Ducklings (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and Poetry Monday (Sheep)

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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!

The crazy Muskogee duck mom who always has babies in winter has 5 this time.

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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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Our dear friend Diane is taking a break

accommodations we must make

we miss her poetry and wit

so carry on as Poetry Monday's a hit!

Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Charlotte/Mother Owl and i are keeping it going while she takes a blog break, we hope temporarily.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let us know!

This week the theme is Sheep. 

                     

The shepherd was giving instructions

and finding it to be a chore,

the sheep were mostly ignoring him,

they'd herd it all before.

*******

The flock tried to solve a problem

down to the youngest lamb,

the computer had a glitch, though,

wasn't enough ram.

*******

The lamb was born too early,

it couldn't wait 'til later,

the shepherd had to put it

in an inc-ewe-bator.

*******

Future themes are:

Jan. 20 Sheep (Today!)

Jan. 27 Silver

Feb. 3 Funky

Feb. 10 Funny

Feb. 17 Fidgety

Feb. 24 Fluffy

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Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Mali

Blue Monday -- UK (it's gloomy winter, it's after the holidays, it's time to cheer someone up by doing something nice for him/her)

Camcorder Day -- five companies agreed, this day in 1982, to cooperate and construct a camera with a built in VCR

Celtic Tree Month Beth (Birch) ends

Coffee Break Day

Day of National Mourning -- Azerbaijan (a/k/a Martyrs' Day)

Festival of Jubilation for Osiris -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate, in Busiris)

Heroes Day -- Cape Verde; Guinea-Bissau (death anniversary of Amilcar Cabral)

La Tamborrada de San Sebastian -- San Sebastian, Spain (24 hours of drumming, begun last evening)

Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- US and Territories (obs.)

National Buttercrunch Day

National Cheese Lover's Day

National Granola Bar Day

National Disc Jockey Day -- listed lots of places, but no particular reason given for the choice of date

Penguin Awareness Day -- lots of celebrating, but no history of who started it

Sacrifices to Athena -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Stay Young Forever Day -- celebrate the child in all of us, do something fun

St. Sebastian's Day (Patron of archers, armorers, arrowsmiths/fletchers, athletes, bookbinders, diseased cattle, dying people, gardeners, gunsmiths, hardware stores, ironmongers, lace makers/lace workers, lead workers, masons, plague victims, police officers, Pontifical Swiss Guards, raquet makers, soldiers, stone masons/stone cutters; several cities, but especially of Rio de Janiero, Brazil and San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, where today is marked with celebrations; against cattle disease, enemies of religion, plague)

Take a Walk Outdoors Day -- unless it's storming, a good way to get some exercise

Tenmangu Kowakamai -- Setaka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan (festival of old style Japanese dances)

Wellington Provincial Anniversary Day -- Wellington, New Zealand (obs.; trad. date 22nd)

Birthdays Today:

Skeet Ulrich, 1969

Rainn Wilson, 1966

James Denton, 1963

Lorenzo Lamas, 1958

Bill Maher, 1956

David Lynch, 1946

Dorothy Provine, 1937

Arte Johnson, 1934

Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, 1930

Patricia Neal, 1926

Otis Dewey "Slim" Whitman, 1924

Federico Fellini, 1920

DeForest Kelley, 1920

Joy Adamson, 1910

George Burns, 1896

Harold Lincoln Gray, 1894

Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, 1889

Carolus Linnaeus, 1778

André-Marie Ampère, 1775

Richard Henry Lee, 1732

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Meet the Beatles"(Album, US release), 1964

Today in History:

The first elected English Parliament called into session by the 6th Earl of Leicester, and meets in the Palace of Westminster (a/k/a Houses of Parliament), 1265

The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored, 1502

The Casa Contratacion (Board of Trade) is founded in Spain to deal with American affairs, 1503

The cornerstone of Amsterdam town hall laid, 1648

The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides that Botany Bay is unsuitable for the location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson, 1788

China cedes Hong Kong to British, 1841

L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster, 1885

The first full length talking motion picture filmed outdoors is released, "In Old Arizona", 1929

Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin deciding on "final solution" calling for extermination of Europe's Jews, 1942

The first atomic submarine, USS Nautilus, is launched at Groton, Connecticut, 1955

Witnesses report sightings of a Bottlenose whale swimming in the River Thames, the first time the species had been seen in the River Thames since records began in 1913, 2006

A three-man team, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1958 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance, 2007

Austria votes to maintain compulsory military service in a referendum, 2013

19-year-old aviator Zara Rutherford becomes the youngest woman to fly solo around the world, 2022

Japan becomes the fifth nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon, 2024