Backing up the horse trailer

                           Just for LAUGHS. 

  check it out here.......
horses laughing as man backs up horse trailer

Eye of the Pharaoh Cover Release and Give away!

                 Enter to win a $10 GC or a free book 
              from award winning author Nancy Fraser 

   Will an unexpected trip to 1920's Egypt be their downfall, 

               or will an ancient guardian keep them safe?

                     What a fantastic cover for a time travel paranormal 

Here's what it's all about...

Publicist Teri Hunter has her hands full promoting Professor Joshua Cain and his new non-fiction book, The Pharaoh’s Mummy. She’s not convinced it’s even possible to turn this absent-minded, modern-day, Indiana Jones into a best-selling author.

Dr. Cain’s PhDs in archaeology and art history have prepared him for almost anything on the lecture circuit and among ancient ruins. He’s just not sure about a book tour...or the sexy publicist sent to monitor his every professional move.

When an odd request falls in their laps while in New Orleans, Josh and Teri find themselves transported to 1920’s Egypt where they must resolve an ancient curse in order to be sent home. Will the dangers facing them hinder their success and threaten their very lives? Or will help from an ancient guardian keep them on-track and safe?

Sneak Peek...
Wake up. Kick ass. Repeat.

Teri Hunter mouthed the motivational phrase she’d chosen for her personal mantra as she stepped across the threshold into the dark and musty storeroom.

A dim light shone from a glass-enclosed workroom in the far corner. Taking a tentative step forward, she faltered when the floorboards creaked beneath her feet. Something fast and furry brushed against her ankle. A shiver ran down her back, yet she fought the urge to retreat.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

This was obviously today’s obstacle. Were it not for her professional commitments and intricately organized schedule, she’d have no doubt bolted for the door and returned to the safety and illumination of the main building.

‘Sorry, but the storage area doesn’t have overhead lighting. Preservation of the antiquities. You understand.’ The dean’s words echoed in her head. To make matters worse, what little outside light there was had become nearly non-existent due to an impending thunderstorm.

Drawing a deep breath, she took a second step and then a third, winding her way past a half-dozen crates, some open, some not. To her left she heard a rustling of paper; to her right the distinct sound of footsteps.

Her apprehension grew, the hair on her forearms stood at attention. She’d barely made it halfway across the room before bumping into something large and solid. Reaching out, she laid her hand against the oversized object. Slowly, she raised her head and came face to face with the painted mask of an Egyptian noble. The chipped finish gave the death mask a deranged look.

“You come here often, big boy?”

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Fun Fact:  The idea for Eye of the Pharaoh came about following a trip to the Field Museum in Chicago. For the longest time afterward, I couldn’t get the images of ancient Egypt out of my head. Then, out of the blue, I received a gift from a relative who had passed...a gorgeous necklace fashioned like an Egyptian collar. The late relative had no way of knowing about my recent fascination with Egypt so I took it as a sign. There was obviously a story inside me begging to come out.

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/nfraserauthor@nfraserauthor 

Like most authors, Nancy Fraser began writing at an early age, usually on the walls and with crayons or, heaven forbid, permanent markers. Her love of writing often made her the English teacher’s pet, which, of course, resulted in a whole lot of teasing. Still, it was worth it.

 

Published in multiple genres, Nancy currently writes for four publishers. She has published twenty-two books in both full-length and novella format. Nancy will release her 25th book in early 2017. She is currently working on her next Rock and Roll novella and two other equally exciting projects.

When not writing (which is almost never), Nancy dotes on her five wonderful grandchildren and looks forward to traveling and reading when time permits. Nancy lives in Atlantic Canada where she enjoys the relaxed pace and colorful people.

The Shoebill Crane, Cute or Creepy?

  The Shoebill, also known as the Whale-head stork, was only classified in the 19th century when some skins were brought to Europe. It was not until years later that live specimens reached the scientific community. However, the bird was known to both ancient Egyptians and Arabs. 

Although generally ranked with storks, the bird has recently been considered to be more closely related to pelicans and herons, as confirmed by DNA studies.

The Shoebill is normally silent, but they perform bill-clattering displays at the nest. When engaging in these displays, adult birds have also been noted to utter a cow-like moo as well as high-pitched whines. Both nestlings and adults engage in bill-clattering during the nesting season as a means of communication. When young are begging for food, they call out with a sound uncannily like human hiccups

click here for...Shoebill sounds


According to Nicholas Lund...they hunt like total bosses of the swamp. The Shoebill will stand there, motionless as a statue, and wait for some poor lungfish or baby crocodile to swim by. Then the bird will pounce forward, all five feet of it, with its massive bill wide open, engulfing its target along with water, mud, vegetation, and probably any other hapless fish minding their own business. Clamping down on its prey, the bird will start to swing its massive head back and forth, tipping out whatever stuff it doesn’t want to eat. 

