Mrs. Teabody Greets the Day

Good Morning, Gentle Reader!  Mrs. Teabody is far from her usual amiable state as she has been victimized once again by technology and the morning's carefully constructed  and lengthy missive to you is  languishing somewhere in cyber Never-Never Land, finding Mrs. Teabody back in the starting blocks, older, wiser, but far from being cleansed. More like being fleeced, truth to tell. By her own hands, at that. Attend. If, like Mrs. Teabody, a beach holiday is part of your future plans, and if, like Mrs. Teabody, your figure shows some want of "slimming," perhaps you have heard of Dr. Oz's "Two-Day Wonder Cleanse." Dr. Oz is the engaging gent who will speak to any and all embarrassing questions about the functions of the human body. Mrs. Teabody still rues the day when she heard the word "poop" used on national television, but today Mrs. Teabody will speak of the ethereally thin Dr. Oz and his "Wonder" cleanse. With what abandon di

Hola! Bon Jour! Hello! Mrs. Teabody is  fully awake and a force to be reckoned with today. A most satisfactory slumber insures an almost giddy sense of well being, and even though the morning sky is starless, the shortened work day assures some  happy, if thorn-filled, gardening hours in the afternoon. Isn't spring gardening the very best gardening, Gentle Reader? It is the one phase of the gardening year when one can exercise a modicum of control, host a dream of what is to come in the ensuing months unhampered by thoughts of thrips, black spot, Japanese beetles, slugs, droughts, weeds . . . Mon Dieu! Mrs. Teabody seems to be digging a bit of a hole for herself. Small joke. Do try to keep up! Mrs. Teabody wishes all gardeners a happy day ahead. However, gardening is NOT the topic du jour . Today's topic is the care and management of gift cards such as the one below. Attend. Mrs Teabody KNOWS you have dozens of thoughtful friends, Gentle Reader. How could someone as charm

Good Morning, Gentle Reader. I trust your night's slumber has brought you to physical and mental renewal as you arrive at the midpoint for the working week. An overcast sky again this morning blots out Mrs. Teabody's beloved morning SIDESHOW, but soon enough all will be light and lovely. It was just at this time of day that Mrs. Teabody found herself blundering along in her ancient motorcar wending her way to Hollidaysburg last Saturday pre-dawn, and as a native Keystoner, Mrs. Teabody was more than a little apprehensive of the early morning kamikaze deer and their patent disregard for motorways. Mrs. Teabody makes it a point to travel as often as possible during daylight hours, don't you, Gentle Reader? All sane people do. All old sane people. Unless you are simply being perverse, you know Mrs. Teabody has a little commercial establishment in the village called Tickle Your Fancy easily found on Facebook. The front of the store is devoted to the most divine jewelry, so

Good Morning, Gentle Reader. There is not one vestige of light as Mrs. Teabody begins the day's missive, but having been out of doors already with  Duchess Ming, she knows it is yet another mild day, possibly dreary as  was yesterday. In the night there was the welcome sound of rain, and no one can describe just how happy that makes the roses, now bent on leafing out quickly. Yesterday Mrs. Teabody had occasion to travel to a nearby shire, a trip made glorious - - if slightly distracting because all the blossoming trees. Of all the trees, none is more spectacular than the twin  flowering magnolias at the west-most traffic light in Mercersburg. Soaring more than twenty feet in the air with branches tilting all the way to the ground, they are a traffic-stopper as much as is the hanging traffic light. The huge "Ron Paul for President" sign at the base is a "homey" touch, but Mrs. Teabody does wish it were not so prominently displayed as it will be very difficult fo

Good Morning, Gentle Reader! The morning horizon is a long thick line of  deep blue sky resting on a weightier line of  deep blue mountains - - - perhaps a weather front? --  and the thinnest silver sickle moon imaginable shines in the pale lavender layer just above it. Quite lovely. In spite of the fact that a rose thorn is lodged deeply inside Mrs. Teabody's right thumb from yesterday's marathon pruning day and that thumb is quite sore, it does NOT stick out as suggested by the idiom: It stuck out " li ke a sore thumb ." And yet it does because Mrs. Teabody is treating it gingerly. You ARE puzzled, are you not, Gentle Reader? No worries. It - - the thorn - - shan't remain there forever, and perhaps one day you will have a sore thumb of your own and then the meaning will become clear. Or perhaps not. A maxim that Mrs. Teabody does believe is "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Mrs. Teabody never wishes to be thought of as a "dull bo

