Mrs. Teabody Recommends an Adventure

"The night has been unruly."

Good Morning, Gentle Reader! A little isosceles triangle of daylight peeps through the ominous gray cloud cover just now, and if one can believe the weather prognosticators, today will grow warmer and less unruly.  Mrs. Teabody trusts her mention of wolverines yesterday was not the source of a restless night for anyone? Mrs. Teabody enjoyed a refreshing slumber and had planned to discuss all the new organic, single garden teas that have arrived at Tickle Your Fancy. Teatulia is a region of Bangledesh where these extraordinary teas are grown and harvested and thus the name. Mrs. Teabody is working her way through their "canon" and  is happy to award  high marks for both Lemongrass  and Peppermint herbal infusion. There is so very much to tell you, Gentle Reader, but Mrs. Teabody shall reserve the discussion for another day. When you are not so distracted.

Mrs. Teabody thinks you are ripe to plan an adventure, Gentle Reader, and she hopes the next few paragraphs inspire you to do so.  Many, many years ago -- twenty-three to be precise - - Mrs. Teabody was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to study Shakespeare "Text and Theatre"with a renowned scholar in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England  for six weeks with fourteen other selected high school English teachers from across the United States. A few short months later, Mrs. Teabody found herself traveling solo on a British Airways flight to London. As this was long before the gadgetry that took the edge off any new, thrilling experience, every turn was full of "pith and moment." With two huge suitcases bursting with books and clothing safely stowed elsewhere on the plane, Mrs. Teabody was open to every new airborne experience. Airline travel was quite a wonderful thing then: highballs and/or cocktails, a  perfectly acceptable meal with wine, and cognac offered with a wedge of cheese at meal's end. Soothing music. Most assuredly a living pilot at the helm. Lovely. Thrilling.

In spite of the fact it was an overnight flight, Mrs. Teabody remained on full alert throughout surviving immigration wearing a smile so wide it hurt. After retrieving her bags, passing through customs, and  asking fewer than one dozen people for assistance, she found herself bumping along the motorway on a Flightlink motor coach that would drop her some two hours later at a "Little Chef" where she would be met by her professor's assistant and driven to her final destination, Ambleside Guest House, a Bed and Breakfast. With what sense of wonder did Mrs. Teabody meet each  new experience! Words on paper, place names coming to life, filling in some loose conjecture. " O brave new world! That has such people in it!" Not one jot of irony intended!

Spending six weeks in Stratford- upon-Avon was Mrs. Teabody's first great adventure as a fully-fledged adult, and she never looks back on that time without recalling her now far-flung friends who added so much to her life then and who continue to do so all these years later: Lady Naomi in Melbourne, her first new friend who said on the first exploratory run after being knocked about the sidewalk by one of the three million visitors who come to Stratford each year, "Tell me THAT person knows anything about Shakespeare and I'll eat my hat." Duchess Nancy in Phoenix who lent an air of surprise and merriment to every occasion, whose mother wit could scarcely be contained most days, and Lady Linda in San Clemente with whom Mrs. Teabody shared a small, fourth-story bedroom for six weeks, whose intelligence and beauty is matched only by her kindness and sense of humor. Mrs. Teabody cannot imagine her life without them, but she would never have met them had it not been for that first great adventure.

A  resident Carolina wren sits just outside the window trilling its magical song. Mr. Teabody often says it would come inside for a visit if he would merely open a door, but perhaps the wren is simply reminding those trapped inside that the wide world beckons. And planning for an adventure is no more expensive than trying on a designer dress. And ever so much more fun, Gentle Reader. Open a door.

Ta for now!