Older than Stonehenge,   the Ring of Brodegar makes an impressive landmark for miles around.  We will spend three days of our tour exploring Orkney.  
     Our Scotland visit will begin with a tour of all things Outlander.

In one week we leave for Scotland!

My heritage is Scot-Irish, so I'm looking forward to tracing my Campbell and Idol roots. I know my Campbell relatives have been in the Midwest states since the mid-1800s, but I haven't been able to trace them back further, so hopefully Scotland records will help me find when they immigrated.

And, speaking of research, Book 2 of my Ancient Magic series will be set in Scotland, and deciding on the exact site is the main purpose of this trip. The characters and plot can be written from my imagination, but an actual site visit is what "anchors" the book and gives it authenticity.

Will the story be set at the Ring of Brodgar?  With its prehistoric sun and moon temples, this is the heartland of the Neolithic North, a bleak, mysterious place that has made Orkney Island a magnet for archaeologists, historians and other researchers for decades.  We're spending three days in Orkney, including a guided tour of the archaeological excavations on the Ness of Brodgar. These sites pre-date both Stonehenge and Avebury by some 500 years.

Orkney is actually closer to Norway than to London. It's only 50 miles south of Greenland and begins where the North Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. I'm told the area feels like the end of edge of the world, and I can't wait to see it in person.

Maybe the story will journey to the Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis, a complex of megalithic stones laid out in the shape of a Celtic cross, with astronomical alignments that feature vividly in this sacred landscape. One of the stones is estimated to be three billion years old. That gives me shivers!

This landscape temple and its satellite sites makes up a lunar observatory created as an ancient power center to witness the major lunar standstill that occurs only once every 18.6 years (The next lunar standstill will take place in 2025). Two of our tour guides live in this area, so hopefully they will have many little-known tales to tell.

Or perhaps the book will originate in Iona, the home of one of the Book of Kells (circa AD 800), one of the finest illuminated manuscripts over created. When the Vikings sacked the island and its monastery in the late eighth century, the monks secreted the book off to safety in Ireland, but the rest of their entire library of knowledge went under the sea.

Iona is believed by some to be the Yew Island of the Druids, the sacred isle known as 'Tir nan Og, the land of youth, and the 'Otherworld." Such a lot of expectations to live up to!

The Inner Hebredes are separated from the Outer Hebrides by the Minch, a treacherous strait of water on the northwest coast. Famous supernatural inhabitants, called the Blue Men, are said to guard the strait. Something like 'mermen', the blue men tribe live in deep underwater caves and swim alongside ships passing the Sound of Shiant, luring sailors into the sea and creating storms to wreck ships. Some say they are fallen angels. I say they sound like the perfect subjects for a short story between novels!

I'll be posting musings and pictures of our Scotland travels for the next three weeks. I hope you will join me to learn more about our travels through Sacred Scotland.
 

Cheryl Elliot Wilson

When I tell other friends stories about Cheryl (we all tell stories about our life-long friends, right?), "lake eggs" always come up.

For years, my parents owned a cabin on the Lake of the Ozarks. Because they were amazing parents, they let me invite gobs of my friends down for weekends of boating, water skiing, card playing, sunbathing, puzzles, reading, walks, and, best of all, food. 

Everyone attending would pair up and furnish all the groceries for one meal. The meals were epic, especially dinners after a long day on the water. I wish I had a picture of their long, drop-leaf table, situated in front of the double windows to catch the breeze, and surrounded by a crowd of laughing, sunburned friends.

On Sunday morning, Cheryl made "lake eggs," scrambled eggs with anything and everything that was left over from the previous meals. We often had the usual additions--onion, peppers, cheese, steak chunks. Sometimes the fare was more exotic. I can recall pinto beans, corn, diced pork chop, eggplant, cabbage.  If we had leftover dessert, fruit or alcohol, she'd find a way to concoct a delicious side dish. Cheesecake with powdered chocolate, cinnamon and chile pepper anyone?

Cheryl had a knack for cooking  wholesome meals, from scratch, and in  large quantities. Her first husband was an actor in a traveling theatre troupe, and she was--you guessed it--the camp cook. The husband didn't last (he was the only one of three I didn't meet during our 30-year friendship), but her love of cooking did.

