World Daffodil Day
August 18
Daffodil is a type of flowering plant that belongs to the Amaryllis family. It gets its name from Greek myth about a handsome young man with the name Narcissus. God gifted him beauty with a condition that he would not look at his reflection. Narcissus could not control his temptation and gazed at his reflection in a shimmering lake. He was turned into a Daffodil flower for his vanity. There are 26 to 60 different species of wild daffodils. If you want to mix daffodils in a vase with other flowers, first soak them in water for 24 hours. This eliminates the sap they contain, which is often poisonous to other plants. Don’t cut the stems afterwards, as this triggers another release of the toxic sap.
Serendipity Day
August 18
The word ‘serendipity’ was invented on 28 January 1754 by Horace Warpol who was a prolific inventor of new words. He is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing over 200 words into the English language, among them beefy, malaria, nuance, somber, and souvenir. But his most celebrated neologism was ‘serendipity’, meaning the ‘faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident’. The word ‘serendipity’ comes from Serendip, the old name for Sri Lanka, but Walpole was indebted to a specific work of literature for the creation of the word. ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’ is one of the earliest detective stories in existence: it tells of how three princes track down a missing camel through luck and good fortune. If something good happens to you, completely out of the blue, you have experienced serendipity.
Today’s Birthdays of Note….
Robert Redford – Actor – born in Santa Monica, California
Roberto Clemente – Hall of Fame Baseball Player – born in Carolina, Puerto Rico