Mr. Lund also States, the birds poop on their legs. Apparently this keeps them cool. Warm blood passing through the legs is used to evaporate the liquid waste, resulting in cooler blood circulating through the stork. The science is fascinating, but when you get right down to it, this already mean-looking bird with a huge, clattering death bill now also has poop legs.

It lives in tropical east Africa in large swamps from Sudan to Zambia.




The Shoebill is a tall bird, with a typical height range of 43 to 55 inches, with some specimens reaching as much as 60 in, that's 5 feet tall! For their size, they surprisingly weigh only up to 15 lbs. The wings are broad, and up to nearly a yard wide, well-adapted to soaring.
                                 

              

                      Cute or creepy, you decide.

Thank you Wikipedia, and Nicholas Lund @ Audubon News

Why were barns painted red?

    Centuries ago, European farmers would seal the wood on their barns with a tawny-colored oil derived from the seed of the flax plant. They would paint their barns with this linseed-oil mixture, often consisting of additions such as milk and lime. The combination produced a long-lasting paint that dried and hardened quickly. 
      
    Still in use, we have used linseed-oil and turpentine on many a wood fence. But where does the red come from?

   In the Old Country, "barn red" was more of a burnt-orange color not the bright, fire-engine red that we often see today. As to how the oil mixture became traditionally red, there are two predominant theories:

   One theory, which I could have gone a lifetime without knowing, is that wealthy farmers added blood from a recent slaughter to the oil mixture. As the paint dried, it turned from a bright red to a darker, burnt red.

   The other more likely theory is that farmers added ferrous oxide, otherwise known as rust, to the oil mixture. Rust was plentiful on farms and is a poison to many fungi, including mold and moss, which were known to grow on barns promoting wood rot.  


As European settlers crossed over to America, they brought with them the tradition of red barns. 

    Regardless of how the farmer tinted his "paint", having a red barn became the fashion. In the mid to late 1800s, as paints began to be produced with chemical pigments, red paint was the most inexpensive to buy. Red was the color of favor until whitewash became cheaper, at which point white barns began to spring up.


Today, the color of barns can vary, depending on you HOA! and often depending on how the barns are used. 

               A little country comfort with Elton John
                                            commercial skip in 3 seconds



                                          

HAGGIS: EAT IT OR PET IT?

 

 Although customarily associated with Scotland, a kind of haggis is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, ( written towards the end of the 8th Century BC) And the Ancient Romans were known to have made products of the haggis type.

   Also, the first recorded recipe in English for Haggis comes from Lancashire and not, as you may expect, Scotland. From about 1430, the Liber Cure Cocorum is written in Middle English in the dialect of North-West Lancashire, and the recipes are presented in verse form (possibly as a mnemonic device, to help the cook remember them).  

The recipe for Hagese (Haggis) reads: -

The heart of sheep, the kidneys you take,

Through the bowel naught you shall forsake,

In the turbulence made, and boiled well,

Hack all together with good parsley,

Hyssop, savory, you shall take then,

And suet of sheep take in, I teach,

With powder of pepper and eggs [a] good quantity,

And seethe it well and serve it then,

Look it is salted for good men.

In winter time when herbs been good,

Take powder of them I know indeed,

As savory, mint and thyme, quite good,

Hyssop and sage I know by the Rood.

   Popular Scottish folklore provides one theory that the dish originates from the days of the old Scottish cattle drovers. When the men left the highlands to drive their cattle to market in Edinburgh the women would prepare rations for the long journey down through the glens. They used the ingredients most readily available, and conveniently packaged them in a sheep's stomach allowing for easy transportation during the journey. 

Other speculations have been based on Scottish slaughtering practices. When a Chieftain or Laird required an animal to be slaughtered for meat (whether sheep or cattle) the workmen were allowed to keep the offal as their share.

 As a result of Robert Burns' poem Address to a Haggis of 1787, the haggis is considered the national dish of Scotland .

Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" (Scots:  turnip and potato, boiled and mashed separately), especially as the main course of a Burns supper.

Nice seeing your honest, chubby face,

Great chieftain of the sausage race!

Above them all you take your place,

                                    Belly, tripe, or links: 

                              Well are you worthy of a grace 

                           As long as my arm.

     Apparently, stuffing chopped heart, liver, and lungs into a sheep's stomach and boiling it, although convenient and ingenious, didn't appeal to everyone. So, methods of disguising it, have arisen........... 

       

 

   Regardless, of how it is prepared, it remains a much cherished tradition.

Then there is the OTHER haggis!

    A "Haggis" is a small Scottich animal with one set of legs longer than the other so that it can stand on the steep Scottish Highlands without falling over. Unfortunately this results in the poor creature only being able to circle the mountain in one direction. 

