SWEET TEA AND SUMMER VACATIONS

Happy last summer Monday of July friends.
Nancy Naigle here and I'll be joining you the last Monday of every month from my farm here in southern Virginia. We raise goats here on Holland Farm which is located not but about 20 minutes from the Carolina line off I95. Thanks for joining me today.

I love summer and as a kid I loved summer vacations. Here in southern Virginia my family spent a lot of time on the beach, sunning, crabbing, and enjoying the outdoors. As we hit those middle grade years we did the Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion trips. How did we survive the heat? I don't do it so well these days. Well, beach days are over for me. Aside from the fact that I can't stand the thought of shopping for a swimsuit, I swear it's hotter now than it used to be. My momma is a redhead so you can imagine how well I tan -- yeah, I don't. I get burnt slap up while my husband turns as brown as piece of jerky. It's just not fair.

One thing that I do still love about summer is getting together for picnics and cookouts. Okay, cookout and eat-in. Isn't it cool when you get to the point where everyone has their specialty so you barely have to suggest who is bringing what -- everyone already knows. My step-children hit that level this year. Michelle brings watergate salad and Michael surprised us with his homemade potato salad at our last get together. Both were perfect. I guess that was their final step into adulthood. :) We'll be celebrating Michael's 30th birthday in August. Seems like not that long ago he was learning to drive...in my car...my heart racing....gulp!

Summer tip: When the temperatures are scorching I try to make ice cubes out of whatever beverage I'm serving, too. It helps keep folks with a cool drink in hand that stays fresh to the last drop. There's nothing worse than watered down sweet tea!

Here's the link to Pearl's famous sweet tea from my novel Sweet Tea and Secrets~

http://www.NancyNaigle.com/sweettea.htm 

Here's to summer vacation memories and making new ones that are just as wonderful.
Hugs and happy summer~
Nancy

Finders Keepers - Losers Weepers

Greetings, Gentle Reader!

This month W3 is all about Summer Vacation. Ah, summer, sun, and surf. There's nothing better than sitting on a blanket with a book, staring out at the waves, and hoping to see a dolphin or two. Grab a patch of sand and join me, won't you?

Wait! Look over there. Something's  bobbing on the waves, just beyond the farthest breaker. Do you see it? Is it just another swell? Or my imagination?

There! A little to the right. A dark shape that doesn't look like water, or a bird, or a dolphin even. Drats! Gone again! Was that a seal?

Selkies

Do not cry into the sea, lassie

Let not your tears meet the waves.

For should the water of your eyes

Meet the waters of the sea

A selkie man will be called to thee.

Selkies are seal shapeshifters, most commonly said to live off the coast of the Orkney Islands and Shetland in Scotland and Co. Donegal in Ireland. The word, "selkie," is old Scots meaning seal, the Irish name is "roan." Similar creatures appear in other coastal mythologies, but let's stay with this, shall we?

When Selkies shed their skins, they transform into beautiful men and women. Beautiful and seductive. And because they always return to the sea, any human who falls under their spell is left bereft. However, should someone find the Selkie's skin and hide it, the Selkie must remain on land with that person until the skin is returned, or they find it.

Stories tell of Selkie women whose skins are taken and hidden by fishermen. The captured Selkie women take the role of wives who live with their fishermen husbands quite docilely, bearing children and minding their homes. However, their hearts truly belong to their sea home and they will never be happy trapped on land. Inevitably in these stories, when the skin is returned or found (which it always is), the Selkie leaves never to be seen again.

The Selkie males were said to be quite handsome and seductive. They are also said to raise storms and overturn boats in retaliation for murdered seals. For some reason, there are fewer stories of captured males. Mostly, the males are blamed for unfaithful wives. The males often came from the sea in search of unsatisfied women and any human woman wishing to call one to her can do so by performing a simple ritual.

At high tide, she should make her way to the shore, where she had to shed seven tears into the sea. – Orkneyjar, The Heritage of the Orkney Islands

The sad and curious thought that someone would be so obsessed with their Selkie lover that they would resort to trapping them to keep them was the inspiration for "By Tears Bound," a short story I wrote and was published by Membra Disjecta in 2008. The short piece of verse above was the first stanza of a "song" I created for the story and I incorporated the "seven tears ritual" as a key part in the plot.

There is also a twist on the legends where some Selkies will lure humans into the sea, never to return.

So, my best advice, never accept a seal-skin coat without asking where it came from. Then again, if the selkie is as attractive as they claim, then you might want to keep it, for a little while. I just advise you not to become too attached to either of them. The Selkies always seem to regain their skin somehow.

Do not cry into the sea, lassie

Let not your tears meet the waves.

For should the water of your eyes

Meet the waters of the sea

A selkie man will steal your heart from thee.

Finders keepers, loser weepers. Until next month, Denise Golinowski

My sweet fantasy romance, The Festival of the Flowers: The Courtesan and The Scholar is available as an ebook from the Wild Rose Press. You can check it out here.

Beam me up, Scottie! Please!

