Samhain's Sirens Day 3, October 3

Hello, friends! We're on Day 3 of our October Celebration, and it's been so much fun to do this with you so far!

Remember, if you have any questions, Serena is always around to help you out. Send her an email or use the contact form at the top of the page.

The winners of yesterday's giveaways are announced at the bottom of the page. Sadly, someone who could have won had to be disqualified because he/she did not leave us a valid email address either in email or through the comments section. We cannot stress enough that by law, we must notify you in email that you are a winner. Therefore, to qualify (even if you're Canadian), we have to have an email address for you.  Ok, now that we have that straight (hopefully), we'll move on to the fun!

We'll start you off with some music today to get you in the mood, thanks to Kestril Trueseeker, our Music Siren :)

Today, we honor the lovely Billie Holiday:

Don't forget to check out our Sirens YouTube Channel for more musical magic!

Today's blog comes to us from the lovely author, Samantha Curtin, who blogs at "Chronicles of An Anthropology Nerd". 

A little about Sam:

Samantha (Sam) Curtin is a Geospatial Information Science Graduate Student at University of Maryland and a Penn State Alum. She has a passion for geospatial science, anthropology, technology, religion, and writing. Sam currently lives in Columbia, MD where she works for a Government Contracting Firm writing proposals for upcoming contracts. Her first books "Dark Cell" and "Deal with the Devil" are now available on Amazon.com through the Kindle Store. Both are published through her publishing company “Behind the Curtin Publications.” Her blog: Chronicles of an Anthropology Nerd features her take on a variety of anthropological and technical topics.

And now, on to her contribution!

Spirit Meetups: Volume Two 

As the veil thins around this time of year the spirits really start kicking up the activity. For me, they tend to be active all year round. I’ve been known to walk into a place that rarely has much activity and for it to start up out of the blue. My Dad stopped letting me come to the basements he worked in years ago because he was tired of having to deal with spirits. I’ve been given different reasons for my “ability” to draw out spirits. John Zaffis (of Haunted Collector fame) told me that spirits seem really comfortable around me whereas my mom claims that every woman on her side of the family has some sort of physic ability. Whatever the case it is just part of my life and I have learned to embrace it.

For those of you who know me, you know that my fiancé travels to India about 4-5 times a year. This leaves me to be in the apartment alone for weeks on end. The fact is though, I’m never really alone. In addition to the spirits that tend to pop up around me when I go places, I have what appears to be my own protection spirit. She and I communicate in a number of ways. When Grant’s gone she tends to be bolder: moving things, touching me, etc. When Grant’s here she’s a little more tactful and we mainly communicate by pendulum (I prefer it to Spirit Boards).

My protection spirit also alerts me when there are bad spirits around. In my post last year I talked about an encounter with an entity that I could only describe as pure darkness. I’m still convinced that she was there protecting me during that encounter. Since that moment though I haven’t encountered too many dark spirits mostly they just want someone to know they’re there.

The one spirit besides my protection one that I come in contact with the most is a little boy who hangs out around a bridge near my house. Whenever I drive across the bridge at night I see him down by the water. Twice he even appeared in the backseat of my car. Upon researching any deaths on that bridge I came up with nothing. Still it’s a treacherous one lane bridge so I wouldn’t be surprised if many spirits hung out there.

In the past year I think the most striking of my encounters was the apparition of a young girl in the basement of my Grandparent’s church. I’ve shared this story already on my personal blog but I think it’s worth sharing here as well:

The bathrooms of the church are in the basement and are kind of creepy all by themselves. Last night they were even more so. I had finished using the bathroom and was washing my hands when a coldness settled around me. Usually it wouldn't be that odd for the basement to be cool but just moments before it had been humid and sticky; I almost welcomed the coldness until the next thing happened. As I leaned up from washing my hands I saw someone dart behind me but I felt no movement. The bathroom is pretty cramped so if someone was there they would've brushed against me.

