A Site of Happy Days: January 18

January 18

AA Milne was born today in 1882, and another treasured children's author, Arthur Ransome, a couple years later, in 1884. And that wonderful father and children's entertainer Danny Kaye was born in 1913.

From Barbara Ann Kipfer's 365 Days of Savoring: Things to Be Happy About in 2011:

seeing Paris
archaeological discoveries
climbing a hill
a library of field guides
rearranging a room

She's somehow hit on many of my top favorites all in one day!

2012 Holidays: USA and (forgive me) Middle Earth!

Jan 1 - New Year's Day
Jan 16 - Martin Luther King Jr bday celebrated
February 14 - Galdalf Returns to Life
Feb 20 - Lincoln's & Washington's birthdays celebrated
February 29 - Meriadoc and Pippin Meet Treebeard
March 1 - Aragorn's Birthday
March 2 - Théoden is Healed
March 3 - Ents Conquer Isengard
March 8 - Aragorn Takes the Paths of the Dead
March 25 - The Ring Is Destroyed
April 6 - Elves' New Year
April 8 - Easter
April 22 - Earth Day
May 1 - Aragorn Is Crowned & Sam Marries Rose
May 13 - Mother's Day
May 28 - Memorial Day
June 17 - Father's Day
"June 31/July 1" - Aragorn and Arwen's Wedding
July 4 - Independence Day
September 3 - Labor Day
September 9 - Grandparents' Day
September 18 - Gandalf's Escape from Orthanc
September 21 - Day of Peace
September 22 - Bilbo's Birthday
September 26 - Frodo Meets Tom Bombadil
September 29 - Frodo and Bilbo Depart to the West
October 1 - Minor Festival in the Shire and Bree
October 24 - Frodo Recovers and Awakens in Rivendell
November 6 - Election Day
November 12 - Veterans Day celebrated
November 22 - Thanksgiving
December 25 - Christmas & The Company of the Ring Begins Its Quest from Rivendell
Dec 31 - New Year's Eve

Flowers of the Months

Most have more than one option, depending on who's saying, which just makes it nice because we have choices...and of course one is always free to proclaim your own seasonal favorite!

January carnation OR snowdrop

February iris OR violet OR primrose

March daffodil aka jonquil aka narcissus

April daisy OR sweet pea

May lily OR lily of the valley OR hawthorn

June rose OR honeysuckle

July delphinium OR larkspur OR water lily

August gladiolus OR poppy

September aster OR morning glory

October marigold aka calendula OR cosmos

November chrysanthemum

December poinsettia OR holly

Our treasures...

"Mole, this is really the jolliest little place I ever was in!...Tell us all about it..."
The Mole, still heaving with the stress of his recent emotion, related, somewhat shyly at first,...how this was planned, and how that was thought out, and how this was got through a windfall from an aunt, and that was a wonderful find and a bargain, and this other thing was brought out of laborious savings and a certain amount of "going without."
...Ere he closed his eyes that night he let them wander round his old room, mellow in the glow of the firelight that played or rested on familiar and friendly things which had long been unconsciously a part of him. He saw clear how plain and simple it all was; but clearly too how much it all meant to him, and the special value of some such anchorage in one's existence.
- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, "Dulce Domum"

A Site of Happy Days

January 18

What is the first song played when Leeloo enters Fhloston Paradise?

My Favorite Imagined Place