Reading is Most Important (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and Poetry Monday, Kitchen

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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!

Little Annie knows reading is very important.

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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 Kitchen.                       

First, my favorite couplet about the topic, not something i wrote:

No matter where I serve my guest,

it seems they like my kitchen best!

It's true, no matter what, everyone seems to congregate in the kitchen, the heart of the home.  On this same theme:

I can polish up the silver

get the good china out, too,

use all my best linens in the

formal dining room for you,

but no matter who you are,

an old friend, or new to me,

sitting in my kitchen with a cup

seems your favorite place to be!

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I spilled ice in the kitchen,

but don't worry about it a smidge,

it's been kicked out of sight and now

it's just water under the fridge.

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Future themes are:

September 22 Kitchen (Today!)

September 29 Snuggles

October 6 Water

October 13 Contrast

October 20 Side Profile of a Person

(All themes are from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and Other Arts Facebook group.)

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Today is the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, at exactly 18:19 UTC,(2:19pm EDT).

The equinox has a good many rituals and observances around the world:

     Mabon -- Wicca/Pagan Northern Hemisphere

     Ostara -- Wicca/Pagan Southern Hemisphere

     Alban Elfed -- Celtic Winter Finding

     Chuseok -- Korean harvest festival (high point of the festival)

     Feast of Carpo -- Greek Horae, goddess of autumn

     Kukulcan Snake God Celebration -- Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico (the snake appears at the equinox, a time to honor this Mayan god)

     Festival of the Sea Goddess -- Eskimo

     Higan -- Japan

     Mabon/Fallfest -- Asatru/Norse Pagan (harvest festival, time to make wine and mead for the next winter)

     Oenach Carman -- Ancient Celtic Calendar

     Sendai Great Tug-of-War -- Sendai, Japan (festival on the equinox that dates back over 400 years)    

     Svarog's Holiday -- Slavic Pagan Calendar/Asatru (day to drink mead in honor of Svarog, god of fire and the sky)

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.        

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Today is:

Aizu Byakko Matsuri -- Aizuwakamatsu-shi, Fukushima, Japan (ceremonial recreation of a march to war in 1868; through the 24th)

American Business Women's Day -- US (anniversary of the founding of the American Business Women's Association)

Boidromia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate; honor Apollon as god of rescue during war)

Canterbury South Provincial Anniversary Day -- Canterbury South, New Zealand

Coya Raymi -- Inca Native Americans (festival to honor Moon Goddess Quilla, with a focus on purging sickness and evil; through tomorrow, dates approximate)

Dear Diary Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays; get it down on paper!

Dominion Day -- New Zealand (Obs.)

Elephant Appreciation Day -- sponsored by "Elefunteria" 

Fairtrade Fortnight begins -- UK (a chance to get involved in making sure farmers in developing countries have fair wages and good working conditions)   

Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children(TM) -- US (sponsored by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, encouraging everyone to have a meal with the family, because all the studies show it's good for you!) 

Feast of Mikeli -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (harvest celebration; through the 24th)

Ghatasthapana Dashain Festival-- Nepal (start of a nine day Hindu festival, the longest and most auspicious festival in the Nepalese annual calendar)

Hobbit Day -- Bilbo's and Frodo's Birth anniversary

Ice Cream Cone Day -- Italo Marchiony applied for a patent for an ice cream cone mold on this day in 1903

Independence Day -- Bulgaria(1908); Mali(1960)

International Day of Radiant Peace  

National Centenarians Day -- US

National White Chocolate Day

Navaratri Dussehra -- Hindu (nine day Festival of Durga, wife of Shiva; local dates of observance may vary)

OneWebDay

Organ Donation Week begins -- UK (join the organ donor registry, when you don't need your parts any more, someone else will!) 

Princess Martha Louise's Birthday -- Norway (an official flag day)

Ritual of the Netjers of the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Rosh Hashanah -- Judaism (begins this evening; through the evening of the 24th)

St. Maurice's Day (Patron of armies, cloth dyers, cloth makers, infantrymen, soldiers, swordsmiths, weavers; Austria; Manresa, Spain; Pianello Val Tidone, Italy; Piedmont, Italy; Sardinia; Stadtsulza, Germany; Pontifical Swiss Guards; against cramps and gout)

World Car Free Day -- UN (encouraging all of us to go car free for a day, and see the world from a different perspective) began as:  Car-Free Day 

Birthdays Today:

Billie Piper, 1982

Ronaldo, 1976

Bonnie Hunt, 1964

Catherine Oxenberg, 1961

Scott Baio, 1961

Joan Jett, 1960

Andrea Bocelli, 1958

Debby Boone, 1956

Shari Belafonte, 1954

Arthur O. Sulzberger, 1951

Paul Le Mat, 1945

Junko Tabel, 1939 (first woman to summit Everest)

Tommy Lasorda, 1927

John Houseman, 1902

Michael Faraday, 1791

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, 1694(O.S. Date)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Friends"(TV), 1994

"Family Ties"(TV), 1982

"Charlie's Angels"(TV), 1976

"A Delicate Balance"(Play), 1966

"Fiddler on the Roof"(Musical), 1964

"The Man from U.N.C.L.E."(TV), 1964

"Maverick"(TV), 1957

Today in History:

Legion I Italica is created by Emperor Nero, 66

Switzerland becomes an independent state, 1499

The General Provincial Court at Patuxent, MD, US, empanels the first all female jury in the colonies to try the case of a woman accused of murdering her child, 1656

A final 8 people are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Mass., 1692

Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during American Revolution, 1776

Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska, 1784

City of Des Moines, Iowa, is incorporated as Fort Des Moines, 1851

Abraham Lincoln, by executive proclamation, declares that the slaves in the rebelling states shall become free on Jan. 1 of the upcoming year, 1862

Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold premieres in Munich, 1869

The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published, 1888

Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather, King George III, as the longest reigning monarch in British history, 1895

Italo Marchiony granted a patent for an ice cream cone, 1903

The Duke of York's Picture House opens in Brighton, now the oldest continually operating cinema in Britain, 1910

Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first black winner of the Nobel Peace Price, 1950

The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time by the Huntington Library, 1991

David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon, 2003

CERN scientists announce their discovery of neutrinos breaking the speed of light, 2011

NASA's MAVEN space probe successfully arrives in orbit over Mars, 2014

The WHO warns that urgent action is needed against air pollution as it is on par with smoking and poor diet in causing premature deaths, 2021

China's Hefei Institutes of Physical Science creates a magnet so strong its magnetic field is 800,000 times stronger than the Earth's own magnetic field, 2024