown people laugh, although she never understood why.  She was quite serious.

While moving to the country wasn't likely, this was a dream come true.  Her father placed the RED-HAIRED cat in her arms, and she knew they'd always be there for each other.  He had those cute, black lip FRECKLES that orange/red cats often get, which she thought gave him a certain CHARM.  He snuggled up to her, rubbing on her hands to ask to be scratched, then settled under her ministrations, purring.

Yes, having this cat was certainly a dream come true.

***********************************

Today is:

Aphrodisia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (bathing festival of Aphrodite and Peitho [Persuasion]; date approximate)

Bonza Bottler Day™

Chocolate Day  -- no one knows why today, so why not?  Enjoy chocolate cereal with chocolate milk for breakfast, some chocolate covered raisins and nuts as a midmorning snack, chocolate milk with lunch, chocolate truffles as a midafternoon snack, chocolate liquer before dinner, chocolate cake for dessert, and sip chocolate coffee any time through the day!

Global Forgiveness Day -- encouraging "citizens of this global village" to forgive and be forgiven; sponsored by the CECA    

Father-Daughter Take a Walk Together Day -- encouraging fathers to take some special time out with their girls today

Independence Day / National Day -- Solomon Islands(1978)

Macaroni Day -- it goes with more than just cheese!

National Strawberry Sundae Day

Nones of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar; celebrations on this day included:

     Festival of Feriae Ancillarum -- "Feast of the Serving Women", when female servants dressed up and "attacked" men of free birth with fig boughs; in honor of the serving women who helped free the city of Rome from the Gauls

     Nonae Caprotinae -- "Nones of the Wild Fig", honoring Juno Caprotina with a sacrifice under a wild fig tree

     Parilia -- festival for Pales, god of the herds

Saba Saba Day -- Tanzania (literally "Seven Seven" Day, a/k/a Peasants' Day or Workers' Day, and the biggest day of the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair)

     Maonyesho ya Saba Saba -- Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dar es Salaam Trade Fair, through July 8)

St. Willibald's Day (Patron of Eichstatt, Germany)

Tanabata -- Japan (star festival, 7th day of 7th month; some areas go by lunar calendar, but most larger cities celebrate by the Gregorian Calendar now)

Tell The Truth Day -- a yearly challenge from Kepa Freeman of Teens Express to go the whole day without telling a lie or saying or doing anything misleading or dishonest

Unity Factory Day -- Yemen (all workers are encouraged to play at work today, to build team and national unity)

Anniversaries Today

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., marries Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, 1946

Birthdays Today

Michelle Kwan, 1980

Cree Summer, 1969

Jorga Fox, 1968

Billy Campbell, 1959

Shelley Duvall, 1949

Ringo Starr, 1940

Doc Severinsen, 1927

Pierre Cardin, 1922

Gian Carlo Menotti, 1911

Robert Heinlein, 1907

Satchel Paige, 1906

Marc Chagall, 1887

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Ryan's Hope"(TV), 1975

"All You Need is Love"(Single release), 1967

Waverly(Novel, publication date), 1814

"Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate"(Canticles, HWV 278 & 279), 1713

Today in History

A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death, 1456

Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland, 1575

United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $300, 1863

An International Railway trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15, 1915

Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri; it is described as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped", 1928

Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident, 1947

Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere, 1959

In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government, 1969

Sharia is instituted in Iran, 1980

Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov, 1983

The Western Black Rhinoceros is declared extinct due to poaching, 2006

In efforts to avoid food shortages and political oppression, South Korea begins work on a new facility to house North Korean refugees, 2011

Tesla Motors produces its first mass-market car, the Model 3, 2017

Nigeria, Africa' biggest economy, joins the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), in attempt to create world's largest free trade area, 2019