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze . . . ~ Good Morning, Gentle Reader. Did you sleep with the windows open last night because Mother Nature is so terribly confused? Or are you like the Teabodys -- hermetically sealed inside your perfectly-controlled climate oblivious to the changeability of  the world outside? Mrs. Teabody struggles with the right tack to take, but insufferably high temperatures are not Mrs. Teabody's friend. Insufferably high temperatures are not the friend of most women in Mrs. Teabody's age demographic. Whether the world was ready or not, warm weather has arrived -- at least for a time long enough to insure the death of tender eager shoots and leaves should Mother Nature change her mind. All growing things are already convinced to begin their new cycle. The fron

Every book has some real life in it. I was never pursued by an evil twin clone, but everything else in MR. MURDER was pretty much out of my own life. ~Dean Koontz ~ 'tis a rare thing indeed for Mrs. Teabody  to find herself banging about the keyboard whilst the Man in the Moon peeks over her shoulder, but last night was such a night, Gentle Reader. It was the perfect night for a most  diabolical crime. It was the perfect night for a murder . . . Attend: . . . But where are Mrs. Teabody's manners? Mon Dieu! Good Morning, Gentle Reader.  Pleasant dreams?Anyone who found trouble finding slumber last night most assuredly did not celebrate a full day of mucking about in the posie beds followed by an extra dram of Chardonnay  along with the evening repast. Once Mrs. Teabody - - with the help of Floss, the ever wayward Floss - - sorted the master bedroom with a spring cleaning to rival all spring cleanings, Mrs. Teabody ( by herself!) squired the awkward comforter to the village

"When the moon is in the Seventh House And Jupiter aligns with Mars Then peace will guide the planets, And love will steer the stars." Good Morning, Gentle Reader!  Pleasant dreams, yes? Mrs. Teabody rose earlier than usual to have a little star gazing, but with an overcast sky, that, sadly, was not possible. Gentle Reader, have you been paying attention to the glorious night sky? If not, do attend now. The first view of Venus along with Jupiter and Mercury close to the  western horizon was enough of a sight that the Teabodys pulled their motorcar off the highway just to gaze. All sorts of dazzling, wonderful sky action continues through March so do take a look skyward when the chance presents itself. Here's what is coming up: http://www.space.com/13869-bright-lights-night-sky-jupiter-venus-loom-large-winter.html Mrs. Teabody had the great good fortune to grow up in what truly were the wonder years.  Any evening the weather was mild enough, families in the

Good Morning, Gentle Reader! And what a great beginning for this Tuesday - - all crisp and clear with bonfire colors edging the blueblueblue mountain range as far as the eye can see. How thrilled are you that March has arrived, Gentle Reader? Before you can say Jack-in the-pulpit, trees will start sprouting buds turning the mountains mauve and how can anyone not greet the day with enthusiasm with such promises of days to come? Certainly not Mrs. Teabody. Certainly not you, Gentle Reader. During her college years, Mrs. Teabody had the good fortune to be introduced to the Brandywine Valley by a school chum. Through that early association, Mrs. Teabody grew to love what she calls the Brandywine Trifecta: Longwood Gardens, the Brandywine River Museum, and Winterthur. Each of these sterling places has the mission of providing enjoyment to visitors, and they do it in spades. (Small gardening pun). Chortle. "Winterthur is set amidst a 1,000-acre preserve of rolling meadows an

Good Morning, Gentle Reader! It is that most magical of all days: Monday. Small, unfunny jibe. Here on the mountain, everything has been dusted lightly with snow, and while there are clouds scudding along the horizon, the glorious sun most assuredly will shine today. Mrs. Teabody notes the ever-lengthening days, forsythia buds that will most certainly burst in a matter of days and then the host of gardening chores that will demand attention: specifically rose pruning and fertilizing and the application of 'barrow after 'barrow after 'barrow of mushroom dirt. It is these days when Mrs. Teabody has close acquaintance with the business end of a shovel that she questions the ambitiousness of such extensive borders, Gentle Reader. However, restraint is rare in most things Teabody and especially when it comes to rose gardening. What a fine few days at Tickle Your Fancy ! The entire village was buzzing with commerce Friday and Saturday and many new friends  as well as tried and

"You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child." Today is a very special day! Good Morning, Gentle Reader! What a glorious cloud-free sunrise Friday brings! Whatever your plans may be, the enjoyment of an hour's reading today should find its way to your list, do you not agree? TYF always has a host of reading materials at hand with good reason. The right words at a bad time can mean all the difference to one's state of mind. Wherever you take inspiration, make a point of getting reacquainted with a favorite book, author, poet, or essayist. Mrs. Teabody takes great delight in gardening, and has a particular fondness for roses. Rose lovers know that for English roses especially, there comes a spring week when the "flush" means the most bountiful crop of blooms of the entire growing season. Last year it came just as the peonies had reached full flower, and what a sight it was! Mr. Teabody had constructe