I’ve always been intrigued by the moon. Maybe my fascination comes from one too many viewings (at too young an age) of reruns of Lon Cheney’s The Wolfman. I remember being petrified that I’d stumble across a wolfman in my own neighborhood, some poor, tormented soul who’d lost his mind and was bent on taking my life! (Okay, so even then my imagination got the better of me.)

Like most people, I’d heard the stories about strange behavior taking place around the full moon, and like most people, I never believed them. Then I started a job in a local media outlet that puts me in direct and daily contact with the public. I quickly realized that there would be days that would stretch the limits of my patience, days where people would exhibit strange behavior (stranger than usual) – cranky, mean, downright miserable complaints about things completely out of anyone's control.  Or sometimes just behavior that makes me shake my head and wonder why people think the way they do.

At first I attributed these odd periodic incidents to simple chance, until one day, in the midst of one such episode, I threw up my hands and said, “What is going on today?! This is crazy!” The response to me from a veteran? “It’s a full moon,” as if that explained it all.

I laughed to myself and quietly pitied the poor sucker who actually bought that theory. Still, never one to discount the voice of experience, I began to pay attention. Now, when people’s behavior is more bizarre than usual, I look at the lunar calendar, and nod in understanding.

This month, we celebrating all things summer vacation-y, so I’ll share a goofy little thing that happened to me last week.

The full moon appeared on July 3^rd, just as we were preparing coverage of our nation’s birthday, fielding lots of questions about fireworks and holiday closings. All routine, all to be expected.

Until I picked up the phone around 10 that morning. I answered with my usual: “Good morning, this is Leah. How can I  help you?”

The caller responded with a tone that put me on alert, her voice crisp and full of an authority that she at least believed she had. “I need the number to CNN,” she said, as if it were a perfectly reasonable request. (I don’t work for CNN. And I’m not in Atlanta. Or Georgia.) Seemed she wanted to check on what fireworks the network would be broadcasting.

Normally I try to help people, figuring it takes longer to turn requests away than it does to just handle them, when I can.  So I said, “We’re not affiliated with CNN, but I’ll be happy to look them up for you.”

When I relayed the phone number to her, she said, “What’s the 4-0-4 number you said?”

I looked at the screen where I’d Googled CNN’s contact page. “That’s their area code. They’re in Atlanta. Georgia.”

“Oh.”  She paused, apparently thinking for a moment, then said, “ Patch me through.”

That stopped me, and I actually shook my head, wondering if I’d heard her correctly. “Patch you through?” I said. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You know, transfer me. To CNN.”

Now I was trying not to laugh, because she was so obviously serious. “I’m sorry, ma’am. This isn’t the phone company. I can’t transfer you.” (Actually, I’m not even sure they can these days!)

I could tell from the loud sigh that huffed across the transmission that I’d annoyed her, but she thanked me.  As I started to replace the receiver, presuming she would be well on her way to finding her answers within seconds, I heard her ask, “Do I have to dial a ‘1’ first?”

Somewhere in the back of my mind, all I could hear was the howl of that poor tormented werewolf, searching for his sanity.

_________________________
 

Leah writes stories of romance and suspense, and the enduring power of love. Please visit Leah at www.leahstjames.com.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Manly Firmness

My country and my column are going to share a birthday! And what better time to start dipping Below the Fold than the Fourth of July? My happy mission: to provide you with some ways to make this hot holiday even hotter.

Let’s talk fireworks and get this celebration started with a bang! No matter how you spend the rest of the holiday, an evening fireworks show is a necessary ingredient for a hot and happy Fourth. The patriotic music always gets me a little stirred up, and I love checking out the firemen near the perimeter, the cops working crowd control, and our hot friends in the military. (Okay. I’m a badge bunny; I admit it.) Of course, if that’s not exciting enough for you, you could always daydream about all the things a person could do in the dark, surrounded by people who are all … looking … up.

Before the fireworks, though, why not spend part of the afternoon poolside? There’s no better place to celebrate the right to bare arms! If you can get to the pool early enough, you’re sure to see some fine-looking gentlemen working out, passing smoothly through the water on the way to a flip turn. Poetry in motion! And if you’re lucky enough to be at the beach, you can join a pick-up volleyball game and get even closer to the action. Now that’s my kind of gun show!

That brings us to my favorite part of the holiday: manly firmness.

Oh, get your mind out of there! Manly firmness is patriotic. It’s in the Declaration of Independence, in the fifth one of those bullet points. That’s right – it’s in the same document as the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, some of us (like me) would argue that one concept leads to the other and back again. Since manly firmness is one of the principles this nation’s based on, it is our patriotic duty to celebrate it, in its many wonderful forms. So while you’re heading from the beach to the pool, or wherever your holiday takes you, be sure to thank your hot male friends for being part of what makes our country great. Ask your favorites to take their shirts off. You know, for the country. Then get ready for those fireworks!

**Here’s a big, thank-you hug for all my hot military friends, male and female, from Below the Fold! Many thanks for doing what you do, so I can do what I do.

Alexa Day celebrates diversity -- another one of this nation's fine, fundamental principles -- with her special blend of interracial erotica and erotic romance. You can join her in the melting pot over on her blog at www.alexaday.net.