The Only Secret (Six Sentence Story), Hideaway (Good Fences), Sammy's Poetry Day and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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She stood in the kitchen as she'd done on so many hundreds of occasions before, the morning sunlight slowly creeping toward her across the counter as her hands went through their routine, a gob of butter about the size of a walnut, a few of scoops of flour with a pinch of salt and baking soda, sprinkle in the cold buttermilk a bit at a time until it looks just right.

Her son watched in fascination as the ingredients came together under her fingers, no measuring tools, just her honed instinct, she made it seem effortless.

He'd watched before, but this time a new question teased at the corners of his mind;  the food that came out of her kitchen always seemed to taste better than anything he ate anywhere else and as he'd started trying to learn cooking from her, he'd started watching her and others, trying to discern if there was any specific difference.

She smiled at him as she began to roll out and cut the biscuits for breakfast, and he smiled back and asked his question.

"Mom, what's the secret that makes your cooking taste so much better than anyone else's?"

Her smile became bigger, and she laughed as she checked the temperature of her oven, saying, "I'm glad you rate my cooking so highly, since you eat so much of it, and as for secrets, the best ingredient any cook can put in her food is the love."

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Ingredient.      

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

Off of a very little traveled side street is an alley with a quiet nook sheltered by fences.

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 It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

Will you look at that!

Can you believe what you see?

I heard a noise

And you looked with me.

I don't think we'll ever

Get over the surprise,

No way we're going through,

We'll stay here and be spies!

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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

This seems to happen often, i am again thankful for something with a vehicle.

When Brother-in-Law was driving away yesterday evening, he called me and said Lunceford the Land Yacht had an almost flat rear tire and he'd just noticed.  Running out, i realized he was right, so i made Sweetie drive it to Kevin and Lenny's while there was still enough air in it to get it over there. 

We're thankful it was just a nail and it's fixed, no charge.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This year's Irish blessing:

As you slide down the bannister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way!

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Today is:

Absolutely Incredible Kid Day -- Camp Fire USA encourages everyone to send a note or letter to a young person today, telling him/her exactly what an incredible kid s/he is!

Commemoration of the Birth of Lao-Tzu -- Taoist (15th day of 2nd lunar month)

Companies That Care Day -- national event that encourages employers to highlight and expand their employee and community initiatives, and recognize the people who make their companies successful

Doljatra/Holika Dahan -- regions of India (a festival of colors, similar to Holi)

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)

Holi -- Hindu (Festival of Color, begins at sundown, through sundown tomorrow, where everyone gets doused with colored water, or powder, or paint, or all of them; it's been described as an iridescent madhouse)

     officially recognized holiday in Guyana; India; Nepal; Suriname

     Phagu Purnima / Basanta Utsay -- Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

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 

Purim -- Judaism (began sundown yesterday, through sundown today)

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)

     Saint Patrick's Day Parades -- various cities around the English speaking world hold their celebrations on the Saturday or Sunday nearest the Saint's day

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Birth Anniversary -- Bangladesh

St. Gertrude's Day (Patron of cats, for accommodations and lodging while traveling, gardeners, mentally ill people, pilgrims, poor people, sick people, suriphobics, travelers, 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

Chad begins repaying a $100 million debt to Angola with cattle, sending more than 1,000 cows to Luanda, 2020