    

  

   For centuries Scotland has prided itself on the abundant numbers of Wild Haggis or Haggi but sadly these numbers are in decline. The ban on Wild Haggis hunting has come almost too late, but with

the introduction of Haggis Farms, this has cut down on the consumption of Wild Haggi. However, Poachers have been hunting the Wild Haggi and exporting them to Japan where they are made into "Scottish Sushi". 

    In an attempt to preserve the wild Haggis in it natural habitat, several sanctuaries have been set up. These are self funded by the sale of "Hagpoo". Hagpoo is the made from the droppings of the Haggis mixed with 3 other natural ingredients (Thistle sap, Scotch mist and a secret ingredient). This mixture is processed into 'bricks' and then fire treated for 3 days. Hagpoo is said to burn 3 times as hot as coal and lasts 5 times longer. 

                                    And if you believe all this,

           I think there's some swamp land for sale in Florida!

Sorry there aren't really Haggis critters. 

Review: Love On a Train by Colleen L.Donnelly

Review for Love on a Train 
              by Colleen L. Donnelly
                                

    The moment Martha noticed Raymond on the train, everything her mother warned against erupted – romantic notions, palpitating heart, the desire to write it all in a novel and tell the world. 
    Martha lived and wrote that love story until the day Raymond handed her a sketch. “Want to see a picture of the girl I plan to marry?” The penciled profile resembled Martha… But when Raymond went away, she knew. She wasn’t the girl he planned to marry. 
    David was her father’s apprentice, everything Martha’s mother said made a good husband - hardworking, no romantic tendencies, no tolerance for writing about it. Martha added a fictional happy ending to her and Raymond’s story and published it. Cleansed herself of romantic love, ready to marry David. Until a copy of her book appeared. Full of sketches, Raymond’s version of their love story, drawings that enticed her heart to beat once again.

    I really enjoyed Love on a Train. I won this book in a contest. I usually go for suspense or action romance so it was nice to try something new--a sweet love story. This book is character driven and done beautifully. Martha and Raymond are "star-crossed lovers" or at least crossed by circumstance. You'll root for them until the end. Also, the “story within the story” is woven expertly into the main drama. And wouldn’t we all be lucky to have a steadfast friend like Karen.

Visit Colleen's web  and her blog.

About the Author
    Colleen L Donnelly is the author of a Amazon #1 Bestseller in 20th Century Historical Romance "Mine to Tell" which also was the 2014 RomCon Reader's Crown Finalist in Historical Fiction. 

     Her other books include "Sonata Contineo" a self-published novel, "Asked For" a historical women's fiction novel" and her newest novel "Love on a Train" which was released February 5, 2016! 


     She was born, raised, and educated in the Midwestern United States where her scientific schooling and interests eventually led her to other parts of the country. Currently settled back into the Midwest lifestyle, she now enjoys creating characters and places based on what she has lived and seen, then putting them into tales to share.

Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Faeries

  Flower Faeries, one of my favorite wee folk, are immortalized by 

English illustrator Cicely Mary Barker. Unable to go to school as a child because of her epilepsy, she was home-schooled and spent much of her time drawing and painting. 

          

She has been likened to Beatrix Potter for the amazing botanical accuracy of the 170 original illustrations of plants and flowers amidst which her fairies dwell.                                     

Miss Barker's art education began in girlhood with correspondence courses  and instruction at the Croydon School of Art. Her earliest professional work included greeting cards and juvenile magazine illustrations, and her first book, Flower Fairies of the Spring,

was published in 1923. Similar books were published in the following decades. 

   Miss Barker’s enchanting Flower Fairies images were based on real children from Cicely’s sister’s nursery school.                                                   

A devout Anglican, she donated her artworks to Christian fundraisers and missionary organizations, and produced a few Christian-themed books such as The Children’s Book of Hymns. Her painting,

 “Out of Great Tribulation” followed in 1949.

   In 1962, Barker designed a stained glass window for St Edmund’s, Pitlake, in memory of her sister, Dorothy. This church, no longer exists. Although it is known what this window looked like, it appears to have disappeared. Now, there is a good plot point for an upcoming book!

  
 Her painting of the Christ Child, The Darling of the World Has Come, was purchased by Queen Mary.

 

 Miss Barker claimed to paint instinctively and rejected artistic theories. She died in 1973, at the age of 77, and although she published Flower Fairy books with spring, summer, and autumn themes, it wasn't until 1985 that a winter collection was assembled from her remaining work and published posthumously.

 Whichever type of faerie strikes your fancy, keep an eye out for them this summer. You might even leave them a treat during the full moon. Just like us, they love to eat tasty snacks. And it tends to make them more benevolent and less mischievous.