Mrs. Teabody Greets the Day

For seven mornings in a row, Mrs. Teabody has awakened to a nice cool breeze wafting through her sleeping chamber and the varying voices of the morning chorus.  She hopes you have, too. This is, as anyone who has lived more than half a century will tell you, a blessed time weather-wise. Even though afternoon temps have been more June-like than May, most folks agree it is a most halcyon spell with trees full of leaves and plants springing from the ground. Pictured above is the wisteria blooming its fool head off at Chez Teabody. According to Wikipedia, wisteria vines climb by twining their stems either clockwise or counterclockwise round any available support. They can climb as high as 20 m above the ground and spread out 10 m laterally. The world's largest known Wisteria vine is in Sierra Madre, California , measuring more than 1 acre (0.40 ha) in size and weighing 250 tons. The Teabody Wisteria , as it is known here by exactly two people, has not had an easy spring...

Mr. Teabody's Sculpture "To the Virgins, to make much of Time GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,  Old Time is still a-flying:  And this same flower that smiles to-day  To-morrow will be dying." ~ Robert Herrick, 1591–1674 Good Morrow from an oh-so-very-dark Meadow Grounds Mountain where a stroll outdoors to look at the starry pre-dawn sky requires neither coat nor shoes. This is that riotous blooming part of April, that all-too-short reign of yellow and pink things in nature. Hopefully, you, Gentle Reader, are out of doors for part of it. Mrs. Teabody would not want you to approach summer without your brain chock full of mental images of daffodils, forsythia, magnolia and cherry. Sadly their season is a short one so no dallying.Take a little walk around your neighborhood and look at gardens and front yards and try not to get picked up for loitering. Do you watch much television? Before you scoff and say, "Everyone does," you should know ...

“Nostalgia serves a crucial existential function,” Dr. Routledge says. “It brings to mind cherished experiences that assure us we are valued people who have meaningful lives."  How cross has this "spring" month made you, Gentle Reader? The buds on Mrs. Teabody's forsythia and roses are so tight and tiny there seems little hope of a flowery Easter and even the little birds at the feeders are wearing their winter coats to breakfast. If it were not for a nice steamy cuppa English Breakfast and a wooly robe, Mrs. Teabody would be languishing abed instead of tapping away this almost the end-of-March Sunday morning. Complaining about the weather is fruitless, of course. Mother Nature will do as she pleases and if Easter morning arrives blanketed in a few inches of snow, it will come as no surprise to Mrs. Teabody and her esteemed group of friends pictured above. Clever Mr. Teabody used his computer skills to superimpose formal graduation/yearbook pictures from 1963 a...

Good Morning from a pinky-skyed Meadow Grounds Mountain where every clock inside Chez Teabody has been given notice that changes are coming. Mrs. Teabody is sipping a fragrant cup of "Pete and Irene" and enjoying its dense notes of chocolate infused with cardamom. Tonight is the night this little part of the world switches from Daylight Saving Time (DST) to  Eastern Standard Time (EST). Meaningless in this context of course. There is only one thing most folks want to know: "Do we turn the clocks back or turn them ahead?" And the very wise in the world sagely recite the mnemonic, "Fall backward, spring forward." This generates grim looks, clenched fist and jowl and the response appropriate to age and relationship, most of which Mrs. Teabody has no intention of sharing. A simple "WTH" suffices. For intents and purposes here, just before you fall into your bed tonight at 2:00 A.M., you will want to turn your clocks AHEAD to 3:00 A.M. . In ot...

Renascence   ALL I could see from where I stood Was three long mountains and a wood; I turned and looked the other way, And saw three islands in a bay. So with my eyes I traced the line Of the horizon, thin and fine, