Raising a Reader (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Plants with Berries

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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!

Our little Annie loves to read and when she decides it's time for the reading chair, it's 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 Plants With Berries.                  

     

I planted a berry bush

and tended it with glee,

it produced much fruit

for my use, as you will see.

I filled my basket with berries,

as many as I could cram,

'cause muddling them with sugar

really is my jam!

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don't come in my yard

to pick fruit from my bushes

it is rob-berry

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When blueberries aren't ripe they are red

later turning blue/purple instead,

but don't leave them too long

or you'll sing the sad song

of elder berries which you'll dread!

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Future themes are:

February 16 Plants With Berries (Today!)

February 23 Doughnut

March 2 Breakfast in Bed

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

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Today is:

9-1-1 Day -- the first 911 call in North America was placed, demonstrating the new system, on this day in 1968

Akiyoshidai Yamayaki -- Akiyoshidai, Japan (dry grass on the mountain side is burned in this coming of spring ceremony; date subject to change)

Bonten Matsuri -- Miyoshi-jinja Shrine, Akita, Japan (two day festival to ask for good crops this year)

Canada observances

    Family Day -- AB, BC, NB, ON, SK, Canada

    Heritage Day -- NS, Canada (honouring Mona Louise Parsons)

    Islander Holiday -- PEI, Canada

    Louis Riel Day -- MB, Canada

Do a Grouch a Favor Day -- internet generated attempt to get us to either get the grouches on our side, or make us cynical

Independence Day -- Lithuania (National Day/Restoration of Statehood)(1918)

Kyoto Protocol Day -- International (treaty on climate change; today is proposed as "Wear purple for Kyoto Day")

Lunar New Year's Eve (year of the Horse)

    Seol-nal -- South Korea (Lunar New Year Holiday begins)

    Spring Festival -- China; Taiwan (Chinese New Year's Eve, start of the festival)

    Tet Eve -- Vietnam

Lundi Gras -- Fat Monday, Carnival, one of the last to days to feast before the Lenten fast begins Wednesday

     Bolludagur -- Iceland (Bun Day, the children wake the parents with a "spanking" while calling for cream buns that will be eaten that day)

     Old Mask Parade -- Oranjestad, Aruba (with the Burning of the Momo tomorrow, marking the end of Carnival)

     Rosenmontag -- German-speaking Countries (Rose Monday, highlight of Karneval)

National Almond Day

Presidents' Day -- US and Territories

St. Juliana of Cumae's Day (Patron of the ill)

St. Onesimus' Day (runaway slave of Philemon, converted by Paul, of whom the Letter to Philemon was written)

Birthdays Today:

Christopher Eccleston, 1964

John McEnroe, 1959

Ice T, 1959

LeVar Burton, 1957

James Ingram, 1956

William Katt, 1951

Richard Ford, 1944

Barry Primus, 1938

Sonny Bono, 1935

Vera-Ellen, 1921

Patty Andrews, 1920

Jimmy Wakely, 1914

Hugh Beaumont, 1909

Richard McDonald, 1909

George Kennan, 1904

Edgar Bergan, 1903

Robert Joseph Flaherty, 1884

Johann Strauss, 1866

Nichiren, 1222

Emperor Yingzong of China, 1032

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"What's My Line"(TV Game Show), 1950

"Le Voyageur Sans Baggage"(Anouilh Play), 1937

"The Marquise"(Coward Play), 1927

"Chung Sai Yat Po"(Publication; first Chinese daily newspaper in US), 1900

"Werther"(Massenet Opera), 1892

"Ladies' Home Journal"(Publication), 1883

"Orpheus"(Liszt Opera), 1854

"Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard"(First Publication), 1751

Today in History:

9th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet, 374

Pope Gregory the Great issues a decree saying that "God bless you" is the correct response to a sneeze, 600

English king Charles I accepts Triennial Act, requiring the king to assemble Parliament at least once every 3 years, 1641

The first known check (cheque) is written, for 400 English Pounds Sterling (currently on display at Westminster Abbey), 1659

Kentucky passes a law permitting women to attend school under certain conditions, 1838

Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus, 1838

American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica, 1840

The Battle of Sobraon ends the First Sikh War in India, 1846

Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established, 1852

The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch, 1859

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks forms, 1868

The "Ladies Home Journal" begins publishing, 1883

The first Chinese daily newspaper in the US, Chung Sai Yat Po, begins publication in San Francisco, 1900

The first US Esperanto Club organizes in Boston, 1905

The first synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid, Spain, 1917

Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, 1923

The first patent is issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree, 1932

Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon, 1937

Canadians are granted Canadian citizenship after 80 years of being British subjects. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen, 1947

Britain abolishes the death penalty, 1956

Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1, 1959

In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service, 1968

The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois), 1978

The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem, 1987

The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia, 2005

The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army, 2006

China announces it will relocate 9,000 people in Guizhou province, before completion of world's largest telescope (FAST), designed to look for extraterrestrial life, 2016

Pope Francis defrocks ex-cardinal and archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick for sexually abusing minors and adults, making him the first Cardinal to be removed for sexual abuse, 2019

The United States removes 400 citizens quarantined for Covid19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan, 2020

Athens and parts of Greece receive unusually heavy snowfall, 2021

The US Naval History and Heritage Command confirms the wreckage discovered off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan, by the University of Tokyo sonar team in 2022 was the remains of the USS Albacore, a submarine lost in 1944, 2023