Honey, you couldn't water ski, but you went out in the boat with us every time and tried. You disliked snow skiing too, but you went on every trip with the gang, bless your heart. Even when I moved away, you came out to Arizona for my 60th birthday.

You shared your daughter with us for her entire youth (hi Christy!), and you loved my kids like your own. And you were never, ever, too busy or too tired to lend me your ear and a tight, for-real hug when I needed it.

Plus, you got up EARLY at the lake to make breakfast and let the rest of us sleep in.
I raise my fork for you in love, girl. Miss you so hard.

I have had the pleasure of listening to Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, speak twice in the last two weeks.

As the featured speaker at the Desert Dreams conference, she gave us the insider view on how the Outlander series was created, how she feels about Jamie Frasier (you'll have to wait until next week for this tidbit, sorry!), and some harsh realities on cutting for time on a TV series.

Yes, I totally fan-girled and had her sign my book.

My summer is going to be mind-blowing busy, but in a positive way.

Every year, when the temperatures in Phoenix begin to inch over the 100 degree mark, my husband and I flee to Northern Arizona. In mid-May we take our tribe of dogs, cats, plants, and sometimes our son, and move into our cabin in Munds Park, a tiny alpine town thirty minutes south of Flagstaff. The 6800' altitude keeps the thermometer at 80 to 90-degrees max--low enough to hike the national forest in our backyard every morning, and sleep with the windows open at night when it cools down.

Unfortunately, I won't get much cabin time this summer.

First up is Phoenix ComiCon, May 25-28. I'll be there every day in the Wikked Writers booths (we have AA 1300-1330). Arizona friends, the lineup this year is spectacular. I'm going to find a way to sneak out to see Jim Butcher, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Terry Brooks, and maybe play a little Quidditch.

Author Jim Butcher writes the Dresden Files series with "Wizard For Hire" Harry Dresden. Must reads for all paranormal and fantasy fans!

Plus, Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, is a guest speaker. This is the perfect time to visit with her before I head off to Scotland to see all the sites from her series in person. If you've read her books or seen the Starz mini-series, I'm sure you love her characters Jamie Frasier and Claire Randall Frasier.

Paul and I are taking an Outlander tour to start our vacation in Scotland (July), so I'm going to re-read the series before we leave (and probably take one book with me on vacation since it looks like laptops and other electronics will no longer be allowed on planes (damn!).

Right on the heels of ComiCon, I'll be participating in the Desert Dreams Writers Conference. Held in Phoenix June 1-4, the conference includes "Meet The Authors" speed-dating style, so you can decide which authors to visit with at break-out sessions, and also who you'd like to sit with at dinner. It's a lot of fun and I encourage you to go to get your tickets now. I'm also excited about this one because I'm a finalist in the Diamonds in the Desert contest and winners will be announced at the conference dinner.

So, it looks like my time at the cabin will consist of three weeks in June, then home to the Valley of the Sun to figure out how to pack for a 15-day tour where we stay in a different place every other day. If you've done such a vacation tour...HELP!

While we were in Mexico last week, I was reminded again, first-hand, of the "have" and  "have not countries we tend to take for granted in the United States.

Monarch butterflies enjoy the warmth near their overwintering colony in Michoacan, Mexico.

Monarch butterflies return year after year to the same swath of forest in central Mexico, to pass the cool winter months clustered together on evergreen trees.

Mexico also has large deposits of silver, copper, salt, iron, manganese, sulfur, phosphate, zinc, mercury, gold and gypsum.

And then there's the oil.

Until recently, petroleum was the country's single most valuable mineral resource. For a decade, Mexico was one of the elite oil producers in the world, the fourth largest in the Western Hemisphere behind the United States, Canada and Venezuela.

From 1979 to 2007, Mexico produced most of its oil from the supergiant Cantarell Field, which used to be the second-biggest oil field in the world by production.

And, until last year, the state-owned company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) had exclusive rights over all oil production in Mexico.

But annual production at Cantarell Field had dropped or failed to increase each year since 2004, and Pemex didn't have the financial or technical skill to exploit the remaining deep water reserves on its own.
 
So Pemex opened parcels to bid last December, and the international oil industry responded. Investors have agreed to pay billions of dollars to the Mexican government for rights to drill in the country’s portions of the Gulf of Mexico.

