Butterfly and Bee (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!

I took a ton of photos (as shown in the first 3) but managed to get two awww- and awe-worthy creatures, at least i think they are.

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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.  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 Birthdays.                        

Birthdays for the young are fun,

but soon you're on the brink

of realizing they're not "all that,"

they get a bit old, don't you think?

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As many birthdays as I've had,

years of cookin' and cleanin' and washin,'

when the doc tells me I'm old and out of shape

I say, "My only exercise now is caution!"

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Don't be sad because you're older

and the cake needs a bigger dish,

after all with more candles

you get a bigger wish!

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If you want to be a really good friend

said the very wise sage,

you will remember your friend's birthday

but never remember their age.

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Today is:

Batik Day -- Indonesia (UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage)

Buttering-Up Quarter Finals -- Fairy Calendar (I have no idea what this means, but anything to do with butter sounds good.)

Child Health Day -- US (as established by President Calvin Coolidge in 1928)

Country Inn, Bed-and-Breakfast Day

Day of Appearance of the Primordial/Eight Great Netjers -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Gandhi Jayanti -- India (Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary)

Go for a Stroll After Dinner Night -- because it's healthy

Guardian Angels Day -- recognize and thank your own Guardian Angel

     Feast of Guardian Angels -- Spain (patrons of the police force)

Independence Day -- Guinea(1958)

International Day of Non-Violence -- UN, in honor of Gandhi's birth anniversary

King's Birthday -- QLD, Australia

Labour Day -- ACT, NSW, & SA, Australia

Mehregan -- Iran (pre-Muslim Zoroastrian festival of Persia to honor Mehr, which means friendship, affection, and love; also called Persian Festival of Autumn)

Name Your Car Day (and i hope you don't have to name it "Old Unreliable")

National Custodial Workers Day -- US

National Fried Scallops Day

Old Man's Day -- Braughing, Herts, England (in honor of a 16th-Century man's escape from premature interment; he left money for a street sweeping and celebration on this day which is still observed)

Pageantry in Oslo -- Oslo, Norway (Storting [Parliament] convenes to decide the date for its ceremonial opening, which is usually the following weekday, when the King opens the session in the presence of the Corps Diplomatique, preceded and followed by a military procession between the Royal Palace and the Storting.)

Peat-Cutting Day -- Falkland Islands (Spring Holiday)

Phileas Fogg's Wager Day -- he made his famous wager, according to Jules Verne, this day in 1872

St. Leger's Day (a/k/a Leodegar; Patron of blind people, millers; against blindness and sore eyes)

Territory Day -- Christmas Island

Thanksgiving Day -- Saint Lucia

World Architecture Day -- International Union of Architects (this year's theme: Architecture for Resilient Communities)     

World Farm Animals Day

World Habitat Day -- UN (Habitat for Humanity) 

Anniversaries Today:

Redwood National Park is established in CA, US, 1968

Birthdays Today:

Paul Teutul, Jr., 1974

Kelly Ripa, 1970

Lorraine Bracco, 1955

Sting, 1951

Annie Leibovitz, 1949

Donna Karan, 1948

Don McLean, 1945

Rex Reed, 1938

Moses Gunn, 1929

George "Spanky" McFarland, 1928

"Sheriff John" Rovick, 1919

Alex Raymond, 1909

Graham Greene, 1904

Bud Abbot, 1895

Ruth Cheney Streeter, 1895

Groucho Marx, 1890

Cordell Hull, 1871

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869

King Richard III of England, 1452

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Moon Over Buffalo"(Play), 1995

"Ben Casey"(TV), 1961

"The Twilight Zone"(TV), 1959

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents"(TV), 1955

"The George Gobel Show"(tv), 1954

"The Jimmy Durante Show"(TV), 1954

"Comedy in Music"(Victor Borge one man musical), 1953

Peanuts(Comic strip by Charles Schultz), 1950

"Ah, Wilderness"(Play), 1933

Volkskrant(Dutch newspaper, first edition), 1919

Today in History:

Saladin takes Jerusalem from the Crusaders, 1187

Jacques Cartier discovers Mount Royal (Montreal), 1535

Kazan is conquered by Ivan the Terrible, 1552

Jan Lippershey completes a prototype of the modern reflecting telescope, 1608

George Washington transmits the Bill of Rights to the States for ratification, 1789

The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzales against Mexican troops attempting to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas, and meeting with stiff resistance, 1835

J Osterhoudt patents the tin can with key opener, 1866

John Logie Baird performs the first test of a working television system, 1925

The "Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God", commonly known as Opus Dei, is founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá, 1928

Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published, 1950

The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television, 1959

Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court, 1967

NATO backs US military strikes following 9/11, 2001

American Samoa joins the North American Numbering Plan, 2004

NFL plays first regular season game outside United States when the Arizona Cardinals defeat the San Francisco 49ers 31-14 in Mexico City, Mexico, 2005

The parliamentary election in Georgia is determined by the OSCE to be "fair and free", 2012

Veteran broadcaster Vin Scully calls his final LA Dodgers game (7-1 loss in SF) after a record 67 MLB seasons, 2016

US scientists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young are awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for Work on the body clock, 2017

A massive oil slick from a pipeline is discovered off California's Orange County coast covering 13 square miles, 2021