Sweeping Outdoors? Now I've Seen Everything (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, 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, Alex J. Cavanaugh is providing the prompts which will be posted by Elephant's Child.     

This week's prompts are:

• Saturn
• Orange
• Festival
• Wind
• Spicy
• Flustered 
  

And/or 

• Horror
• Neon
• Giant
• Fight
• Perfect
• Flying 
  

Charlotte (MotherOwl)  has given us Mint Green as the colour of the month.  If you can also incorporate it into your stories she (and I) will be grateful.

"How did you sleep last night, Aunt Marigold?" June asked as her husband's aunt emerged from the guest bedroom into the kitchen where she was pouring ORANGE juice into glasses.

"Wonderfully well!"  Aunt Marigold smiled.  "Julius used to say SATURN was in retrograde when I slept especially well.  It always made me laugh, as neither of us believed that stuff.

"I really want to thank you for having me stay on such short notice, June.  You and Alan really are most accommodating.  I had a hankering to go to the Halloween FESTIVAL again, and when I looked at FLYING in there was a PERFECT opportunity right between two other engagements I have.  You know if something's going to work out that well, I just have to jump on it!"

"We always love having you stay," Alan said, coming in through the front door with the morning paper.  "And I believe you'll love this," he unfolded the paper and handed it to her.

"Why, that's us at the fest last night!" Aunt Marigold laughed.  "Look at your expression, Alan.  You certainly look FLUSTERED!"

Alan laughed, "I was flustered.  Who expects to bite into the SPICY candied apple and win the prize?  Not me, that's certain."

"It was an excellent night for Halloween, not too cold, not too hot, and not too much WIND," Aunt Marigold continued to muse as they sat at the table to breakfast.

“I remember one year when I was young,” Aunt Marigold was reminiscing now, “the wind was so bad the GIANT bouncy castle almost turned over, and I was one of the kids inside it.  Mother said she almost died with the HORROR of seeing it blow over that way, but we kids inside were having a blast.  We all got pulled out for our safety, and some of the kids tried to FIGHT to stay in there!  It was dangerous, looking back on it, but at the time we kids thought it was great fun and hoped it would happen every year.”

“The costume contest went especially well this year,” June started, and the others agreed.

“All the costumes people made for themselves instead of just buying something were really well done,” Alan added.  “I thought the family dressed in black with painted NEON letters on their shirts spelling out 'Happy Halloween’ when they stood in order from oldest to youngest were quite clever.”

"And boy did they look funny running around separately, a couple of letters here and a few more over there, the whole night," June added.

“And did you see the just barely toddling baby dressed in a Mint Green princess dress?” Aunt Marigold chimed in.  “She was most darling.”

The event was talked over through all of breakfast and once the dishes were done, with Aunt Marigold insisting on drying as she always did, she told them, "Well, kiddos, it's been fun, flying in on my broom to sweep through the Halloween celebrations, but it's time for me to sweep off again.  Cousin James will be picking me up in an hour to take me back to the airport, I know both of you need to go to work, and don't worry, I'll be making the rounds of the whole family for Christmas!"

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Today is

All Hallow's Day a/k/a All Saint's Day -- Christian, and a Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Church; a recognized holiday (although not necessarily a day off work) in Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovena, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, East Timor, Ecuador, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea, Holy See, Hungary, Italy, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Monaco, New Caledonia, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, San Marino, Senegal, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, Wallis and Fortuna)

Apaturia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (three day Phratriai brotherhood festival; dates approximate)

Bulgarian National Revival Leaders' Day -- Bulgaria

Cake Appreciation Day -- while i can't find a reason or sponsor for this, i'm sure the Cake Appreciation Society would approve  

Cook for Your Pets Day -- did the dogs lobby for this? 

Coronation Day of Fourth Druk Gyalpo -- Bhutan

CrossQuarter Day

Day of the Innocents -- Mexico (first Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead)

Graveyards Day -- a traditional day to tend the graves of ancestors

I Am So Thankful Month begins -- before the "holiday" frenzy, spend not just a day, but a month, practicing gratitude

Haryana Day -- Haryaha, India

Hawaiki Nui Va'a Race -- French Polynesia (spectacular three-day open water outrigger canoe races from Huahine to Raiatea to Tahaa to Bora Bora)

Independence Day -- Antigua & Barbuda(1981); North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic, from the Ottoman Empire)

International Coaches Day -- no one claims to have started this; if you have, or had, a great coach in your life, let him/her know

Kalends of November -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also

     Pomonia -- Festival to Pomona

Kanhada Rajyothsaya -- Kamataka, India (Kamataka Formation Day)

Kite Festival of Santiago Sacatepequez -- Santiago Sacatepequez, Guatemala (kite flying in the graveyard to scare away evil spirits)

Liberty Day / D. Hamilton Jackson Day -- US Virgin Islands

NaNoWriMo -- National Novel Writer's Month, write one if you have it in you!

