At Your Own Risk (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday.

 ***********************************

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, 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 Susan Kane at The Contemplative Cat.  She has had a family emergency and River is posting the prompts for her.

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. interfere 

2. light 

3. woozy 

4. fetch 

5. smell 

6. remain 

and/or: 

1. leap 

2. candle 

3. overview 

4. officer 

5. pain 

6. wilderness

use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.

If you wish to also include Charlotte's colour of the month, it is Salmon Pink for March

The sound I heard coming from the thicket was a new one to me, it sounded like a song in PAIN.

I feel like I've lived my whole life in the WILDERNESS of somewhere.  Dad was military so we moved all over and I've camped in all weathers and climates and habitats and always felt most out home outdoors.  It's a natural I became a wildlife OFFICER and I've seen and heard a lot of strange things around campsites in the state parks where I've worked but this wasn't like anything I'd heard anywhere.

Creeping forward, I looked between branches and could see a child of about 9 with a musical instrument, I guessed one of those ocarina things.  He was slightly built, with dark hair under a SALMON colored knitted cap.  He kept blowing into the instrument, making odd noises, then pulling it away and looking at it, then at a paper in his hand, changing what holes his fingers covered, and trying again.

Part of me didn't want to INTERFERE with him while he was obviously entertaining himself trying to learn what to do with the thing, but the LIGHT was fading and I also wanted to make sure he got back to his campsite.  He didn't need to REMAIN out alone after dark.

I decided to creep back down to the path and come up, whistling, to near where he was, so he'd know someone was near.  Once he heard me he did LEAP to his feet, slipping the instrument into his jacket pocket and when we could see each other, he came to the path and I asked if he needed help finding his way back to his family.

"Oh, one of them will be along to FETCH me presently," he said, "in fact, when I first heard you I thought you were one of them.  But I think I'd like to walk with you better.  We're only over at site 32 in the blue section, not far.  Maybe you can tell me a bit more about the night creatures around here.  We saw something last night and I think it was a armadillo but my brother and sister say there aren't any of those around here.  Are there?"

I smiled, remembering how curious I had been at that age about everything to do with animals and nature.  "Actually," I said, "there are a few, but we don't see them often.  They like the climate a little further south better, but we've got a couple of families of them up here in this park.  Be careful not to touch them, though, because they're one of the few species that can carry leprosy."

"I'll be careful," he said.  Then I asked him about the musical instrument.

"Did I hear you trying to play something earlier?"

"Yes, my ocarina.  It's new.  Want to see it?"

"Sure."

He held it out and I examined it without offering to touch it myself, partly because it had been drilled into me for years as a child that "you look with your eyes, not with your hands," and partly because he'd been playing it and I didn't know which areas he'd had his mouth on.

"It looks really neat," I said.  "Is it hard to play?"

"No, I have the instructions here."  He held up a booklet.  "It tells which holes to cover with your fingers and which to blow into to get different sounds, but while I'm learning my parents told me I should probably go where other people can't hear me because it doesn't sound like much of anything yet when I try it."

I was glad for the deepening twilight that hid my smile.  A song in pain, indeed.

"And," he added, "I can't play too long yet.  If I try to, I get out of breath from blowing in it so much and then I get WOOZY."

We were close enough to the campsites now that we could SMELL the various suppers being cooked and served.

"That's my family over there," he said, "with the big electric CANDLE on the table.  It looks like dinner is almost ready."

A man walked toward us from the campsite.  "Andy, we were just about to send Dean out to find you.  Thanks for bringing him back, Ranger..."

"Perry," I said.  "You're most welcome, sir.  Andy was good company on the walk back this way."

"Well, thank you.  Would you like to stay for supper with us?  There's always plenty."

"Thank you but no, my partners have supper waiting for me up at HQ and I want to get back early and eat quickly, it's my week to submit each day's OVERVIEW.  Always with the paperwork, you know, even in this job."

"Well, thanks again, I hope we see you more while we're here this week."

"I hope so, too," I said, and turned to head back to the station, wondering what an ocarina was really supposed to sound like.

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

Today is:

Baba Marta Day -- Bulgaria (Grandmother Spring Day, martenitsa are worn until you see a stork or a tree blooming.)

Beer Day -- Iceland (marks the end of the prohibition of beer in 1989)

Be Positive, Do Something Positive Day -- the way to start Optimism Month

Bravo Day/Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day -- Marshall Islands

Chalandra Marz -- Engandine, Switzerland (various cities of this province have the traditional spring event where costumed young people, ringing bells and cracking whips, drive out the demons of winter)

Day to Mourn Victims of Land Mines -- anniversary of the day they were outlawed worldwide in 1999

Dia de las Islas Baleares -- Iberia, Spain

Elves, Woodworkers, and Mechanics' Day -- Fairy Calendar

First Day of Autumn -- Australia (they go by months, not equinoxes, like the rest of the world used to)

Humorists Are Artists Month begins -- any coincidence this spells HAAM?

Independence Day -- Bosnia and Herzegovina(1992)

International Association for Women of Color Day -- on the first day of Women's History Month  

International Wheelchair Day -- a day when wheelchair users celebrate the positive impact a wheelchair has had in their lives 

Martisor -- Romanians and Aromanians, especially in Romania and Moldova (similar tradition to Baba Marta; first days of March are Zilele Babei, Days of the Old Woman, when Old Woman Winter, Baba Dokia, who lives in the mountains, might come back with ferocity.)

National Fruit Compote Day

National Heroes' Day -- Paraguay

National Horse Protection Day -- US; sponsored by the Animal Miracle Foundation   

National Pig Day -- sponsored by Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave, who want you to know that pigs are amazing animals that place fourth on the animal intelligence list!

