Mr. Binx (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

Mr. Binx has been recovering from an injury that left him with a crooked walk and a tendency to fall over sometimes.  He was allowed to free roam in the kitchen until he got better, and is now up for adoption.

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Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week.  While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog semi-break and her poetry is sorely missed, we hope she comes back soon.   Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!

This week the theme is Poinsettia or Potted Plants.

Pretty poinsettia

it's a good thing you are just

made out of red silk

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I can't grow plants,

it's like they don pants,

and all run screaming away,

to the garden in the sky

in the great by and by,

and my black thumb avoid with dismay!

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Poinsettias, the holiday plants
with colorful leaves called bracts
are actually perennial woody shrubs!
and here are more fun facts.

They originated in Mexico
and the Aztecs grew them for dye,
as well as to lower fevers,
and the plants can grow 15 feet high!

No, they are not poisonous
though their sap does latex contain,
for some it can be an irritant
so uneaten it should remain.

The colorful leaves can vary,
see two colors? it's not a dream,
as well as white, pink or purple,
even yellow, orange or cream.

The little yellow cyathium
in the middle of the leaves,
those are the actual flowers
which some find hard to believe.

They need short days and long nights
for their bloom and colors to show,
don't leave them 24/7
in artificial light's glow.

Joel Poinsett from South Carolina
first brought them up our way,
he died on this date in 1851,
so it's National Poinsettia Day!

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Today is:

Bonza Bottler Day™

Constitution Day -- Russia (constitution approved in nationwide referendum 1993)

Feast of Masa'il (Questions/Mystery) -- Baha'i

Gingerbread House Day -- because today is as good a day to start making one as any

Hovercraft Day -- the first prototype of a hovercraft was patented this day in 1955 by British engineer Christopher Cockerell

Independence Day -- Kenya (Jamhuri)(1953)

Miracle of the Roses / Our Lady of Guadalupe -- Catholic Christian; related celebrations

     Fiesta del Virgin de Guadalupe -- Mexico

     Las Mananitas -- Puerto Rico

National Ambrosia Day

National Cocoa Day

National Ding-A-Ling Day -- an unofficial day on which to honor all the ding-a-lings you know, and even act like one yourself if you wish

National Tree Planting Day -- Malawi

Neutrality Day/National Day and Student Youth Day -- Turkmenistan

Poinsettia Day -- death anniversary of Joel Roberts Poinsett

St. Finnian of Clonard's Day (Father of Irish Monasticism; going to bed without supper tonight means you risk being carried away by the fairies)

St. Lucy's Eve -- Austria (night of the shining that some use to predict the future)

Unmentionable Thoughts Festival -- Fairy Calendar (Imps, Goblins, and naughty Fairies)

Yuletide Lads' Days -- Iceland (Jolasveinar trolls, children of Gryla and Leppaludi, who come one each day to bring gifts and mischief from now until Christmas)

     Yuletide Lad of the Day, Stekkjarstaur -- Sheepfold Stick, who will try to drink the milk from the farmers' ewes

Anniversaries Today:

Jerry Lee Lewis marries his cousin Myra Gale Brown, 1957

Pennsylvania becomes the 2nd US State, 1787

Birthdays Today:

Mayim Bialik, 1975

Rey Mysterio, Jr., 1974

Madchen Amick, 1970

Jennifer Connelly, 1970

Tracy Austin, 1962

Sheila E. 1957

Cathy Rigby, 1952

Robert Lindsay, 1949

Tom Wilkinson, 1948

Emerson Fittipaldi, 1946

Dionne Warwick, 1941

Connie Francis, 1938

Robert Lee "Bob" Pettit, Jr., 1932

Edward Irwin Koch, 1924

Bob Barker, 1923

Bob Dorough, 1923

Joe Williams, 1918

Frank Sinatra, 1915

Edward G. Robinson, 1893

Edvard Munch, 1863

Gustave Flaubert, 1821

Stand Watie, 1806

William Lloyd Garrison, 1805

John Jay, 1745 (Old Style date)

Erasmus Darwin, 1731

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"La Valse"(Ravel ballet), 1920

St. Louis Post-Dispatch(First edition), 1878

Today in History:

The Battle at Ninevah: Byzantine emperor Heraclius defeats Perzen, 627

The Order of the Dragon is created by Sigismund, King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje, following the battle for possession of Bosnia, 1408

Isabella crowns herself Queen of Castile and Aragon, 1474

Jews are expelled from Schlettstadt Alsace by Emperor Frederick III, 1479

In Vienna, Ludwig von Beethoven receives his first lesson in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn, 1792

Mexico is officially recognized as an independent nation by the US, 1822

The first Canadian coins are circulated (1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent and 20 cent), 1858

Rudolph Dirks' first Katzenjammer cartoon strip appears in the NY Journal, 1897

Belo Horizonte, the first planned city of Brazil, is founded, 1897

George F Bryant of Boston patents the wooden golf tee, 1899

Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland, 1901

Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India, 1911

Oscar Straus becomes US Secretary of Commerce, the first Jew to be a US Cabinet member, 1906

The first all metal aircraft, the Junkers J-1, is test flown in Dessau, Germany, 1915

In Nebraska, Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys, 1917

The first prototype of a hovercraft is patented by British engineer Christopher Cockerell, 1955

Guinea joins the United Nations, 1958

The Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR, 1991

An asteroid named 4179 Toutatis, over 3 miles wide, passes within 4.3 million miles, or 18 lunar distances from Earth, 2012

An asteroid named 4179 Toutatis, over 3 miles wide, passes within 4.3 million miles, or 18 lunar distances from Earth, 2012

The International Space Station suspends some of its non-critical systems after an ammonia cooling pump fails; the station and six crew members aboard were not in danger, 2013

French President Francois Hollande proposes that terminally ill patients should have the right to be sedated until death; the proposal does not suggest assisted termination of the patient's life, 2014

Bill English is sworn in as New Zealand Prime Minister, 2016

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev compete a complex spacewalk to fix a hole in their Soyuz spacecraft, 2018

A point of land 3.5km (11,500ft) below sea level under the Denman Glacier in Antarctica is identified as the deepest point of land on Earth, 2019