National Author's Day -- US

National Calzone Day

National Family Literacy Day® -- US (but no matter where you live, turn off the tv, pick up a good book! National Center for Family Literacy)

National French Fried Clam / Deep Fried Clam Day

National Vinegar Day

No Driving with Cell Phones Day -- the first law against talking on a hand-held device while driving went into effect in NY, US, on this day in 2001

Old Celtic New Year

Olive Festival -- Galilee, Israel (through the month, especially centered around Kawkab and Hurfeish, with open houses, oil production tours, feasts, lectures, concerts, dance performances, and olives galore)

Ozark Mountain Christmas/Branson Festival of Lights -- Branson, MO, US

Plate Tectonics Day -- birth anniversary of Alfred Wegener, who came up with the theory of continental drift

Remembrance Day -- Slovenia

Revolution Day/National Day -- Algeria

Samhain -- Celtic, 3rd Station, and Wicca, Northern Hemisphere (Beltane in the Southern Hemisphere)

State Foundation Day -- Andhra Pradesh, India; Karnataka, India; Kerala, India

World Vegan Day 

Anniversaries Today:

The Prime Meridian is set at Greenwich, England, 1884

Boston Female Medical School opens, 1848

Birthdays Today:

Penn Bagdley, 1986

Toni Collette, 1972

Jenny McCarthy, 1972

Fernando Valenzuela, 1960

Rachel Ticotin, 1958

Lyle Lovett, 1957

Dan Peek, 1951

Larry Flynt, 1942

Gary Player, 1935

Betsy Palmer, 1926

James Jackson Kilpatrick, 1920 

Alfred Wegener, 1880

Stephen Crane, 1871

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Foreigner"(Larry Shue comedy), 1984

Hello Kitty, 1974 (considered her "birth date")

"Top Banana"(Mercer musical), 1951

Ebony Magazine(First edition), 1945

"Harvey"(Mary Chase comedy), 1944

"The Constant Wife"(Maugham play), 1926

"Emperor Jones"(O'Neill play), 1920

The Crisis: A Record of The Darker Races(Magazine of the NAACP, first edition edited by W.E.B. DuBois), 1910

"John Bull's Other Island"(Shaw comedy), 1904

Harper's Bazaar(Magazine, first edition), 1867

Today in History:

The name "Austria" is first used for Ostarrichin, 996

King John of England begins imprisoning Jews, 1210

The Duke of Brabant orders the execution of all Jews in Brussels, claiming they were poisoning wells, 1349

First exhibit of the works of Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 1512

The Netherlands is hit by a flood disaster, resulting in the deaths of thousands, 1570

Shakespeare's "Othello" first presented, 1604

Shakespeare's "The Tempest" first presented, 1611

An earthquake in Lisbon leaves over 50,000 dead, 1755

The Stamp Act goes into effect in the British colonies, 1765

George Washington gives his "Farewell Address" and the Continental Army is dissolved, 1783

John Adams becomes the first Us president to move into the (still not quite finished) White House, 1800*

*Note: It was still called the Executive Mansion at this time

The first published reference to poker, as a Mississippi riverboat game, 1834

The Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse, which is still in use, is lit for the first time; its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for 19 miles in good conditions, 1859

Passage of the first US Civil Rights Bill, 1866

First publication of "Harpers Bazaar", 1867

The US Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) begins operations, with 24 locations, 1870

Edward Scripps and John Sweeney found Penny Press (now the Cleveland Press), 1878

The Gaelic Athletic Association is founded at the Hayes' Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary, 1884

Dr. Roux of Paris introduces a vaccine for diphtheria, 1894

Nicholas II becomes the new Tsar of Russia, 1894

The National Geographic Magazine publishes its first picture of bare breasted women (from a Zulu tribe), 1896

The first Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public, 1897

Sigma Phi Epsilon, the largest national male college fraternity in the US, is established at Richmond College, 1901

Parris Island becomes the officially designated Marine Corps Recruit Depot, 1915

The Ottoman Empire is officially abolished, 1922

Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed "the match of the century" in horse racing, 1938

The first animal conceived by artificial insemination, a rabbit, is displayed, 1939

American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography, 1941

The first issue of Ebony Magazine is published, by John H. Johnson, 1945

Charles Cooper of the Celtics becomes the first black NBA player, 1950

The first hydrogen nuclear device is exploded, by the US, at Eniwetok Atoll, 1952

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante wears a protective mask for the first time in an NHL game, 1959

The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens, 1963

The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X, 1968

Honda becomes the first Asian automaker to build cars in the US, 1982

Serbia joins the United Nations, 2000

First part of the Gomery Report, which discusses allegations of political money manipulation by members of the Liberal Party of Canada, is released in Canada. 2005

Astronomers claim to have detected light from the first stars in the universe by studying high-energy radiation data, 2012

Australian scientists announce the discovery of three new marsupials in Queensland, all shrew-like antechinus species, 2013

Palau becomes the first country to ban sunscreen because of the chemicals in them which bleach coral reefs, 2018

Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, the first protein-based COVID vaccine, receives its first emergency use authorization in Indonesia, 2021