The auctions were the result of Mexico instituting energy reform legislation in 2013 and 2014, which ended the 75-year-old monopoly of Pemex and opened the country to foreign investment for oil exploration, production, pipeline construction and other energy ventures. The effort was viewed as the only way to end years of declining production.

“This is a vote of confidence that the energy reform is moving forward and for the geological potential of the Mexican Gulf deep waters,” said Jorge R. Piñon, former president of Amoco Oil Latin America and now an analyst at the University of Texas at Austin.

The government awarded eight separate blocks of offshore territory to companies including Total of France and Exxon Mobil and Chevron of the United States, which all already have a strong presence in the Gulf of Mexico and can therefore take advantage of existing service crews and pipelines they use in Gulf waters.

The most significant new entry may be by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or Cnooc, which won two blocks in the auction. Cnooc also has a strong presence in Latin America, and could now become a big player in Mexico as well.

The auction provides a rare moment of positive news in a gloomy period for Mexico. The peso has been battered by concern that the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump will renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is the foundation of Mexico’s manufacturing exports. Mexico is not a member of OPEC.

Across Mexico, entire regions are positioning themselves for what they believe will be a major makeover.

Mexican authorities hope that bringing in foreign energy companies will improve security by offering jobs to people who might otherwise work for the cartels.

“The best way to counterattack organized crime is by generating jobs in areas that are heavily influenced by criminals,” said one former Mexican ambassador.   

Raúl Garcîa, 25, is an example of such a recruit. He said he once worked as a lookout for a cartel in Nuevo Laredo, earning about $200 a week, and thought of taking work as a hitman to double his pay. Then he heard of the Eagle Ford oil in south Texas. Now he earns about $1,000 a week as an oil field worker and shares a room with four buddies in a “man camp.” He sends much of his earnings to his wife and two boys back in Mexico.
“I hope someday I can go back and share my expertise,” he said. “That’s my dream.”

When it comes to illegal immigration, it seems clear that people from Mexico and Central America will continue to cross the border into the United States until the economies in their own homelands can provide them with employment that compensates them sufficiently to feed their families, and educate their children.

Thousands of miles of fencing will not change either of these facts.

Deportation does not work, either, they just come back. University of California at San Diego immigration expert Wayne Cornelius knows both tactics are futile. His recent study indicates that 97% of the people who try to cross the border eventually succeed, despite all the obstacles. “If they don’t succeed on the first try, they almost certainly will succeed on the second or the third try,” says Cornelius.

“Unless you can stop poverty or hunger, it will never stop, because people will always want to help their families. Doesn’t matter how tall the wall is, they will just dig a hole then."

The money sent back to Mexico by Mexicans living in the U.S. topped $26 billion in 2016.  In 2015, those remittances totaled 2.3 percent of the country’s GDP.

In fact, Forbes reports that the money sent from the U.S. to Mexico by migrants, “replaced oil revenues as Mexico’s number one source of foreign income” in late 2015.

Will an infusion of new money into Mexico's flagging oil industry be enough to improve life for the average family in Mexico? And, if the standard of living does improve, will it improve enough to slow the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States? 

The next few years will tell. In the meantime, I hope President Trump and his advisors will look carefully at our neighbors to the south, and not let knee-jerk decisions upset the delicate balance from potential improvement to total chaos.
 

The hubs and I have been friends of the groom and his family since he attended grade school with my son, so there was a lot of reminiscing and "remember when…?" teasing mixed in with the hugs and well-wishes.

I also had an opportunity to study the faces in attendance. Some married for 25 years. Some divorced and brought uneasily back together for the occasion. (You did it with grace, by the way!) Some with new families. And, because the bride and groom are young, there were several unmarried couples.

But somehow, in all the conversation, I neglected to give the newlyweds a blessing. So here, Ian and Marissa (with one "R") are my heartfelt wishes for you both.

Think of your marriage as your Tree of Life.

It is anchored, deeply rooted to the community of friends who witnessed the joining of your lives.

May you both branch out to form new friends, and intertwine them into your relationship as a couple, weaving new alliances.

May those friends cause new interests to bud, and your respective talents to grow.

I invoke the Goddess of Life, by these roots, branches, and buds, and I ask her to continually seed your love to create love anew.

