Reformation Sunday Bagpipes (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 Margaret Adamson and her friend, Sue Fulcher.  They will also feature photographs by Margaret's friend, Bill Dodd.  The prompts will be posted on  Elephant’s Child's blog.               

This week's prompts are:

1. Beechmast
2. Investigating
3. Muffler
4. Sensible
5. Penetrate
6. Fox

And/or

 

1. Ferrule
2. Miserable
3. Odd
4. Soaking
5. Bedstead
6. Contrary

"What are you looking at?"

Devon walked over toward the couch where Shana was kneeling, using her small pair of binoculars to look through the window.  Kneeling down next to her, he looked out into the yard and the woods beyond, wondering what she was looking at now.

"I'm INVESTIGATING," she told her older brother quite solemnly.

"What are you looking at?" he asked again, patiently.  He always tried to be patient when she used big words, knowing he'd get an answer more quickly that way.  If he teased about it, she got CONTRARY and wouldn't say anything.

"Over among the BEECHMAST," she said, "I saw something moving."

As his eyes tried to PENETRATE the fog, he thought he saw something, too.

"It's a FOX!"  Shana spoke quietly, as though she thought the animal would hear her from out there. 

"Are you sure?"

"Look for yourself," Shana passed Devon the binoculars.

"That's ODD," Devon muttered.

"What?"

"Look again." 

Shana did and gasped.

"Is it hurt?" she asked.

"It's SOAKING wet and looks MISERABLE, that's for sure.  Does it look to you like it's limping?"

"I can't tell," Shana was starting to sound distraught.  "Can we go out and help it?"

"It's a wild animal, Shana.  It probably wouldn't let us help it."

"Well, I'm going to go get my MUFFLER and boots and at least go out there.  If it's hurt or something, maybe it will."

While she went to grab the warm clothes she always left hanging on one of the post of her BEDSTEAD, Devon grabbed the stick with the FERRULE on it.  If she was going to go out there with a wild animal, he was going along and making sure he had something to use to discourage it from coming too close.

Once outside, they stayed in the shadow of the house and then the shed, and Devon used the binoculars to get a really good look.

"Oh, I think I know what's going on!" he whispered.

"What?"

"She's a she, and look at how skinny she is, but she has teats.  I think she's a mother, and she's trying to catch some of the mice that are always feeding on the beech and other nuts around here.  She's hungry and wants to eat so she can feed her babies."

"A mama!  Wow!  Can we feed her something?"

"It's not usually a good idea, you don't want to get wild creatures used to too many handouts."

Shana hung her head in disappointment, and then said, "How about just tonight, since the weather is so nasty and damp.  We won't do it every day, just once."

Looking down at her pleading face, Devon gave in.  They went back to the house and grabbed some leftovers from supper, then put them at the corner of the shed not far from where the vixen was foraging.  Then they went back in and resumed their post on the couch looking out to see if she'd find it.

They were rewarded with the sight of the hungry mama gulping down every bite, then heading back into the wood to her family.

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Today is:

Apaturia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (a three day meeting of the clans and welcoming newcomers and children into the community; date approximate)

Betcha Festival -- Onomichi, Japan (men in costume "beat" children with bamboo whisks to prevent them getting ill in the coming year)

Bunka no hi -- Japan (Culture Day)

Cliche Day -- get them all out of your system today; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays    

Cuenca Day -- Cuenca, Ecuador

Housewives' Day -- birth anniversary of Roseanne Barr

Independence Day -- Dominica(1978); Federated States of Micronesia(1986); Panama (also called Separation Day, separating from Colombia in 1903)

Let Someone Have the Last Word Day -- internet generated, probably so you will quit with the cliches

Parsley Scattering Season ends -- Fairy Calendar

Sandwich Day -- birth anniversary of John Montague, Fourth Earl of Sandwich and reputed inventor of the food item which bears his name; make yourself a really good one in his memory

SOS Day -- on this date in 1906 the Second International Radio Telegraphic Conference at Berlin, Germany, proposed it as the new wireless distress signal to replace CQD (Come Quick, Danger)

St. Hubert's Day (Patron of archers, dogs, forest workers, furriers, hunters and hunting, machinists, mathmematicians, metal workers, opticians, precision instrument makers, smelters, trappers; Liege, Belgium; Saint-Hubert, Belgium; against dog bites, hydrophobia/rabies)

St. Martin de Porres' Day (Patron of African-Americans, bargers/hair stylists, inter-racial justice, hotel-keepers/innkeepers, paupers, persons of mixed race, poor people, public education, public health, public schools, race relations/racial harmony, social justice, state schools, television; Biloxi, MI, US; Peru)

St. Pirminius' Day (Patron of Monsheim, Germany; against poisoning, snake bite)

St. Winifred's Day (Patron of incest victims, martyrs; Gwytherin, Wales; Holywell, Wales; Shrewsbury, England)

Tunnel Day -- NY, NY, US (anniversary of the start of the first subway tunnel in 1900)

Victory Day -- Maldives

Birthdays Today:

Gemma Ward, 1987

Evgeny Plushenko, 1982

Dolph Lundgren, 1959

Phil Simms, 1956

Adam Ant, 1954

Kathy Kinney, 1954

Kate Capshaw, 1953

Dennis Miller, 1953

Roseanne, 1952

Steve Landesberg, 1945

Ken Berry, 1933

Michael Dukakis, 1933

Monica Vitti, 1933

Charles Bronson, 1921

Bob Feller, 1918

Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski, 1908

Edward Douglass White, 1845

William Cullen Bryant, 1794

Stephen Fuller Austin, 1793

Thomas Kyd, 1558

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Diff'rent Strokes"(TV), 1978

"Good Morning America"(TV), 1973

Play Misty for Me(Film, NYC release date), 1971

"The Unsinkable Molly Brown"(Musical), 1960

"A Connecticut Yankee"(Musical), 1927

Today in History:

Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim caliph, is killed by a Persian slave in Medina, 644

Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea, 1493

The English parliament accepts the Act of Supremacy, declaring Henry VIII to be the leader of the Church of England, 1534

Great Patent is granted to Plymouth Colony, 1620

A great panic occurs in Europe over the close approach of a comet, 1679

Spain acquires Louisiana, 1762

The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal, Quebec, 1817

The Times of India, the world's most widely circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper, is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, 1838

John W. Menard, of Louisiana, becomes the first African-American elected to Congress, 1868

"Black Bart the Poet", stagecoach robber, commits his last robbery, leaving behind a clue that leads to his capture, 1883

J.H. Hunter patents a portable weighing scale, 1896

Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market, 1911

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika, 1957

NASA launches Mariner 10 toward Mercury; it would later become the first probe to reach that planet, 1973

Dutch and British astronomers find spiral nebula Dwingeloo 1, 1994

Pervez Musharraf declares emergency rule across Pakistan, suspending the Constitution, 2007

US Border Patrol discovers a sophisticated tunnel used by drug smugglers from Tijuana, Mexico to Otay Mesa, California, 2010

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls for global action on climate change after warning from scientists, 2014

New York's 104-storey One World Trade Center officially opens 13 years after the September 11 attacks, 2014

Air pollution levels in Delhi, India reach such high levels that authorities declare a public health emergency, 2019