This figure went into the last stall and I heard a bang as the door shut. I dried my hands off and slowly crept down to the stall looking beneath to see if there was anyone. I saw nothing so I just shrugged it off and started to leave. Then the door banged back open, hitting the old radiator, and I looked to see a dark figure standing parallel to the open door. I couldn't tell if it was a girl or a boy as the features weren't very defined and the hair was shoulder length. The figure moved forward and just stared at the wall. I stood there not moving, just watching as the figure kind of teetered on the spot.

In my mind I was reminded of the scene in The Ring 2 when Samara stood by the wall scratching the paint off. This caused me to half expect the figure to turn and make some creepy face at me. She (I'm assuming it was the girl) turned around to face the wall that the radiator was at and then promptly vanished. I walked over to where she had been and peered inside the stall. There was nothing and that chill in the air was gone, replaced by the sticky air.

Sadness washed over me during the encounter and only left after I climbed the steps back up to the fellowship hall. Whoever that child was seemed in a lot of pain which is something I don't remember those years ago when I had encountered the girl in the basement hallway.

Come like Samantha's author page on Facebook!

Kate’s Slow Cooker Bacon- Potato Soup



 *Got this from my daughter and it’s probably one of the best and easy soups I've had!

 1 (5 lb bag) potatoes..cut into small cubes
1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled.  ½ goes in the slow cooker, ½ save as a topper
3 (14.5oz) cans chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sour cream

Put all ingredients in crock-pot and cook for 8-10 hours on low.

*Great topped with shredded cheddar cheese, bacon crumbles and crackers!


Blessings
Autumn

This Giveaway comes from Tess Muin at A Witch By Any Other Name.

A little about Tess:

As a mother, wife, grandmother and witch life is full already, but it would not be the same without art and that keeps me creating my own version of beauty in witchy inspired knick knacks and jewelry.  Using mixed mediums from polymer clay to stone and shell many of which originate in the Bay of Fundy I bring a little bit of the witch in me to everything I do.  You can follow my work at A Witch by any Other Name or my blog about the struggles and successes of my very “normal” everyday life at http://witchschamber.blogspot.ca/ . 

Here is Tess's Giveaway: A beautiful Yemaya candle with personally collected stones and shells. 

Valued at $30.00

Here’s how to enter:

Canadian residents, please pay close attention as by law, you have to use a different set of rules. Not to worry, we have you covered :)

How to Enter this giveaway:

You have until 6am EDT tomorrow to enter. Winner will be emailed and an announcement will be made on the blog at 9am EDT.

The drawing will take place and will be announced both in email and on the blog at 9am EDT on October 4.

YOU MUST PROVIDE A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS TO QUALIFY

1. Go to A Witch By Any Other Name Facebook Page . Find your favorite item, come back here, and tell us about it in the comment section. (1 entry)

2. Like the Facebook page for A Witch By Any Other Name. Let us know you did (1 entry)

3. Blog about this giveaway (make sure you link back here), come back and leave us a link to your blog. (1 entry)

4. Tweet about this giveaway (link to us, please), come back, and leave us a link to your tweet (1 entry)

5. Be a follower of this blog, Samhain's Sirens (1 entry)

6. Like Samhains Sirens on Facebook (1 entry)

Note: If you want your entries to count as separate entries, you must post them separately. If you post 1 comment with all of these on it, it will only count as 1 entry.

Canadian residents, by law, instead of the above, you must answer the following question to be eligible:

What is 4+1?

NOTE: YOU STILL MUST PROVIDE A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS
What's cool about being a Canadian? You automatically get 6 entries per giveaway for just answering 1 question! :)

Winner of October 2nd's Giveaway #1 from Leave Them in Stitches and Saga's Cottage:

Rebecca Powell

October 2nd's Giveaway #2 (3 winners) from Author Wendy L. Callahan:

1. Kourtney Leaf  2. Joe Beamon  3. Engie Willow

That's all for today!! Don't forget to check back tomorrow! We have crafts on Fridays and Saturdays!