Blessed Be.  

If you want to attract Beltane love into your life, here's an attracting oil recipe.
Love Oil
Mix one ounce Almond oil or vegetable glycerin with the following essential oils:

• 4 drops rose
• 3 drops apple
• 2 drops jasmine
• 1 drop lavender
  Apply the finished blend to your heart chakra and to the chakra area just above the genitals to attract love.
   
  

Nature is sacred.

Right. Witchy lesson from year one. But sometimes it's hard to remember to get off the cellphone and laptop for a few hours, and go worship Mother Gaia.

Lucky for me, my husband keeps me grounded. He's not pagan, but he is a Missouri farm boy from way back.

One early spring morning I came into the kitchen, and he was all happy and bouncy. "What?" I turn to pour my coffee, and there they are, lined up like little paper soldiers on the breakfast bar. His precious vegetable seeds have arrived.

I take my coffee cup outside and he marches me around the newly-turned earth in my nightgown. "I'm going to try the tomatoes someplace different this year," he announces, inserting seed packages in the ground as markers. Early Girls Heirloom, Better Boy, Sweet One Hundred.

I run my fingers through the rich soil, and already I can see slices of bright red tomatoes, waiting to be added to the crisp bacon slices laying on the open-faced sandwich. I'll use the blue plates, they make such a pretty contrast….

Paul has already walked away, still talking. "I potted the herb plants earlier, before you got up."

He's left me kneeling in the dirt in my nightgown, and is now standing by a neat row of ceramic pots assembled on the patio table. "Look." He points at a pot on the end, and I come over to look, brushing the dirt off my knees. "I found some more white sage."

"Hello, you little ceremony in a pot," I murmur to the thin plant. "We'll take you up to the cabin to live with your older sisters. You'll like the cooler weather there."
"Oh!" He picks up another pot. "I also got you some patchouli."
I smile. He's pagan, he's just not interested in labels.
 
Gardens offer us a perfect opportunity to reconnect and remember our place in the natural world. 

Instead of approaching gardening as many modern suburbanites do – a way to tame and dominate their little part of the planet, our family sees it as a partnership with Nature.
We respect the earth, water, insects and animals. We buy or cultivate seeds and make our own compost. I aim to communicate with the plants, birds and insects in our garden, and listen for any messages they may have for us. (Well, except for the scorpions. They have spoken – and twice I've been stung. They're mean, and I want nothing more to do with them. But that's a story for another post.)

We didn't do it this year (it warmed up too early), but most years we plant in rhythm with the cycles of the moon. I've also printed chalk symbols on the garden walls to bless it. Hung wind chimes in the mesquite tree over the garden, so the plants can enjoy the music on balmy summer nights. Spread jeweled stones along the path down the center. Next I think I'll do simple altars at the four directions: A stone cairn in the north, bird bath in the east, and so on.

You might choose to ignore the clock time and water your garden when the sun hits a certain position in the sky. What fun! By opening your garden experience to nature's input, you can closer witness her cycles.

Everything you do--picking out seeds and planting, thinning and weeding, and finally harvesting—is a ritual dance with Mother Nature.

When we recognize that we are co-creators with the earth and the natural world, our relationship with the environment begins to change. We no longer feel the need to control all the circumstances around us and can relish the perfection in which we share.Are you thinking of planting a garden? Vegetable, herb or flower?
I'll leave you, then, with a blessing for your sacred space:

"I call to the Spirits of Nature, the Great Mother and Father.

Assist me now, by the powers of earth, air, fire and water.

Merge your magic with mine, circle around this place.

As we now celebrate the creation of a sacred garden space."

Blessed be, Gardeners.
 

I've been watching a comedy on Netflix called No Tomorrow. It started out on the CW, but unfortunately it wasn't renewed. The premise: This guy, Xavier, is convinced an asteroid is going to impact the earth in eight months, wiping us out.  So he quits his job and writes a "bucket list" of things he wants to do during his last days with his friend Evie.

