Monday, June 1, 2026

Bubbletastic (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Blue

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Edit:  yesterday, my blog post was put behind a warning label, which i asked for review and it was removed.  If you ever see such a warning on my blog, it's an error.  If it's not an error, my blog was hacked and it's not me posting!


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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!


While she wasn't sure about them at first, Annie has decided she loves "bub-bub" (bubbles).  She likes to "catch" them and we say, "Pop!"














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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 Blue.


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I want to paint the

ocean but I've bitten off

more than I can blue


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He loved the piece of furniture,

only one thing was askew,

so he repainted it his favorite color,

saying, "It's too good to be blue!"


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She had a light blue shelf,

on which sat her favorite elf,

but she painted it green

and thought it was keen,

'cause blue's too azure of itself.


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Future themes are:


June 1 Blue (Today!)

June 8 Two Minute Sketch

June 15 Cobweb with Dewdrops

June 22 Lily


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


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Today is:


Arrival of the Swiss at the Port-Noir -- Switzerland


Birthday of SPB Yang di-Pertuan Agong -- Malaysia (in this elective monarchy, the current king's birthday is celebrated on the first Monday in June, regardless of his actual birth date, although it is moved if it will intersect with Ramadan)


Dia da Crianca -- Cape Verde (Youth Day)


Dia de la Marina -- Mexico (Day of the Navy)


Early Bird Day -- an internet derived day that reminds us the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese


Famadihana -- Madagascar (from now until November, various areas celebrate the Malagasay culture's "turning the bones," a fascinating reburial of the dead ceremony)


Feast of St. Justin Martyr (a/k/a Justin the Philosopher; Patron of apologists, lecturers, orators, philosophers, speakers)


Festival of Non-Linearity -- another one you find on the internet, no meaning or rhyme to it, but if you like to think in non-linear ways, enjoy today!


Festival of the Oak Nymph -- Celtic/Pagan (around this time of year, the Celts took a day to honor all hamadryads, the female nature spirits who inhabit oak trees)


Flip a Coin Day -- as noted by The Ultimate Holiday Site, which claims Julius Caesar invented it (doubtful, but the Romans did toss coins)


Gawai Dayak -- Sarawak, Malaysia (harvest festival begins today)


Global Day of Parents -- UN


Go Barefoot Day -- originally sponsored by Soles4Souls, which recycles shoes to those who have none; while i cannot find if they are sponsoring a day or week this year, it's a good reminder not to let your old shoes end up in a landfill


Great American Campout Month -- sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, and remember that Happy Campers Protect Wildlife; they are also encouraging everyone to join the Clean Earth Challenge and camp clean and responsibly   


Hari Lahir Pancasila -- Indonesia (Pancasila Day)


Heimlich Maneuver Day -- Dr. Heimlich first published his suggestion for aiding choking victims with "subdiaphragmatic pressure" on this day in 1974


Helen Keller Day -- sponsored by the Lions Clubs


Independence Day/National Day -- Samoa


International Children's Day


June Bank Holiday -- Ireland


Kalends of June -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances:

     Day Sacred to Tempestas (goddess of storms)

     Festival for Juno Moneta (Juno as goddess of money)

     Festival of Carna (goddess of health and vitality, and also of doors and locks, which were to be repaired today)


King's Birthday -- Cook Islands; New Zealand; Niue


Madaraka Day -- Kenya (National Day or self-rule/responsibility day)


Mint Julip Day -- Oxford University, England (the drink was introduced there this day in 1845, and they liked it so well, they dedicated a day to it!)


Mothers' and Children's Day -- Mongolia


National Hazelnut Cake Day


National Tree Planting Day -- Cambodia


Oscar the Grouch Day -- according to the Sesame Workshop, today is his birthday


Pancasila Sanctity Day -- Indonesia


President's Day -- Palau


Say Something Nice Day -- as declared by the mayor of a town in South Carolina who is tired of all the negative talk all the time


Stand for Children Day -- stand.org founded by a rally this day in 1996, seeking to ensure all children graduate from high school


St. Theobald Roggeri's Day (Patron of church cleaners, cobblers, porters, shoemakers; against fever and sterility)


Summer Library Book club Season begins -- anywhere that school is out, check your local library for a summer book club for children or adults; you never know what world you will discover when you read


Superman Day -- publication of the first Superman comic was this day in 1938


Victory Day -- Tunisia (anniversary of the Adoption of the Constitution of Tunisia in 1959)


Western Australia Day -- Western Australia (formerly called Foundation Day)


Whit Monday -- Orthodox Christian Churches


World Outlander Day -- for fans of the books and series Outlander


Yobuko Otsunahiki -- Higashi Matsuura, Saga prefecture, Japan (two-day Big Tug-of-War Festival, with one team representing the land and the other the sea; victory for the land means good crops, for the sea means good catches)




Anniversaries Today:


Charlie Chaplin marries Paulette Goddard, 1934

Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, is founded as the first US land-grant university, 1808

Tennessee becomes the 16th US state, 1796

Kentucky becomes the 15th US state, 1792

Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen Consort of England, 1533



Birthdays Today:


Justine Henin, 1982

Alanis Morissette, 1974

Heidi Klum, 1973

Mark Curry, 1964

Lisa Hartman Black, 1956

Ron Wood, 1947

Jonathan Pryce, 1947

Frederica von Stade, 1945

Robert Powell, 1944

Rene Auberjonois, 1940

Cleavon Little, 1939

Morgan Freeman, 1937

Colleen McCullough, 1937

Pat Boone, 1934

Edward Woodward, 1930

James Hadley Billington, 1929

Bob Monkhouse, 1928

Andy Griffith, 1926

Marilyn Monroe, 1926

Nelson Riddle, 1921

Brigham Young, 1801

Jacques Marquette (Père Marquette), 1637



Debuting/Premiering Today:


FX(TV channel), 1994

Gremlins(Film), 1984

Cable News Network/CNN(TV network), 1980

"Live and Let Die"(Song release), 1973

"The Prisoner"(TV), 1968

"Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"(Album release), 1967



Today in History:


Hugh Capet is elected King of France, 987

Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing, 1215

Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky, 1495

Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England, 1533

Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1660

The battle of the Glorious First of June is fought, the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars, 1794

U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom, 1812

James Lawrence, the mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gives his final order: "Don't give up the ship!" 1813

James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole, 1831

American adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua, 1855

Treaty of Bosque Redondo is signed allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico, 1868

Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine, 1869

Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War, 1879

The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns, 1890

Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court, 1916

The First Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires, 1929

Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months, 1958

New Zealand's first official television broadcast commences at 7.30pm from Auckland, 1960

Kenya gains internal self-rule (Madaraka Day), 1963

The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine, 1974

The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power, 1979

The Warsaw Pact officially dissolves, 1991

Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupts for the first time in 600 years, 1991

Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil, Killing all 228 passengers and crew, 2009

General Motors files for chapter 11 bankruptcy, 2009

Russia enacts a country-wide smoking ban, effecting most public places, 2013

Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel is completed - world’s longest at 57km and most expensive tunnel costing €11bn, 2016

Prehistoric carvings of deer, between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, are found at Kilmartin Glen, Argyll, Scotland, 2021

US Coast Guard Admiral Linda Fagan assumes the post of Commandant, becoming the first female commander of US military branch, 2022

The world's largest-ever election ends in India after six weeks with 642 million people voting in the country's general election, including a record 312 million women, 2024