Lynn Barber

February 14: Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone! Don’t eat too much chocolate. Astute readers of this site have undoubtedly noticed that I have slacked off on my holiday posts. Even I found that many of the holidays were too weird or goofy to post on, but I do plan to do periodic holiday posts as the mood strikes. Really, it is always good to have a reason to celebrate stuff. Note: when I first saw this container of truffles when I was shopping, I was sure it was going to be chocolate-covered Pringles. Not.

February 8: Ice Cream for Breakfast Day!! Now that’s a holiday I can celebrate! We dutifully put ice cream and fruit in our bowls (and in my case, a bit of cereal to make it seem more like breakfast) and then dutifully forced ourselves to have dessert for breakfast. We might have to celebrate this again.

February 7: It’s Send a Card to a Friend Day. I’m sending a most sincere get-well-card along with my husband when he goes to visit a dear friend who is in the hospital.

February 6: It’s Pay a Compliment Day, and I just paid one. You’ll never know to whom or for what.

February 5: Not everyone has their own personal weatherman, but for National Weatherman’s Day I am happy to show a photo of mine.

February 4: I guess that people sometimes get desperate if they are for some reason are into naming miscellaneous holidays. I don’t know. But today being National Create a Vacuum Day is just weird. In my ongoing effort to illustrate a holiday each day (which seems more and more weird in itself), I took this picture. Probably not what the holiday-namers were thinking, if they were thinking anything.

February 3: Today is Feed the Birds Day (as should be every day, of course).

February 2: Yesterday when I was trying to figure out what holiday that I could feature as yesterday’s holiday, my husband suggested that I could call it Ground Hog Eve Day. I loved it but couldn’t find my pictures of the ground hog/woodchuck that we hosted last summer so abandoned that idea. After more searching through my photo archives, I just now found then the pictures, in time to feature for them for today’s real holiday, Ground Hog Day. By the way, I understand that the official ground hog saw his shadow today, so there will be six more weeks of winter weather (but real winter weather has been pretty mild, so not a problem, if it’s true).

February 1: There are many holidays celebrated on February 1, only one of which spoke to me, National Dark Chocolate Day. Rather like yesterday’s hot chocolate. I suppose one could have many more chocolate holidays, official or otherwise, chocolate-chip cookie, chocolate frosting…

January 31: Among the holidays that are listed for January 31st is National Hot Chocolate Day. I assume that would include hot mocha, which I have just made. Yum.

January 30: Sometimes tracking daily holidays, including arbitrary, made-up holidays, can be mindless fun. Today, for example, is Draw a Dinosaur Day. I’ve never tried it, but why not? Here is an out-of-my memory version of what a dinosaur might have been (or maybe I should do a self-portrait?).

January 29: January 29th is National Puzzle Day. I am illustrating this literally. There are way too many unillustratable puzzles to even begin to think about it. FYI, the puzzle pieces shown here are for a puzzle illustrating the movie and book Where the Crawdads Sing (both wonderful).

January 28: This is Fun at Work Day. For us retired people, I guess that retirement is our “work.” And nearly every day is fun when you are able to choose (at least sometimes) what your retirement work is.

January 27: As with many dates, there are many “holidays” on this one, one of which is Punch the Clock Day. Since both my husband and I are both retired and no longer punching clocks, I decided to stage an illustration of the holiday.

January 26:

This is one holiday that it is easy to illustrate: Spouse’s Day. Please meet Dave.

January 25: January 25 is Opposite Day. Or not. These holiday designations are so exciting. Or not. I may do a long discussion here on holidays. Or not.

January 24: There are 3 different holidays (at least) on January 24: Global Belly Laugh Day (I’m not feeling it); Beer Can Appreciation Day (I don’t appreciate beer itself, much less the cans, but they can make a pretty pattern); and Compliment Day. I like that one. I would like to compliment all the wise, kind people who are trying to figure out a way forward.

January 23: Today is National Handwriting Day. I have no idea where this name comes from. Oh well, to randomly go along with this randomly named day, I hereby attach a random sample of some of the ways I put my name on paper.

January 22: This is an odd holiday: National Blonde Brownie Day. I do plan to bake some of these soon, and hopefully won’t eat all of them.

January 21: This is National Squirrel Appreciation Day. While they are always so cute, sometimes it is difficult to appreciate them as they snarf up birdseed.

January 20: January 20th this year is the date of celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. There are very few holidays that rival this date in importance to our nation!