National Peanut Butter Lovers' Day -- different from National Peanut Butter Day, which is January 24

Navii's Day / Vjunitci -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (a Day of the Dead, bringing sacrifices and inviting the ancestors to attend the feast)

New Year's Day -- Ancient Roman Pre-Julian Calendar; related observances

     Birthday of Mars Pater (Feriae Marti)

     Chalanda Marz -- Kalends of March (now a festival in Egandine, Grisons Canton, Switzerland, in which the children ring bells to ring out the winter)

     Matronalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Women's Festival to Juno)

     Renewal of the Vestal Fire

Nineteen Day Fast -- Baha'i (begins at sundown)

Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day -- in remembrance of the destruction of Bikini Atoll

Omizutori Matsuri -- Todai-ji Temple, Nara, Japan (Water-Drawing Festival of 1,200-year-old Buddhist ceremonies, through the 14th)

Peace Corps Birthday / National Day of Action -- US

Peanut Butter Lovers' Day -- according to some foodie sites

Plan a Solo Vacation Day -- Solo Travel Portal wants you to dream big and plan what you would do if you could get away, solo.

ReFIRED, Not Retired Day -- the day to get Fired Up about Life, Part II; you aren't retired, you are reFIRED!

Republic Day -- NE, Switzerland

Samiljeol (March 1st Movement Remembrance Day) -- South Korea

Self-Injury Awareness Day -- International (for information about self-injury, or to get started getting help, go here)

St. David of Wales' Day (Patron of doves; Patron of Wales, where it is called Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant)

Time for a Cuppa -- UK (raising awareness of dementia and raising funds for research; through Mar. 8) 

Whuppity Scoorie Day -- Lanark, Scotland (Spring festival, children run around the church and pick up coins thrown for them.)

World Civil Defense Day -- International Civil Defense Organisation    

World Maths Day -- International   

Yap Day -- Micronesia (festival celebrating the heritage of the Yap peoples)

Anniversaries Today:

Johnny Cash marries June Carter, 1968

Yellowstone National Park established, 1872

Nebraska becomes the 37th US State, 1867

Howard University in Washington, D.C., is chartered, 1867

Ohio becomes the 17th US State, 1803

Birthdays Today:

Justin Bieber, 1994

Mark-Paul Gosselaar, 1974

Javier Bardem, 1969

George Eads, 1967

Russell Wong, 1963

Nik Kershaw, 1958

Timothy Daly, 1956

Ron Howard, 1954

Catherine Bach, 1954

Alan Thicke, 1947

Dirk Benedict, 1945

Roger Daltry, 1944

Robert Conrad, 1935

Harry Belafonte, 1927

Pete Rozelle, 1926

Donald "Deke" K. Slayton, 1924

William M. Gaines, 1922

Richard (Purdy) Wilbur, 1921

Ralph Ellison, 1914

Harry Caray, 1914

David Niven, 1910

Glenn Miller, 1904

Watsuji Tetsuro, 1889

Oskar Kokoschka, 1886

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848

Frederic Chopin, 1810

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Sophisticated Ladies"(Musical), 1981

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"(Musical), 1979

"Believe It or Not"(TV), 1949

"Captain America Comics #1"(Comic book), 1941

"Native Son"(Publication date), 1940

Today in History:

Romulus, first king of Rome, celebrates the first Roman triumph after his victory over the Caeninenses, following the Rape of the Sabine Women, BC752

Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, BC86

Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis, conquerors Damascus, 1260

The Unitas Fratrum is established in the village of Kunvald, on the Bohemian-Moravian borderland. It is to date the second oldest Protestant denomination, 1457

23 Huguenots are massacred by Catholics in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion, 1562

The Uppsala Synod is summoned to confirm the exact forms of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, 1593

Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu, 1633

Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba are arrested for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692

"The Spectator" begins publishing, in London, 1711

The first US census is authorized, 1790

Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba, 1815

Rebecca Lee Crumpler becomes the first African-American female to earn a medical degree, 1864

Yellowstone becomes the world's first national park, 1872

E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter, 1873

Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri, 1893

Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity, 1896

Battle of Adwa, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) defeats invading Italians, the first defeat of a colonizing European nation by an African colony, 1896

Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from an airplane, 1912

The Republic of China joins the Universal Postal Union, 1914

The March 1st Movement, demonstrations for independence from Japan, begins in Korea, 1919

Charles Lindbergh, Jr., is kidnapped, 1932

The Hoover Dam is completed, 1936

US Steel raises workers wages to US$5/day, 1937

Trans-Canada Air Lines (forerunner of Air Canada) begins transcontinental operations (between Vancouver and Montreal), 1939

The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations, 1947

Chiang Kai-shek resumed the presidency of National China on Formosa, 1950

The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States, 1954

The Peace Corps is established, 1961

Villarrica Volcano begins a strombolian eruption causing lahars that destroy half of the town of Coñaripe, Chile, 1964

Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface, 1966

Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1992

Yahoo! was incorporated, 1995

The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms (9.5 tons), 2002

The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague, 2003

English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station, 2006

The tomb of a 700 year old female mummy, discovered by road workers, opened in Taizhou, Jiangsu, China, 2011

Two Guatemalan military officers are convicted of sexual slavery during country's civil war, the first ever prosecution of sexual slavery during an armed conflict, 2016

The discovery of the gene for grey hair (IRF4) is announced by Scientists from University College London in "Nature Communications", 2016

The earliest evidence for figural tattoos (bull and sheep) on two naturally mummified bodies from Egypt’s predynastic period (3351-3017BC) is published in "Journal of Archaeological Science", 2018