When I turned 60, I experienced the same morbid feeling of "last days" and started my own bucket list. Now, It makes me smile every time I cross something off. Here's the list:

1. Write & publish my first novel (Done! Song of the Ancients, 2015)
2. Earn $1,000 from book and apply for PAN status RWA (Done! 2016)
3. Write a suspense novel (working – completed draft August)
4. Write next novel in the paranormal series (starting August)
5. Get a bigger publisher. Maybe an agent also.
6. Learn to snowshoe
7. Learn to cross country ski
8. Run a 10k race as a senior
9. Learn to Tango-Salsa-Mambo
10. Back country hike Yosemite
11. Buy a cabin in the woods (Done! We spend our summers there)
12. Set up a home office and library in my home (Done!)
13. Go through a Croning ceremony
14. Make a quilt (well, actually finish one!)
15. Attend oldest son's wedding with his new love. (Almost. He just got engaged last week!)
16. Become a grandma (done)
17. Witness youngest son fall in love and get married.
18. Take great vacations for book research in Hawaii, Scotland, Wales, Alaska, Newfoundland, Iceland, Central America (Have Scotland booked for July!)
19. Visit an active volcano
20. Participate in a shamanic journey ceremony

Now it's your turn.  Leave YOUR bucket list in this blog's comment section. From the comments here and on my group site, paranormalromantics.com,
I will draw a random name for a digital copy of my paranormal novel, Song of the Ancients.
 
The only limitation is your imagination. Here's your chance to share your dreams!
 

 
Full disclosure: I did not get through all the cleaning chores listed here last week. Did you?

But I vacuumed the entire house, both floors. Completed the magickal sweeping and mopping (that oil infusion combo in the mop water is yummy! And I prepared my lemon-and-orange-infused vinegar to use next time. My husband and son also picked all the lemons off our tree, and Paul sliced and vacuum-bagged them in the freezer, so we will have fresh lemon in our water and tea all summer. Yum.

In addition to the thorough spring-cleaning of our home of 20 years, I'm also attempting to pare down and de-clutter. It's a daunting task, so I'm concentrating on only three clutter categories:

1. This is the hardest category for me because I absolutely love books. But I don't like to re-read them, with a few notable exceptions, like the Harry Potter series. So why keep them all?
    
   To give up my cherished friends, I had to shift my mindset from eliminating to sharing. In that new mindset, I was able to take four boxes of books to the used bookstores in town. The move also prompted me to fill out paperwork and apply to have my own book, Song of the Ancients, accepted at Changing Hands.
   

Now, this chore has become fun! I selected a few old books to re-purpose. I plan to "plant" them in my poison garden at our cabin, when I finish it this summer. This book, an old Atlas of the Worlds, I acquired from the La Posada hotel in their "leave a book, take a book" shelves. I left a copy of my own novel in
exchange, plus a copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
 










I stole the poison garden books idea from Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants. In her NY Times interview, she talked about her own poison garden. The books there are half-buried, or nailed to shelves so their pages turn in the breeze. Autopsy for an Empire, with its dried-blood-colored jacket, is planted beside the hellebore, which the Greeks used to poison the water of their enemies.

"I wanted the sense that the book I'm writing is coming out of the ground," she explained. I loved that image.
 

Amy Stewart's Hellebore

Back in the upstairs library, I've grouped my "To Read" books together—they take up an entire bookcase! I've myself I can only buy bring in a new book if I read and release one from my shelf.
 
 We've filled the shredder a dozen times with old tax files, receipts, out-of-date instruction pamphlets, appliance warranties, greeting cards.  I also sorted through our photographs and eliminated the duplicates, unflattering or boring shots. There were so many! Paul plans to scan many more, but I won't hold my breath.< > Another really tough chore. But now it's done. The boxes and bags are neatly stacked and labeled by donation site in the garage. One whole closet of my good work suits for a charity that specializes in outfitting women for job interviews. A stack of boxes for The Clothes House, which gives clothes to the homeless, and also launders their clothes for free, so they won't just be tossed when soiled. Another charity that has a free store for families who live in my part of Chandler.  

1. Once those boxes and bags are gone—it'll take me about another week to make the deliveries—we will have 1 ½ bays of our garage open. Wow! We'll have room to park a car! Oh, and to store the half-dozen additional boxes of more expensive things, like crystal and collectibles we've inherited from both sets of parents, but that our sons have said they don't want.
    
   So, the cleaning and decluttering saga is progressing, but not finished.
    Until next week, keep those brooms and dustpans busy!