January 19: Today is National Popcorn Day, and I plan to make some before the day is done. But more importantly, January 19 is the anniversary of our first date zillions of years ago. Happy Anniversary Dave!

January 18: Perhaps you can figure out why I am cheerful, delighted, ecstatic, elated, enraptured, exultant, glad, gleeful, happy, jolly, joyful. It’s Thesaurus Day.

January 17: This is “Ditch New Years Resolutions Day.” Most prior years I have made unattainable resolutions and have ditched them long before January 17. But this year, I’m hanging in there and have written 1 (or sometimes 2 or 3) poems a day, plus I’ve kept up on this page each day (which wasn’t actually a resolution). And I’ve seen birds and posted them on eBird each day. And I’m having fun doing all that. When the fun ends (if the fun ends), it really won’t matter, as nothing terrible will happen if I quit doing these things. That ‘s the kind of resolutions to make.

January 16: “National Nothing Day” – boy, is that easy to illustrate!

January 15: This day is “National Hat Day.” See our dog’s hat below for the 1/14 post.

January 14: This seems to be called “Dress Up Your Pet Day.” Clearly the holiday-namers were running out of ideas. But, going along with this theme, I found a Christmas hat for our long-suffering Alaskan husky-mix.

January 13: They say it’s “International Skeptics Day” on January 13th. I don’t believe it.

January 12: Among other holidays on this date, January 12th is “Hot Tea Day.” I had to choose that one to feature here because we drink quite a bit of hot tea at our house. Even when we lived in the south (NC, TX), we pretty much stuck to hot tea, while all around us others sipped their sweetened iced tea. All good.

January 11: Today is “Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day.” So, if you go to https://morsecodetranslator.com/ you too can do that. My name, Lynn, in Morse Code is apparently: .-.. -.– -. -.

January 10: January 10th is “Bittersweet Chocolate Day.” This photo is the closest I can come right now to a picture of that, without going to the grocery store. It is also “Houseplant Appreciation Day,” but I have absolutely none of those right now. A fake Christmas tree probably doesn’t count.

January 9: My sources tell me that January 9 is “Play God Day.” There are people, a few of whom I’ve known, who seem to do this every day.

January 8: One of the holidays that can be celebrated on January 8 is “National Take the Stairs Day.” No idea whose idea that was. Most of us either have no stairs where we live or have them and have to use them. Living in a multi-level house, I always take the stairs of course from the downstairs work/art/music/office/bathroom/etc. areas to the upstairs kitchen/living room/bedroom/bathroom rooms. Over and over. Every day. And yesterday in a visit to friends I even climbed more stairs without a large landing area on the way up and down. So far, so good. But I have noticed a change… Please see my recent rhyme on this topic on my “Rhymes” page on this site if you are interested.

January 7: The only holiday that I found for January 7, is “Old Rock Day.” What? It turns out that this is a real holiday. The USGS actually wishes readers of their website a happy Old Rock Day and has an article from the Astrogeology Science Center about the oldest rocks of earth. But, because the earth is such a young planet, the actual oldest rocks on earth are those brought back from the moon. I never knew when I started this page that I would learn scientific things, even things that weren’t related to birds.

January 6: January 6th is always the day after the 12th day of Christmas, which, on Christian calendars is “Epiphany,” celebrating the visit of the magi/wisemen/king from the East in the Christmas story. Just writing these words brings the song “We Three Kings” to my mind.

January 5: Today is the 12th day of Christmas, and is also called by somebody (not me) “National Bird Day.” As far as I’m concerned all days are, or should be, that!

January 4: Today is National Trivia Day apparently. I’ve begun to think that this whole “National Day” stuff is trivial, but it’s sort of fun to see if a date’s name is relevant. Clearly, this one is.

January 3: Today is Festival of Sleep Day. I am delighted to report that I did, finally, get almost enough sleep last night, interrupted only briefly by a short series of Great Horned Owl hoots at 1:13 am.

January 2: This is National Introvert Day. I’m assuming the extroverts named it because the introverts would probably have had difficulty meeting and voting on a name.

January 1, 2025: It is New Year’s Day, and as promised I went birding and wrote a poem. One day has been completed of my resolutions. It apparently is also National Hangover Day, which, although I had a margarita last night, I did not/do not have a hangover (I don’t remember ever having a hangover). I’m glad these “official” days are not mandatory or even always relevant.

December 30: Today is national bicarbonate of soda day. Is this so we can prepare for the overindulgence of New Year’s Eve? No idea.

December 29: According to the internet, today is “tick tock day.” Clearly, the clock is ticking its way to a new year. It’s almost here!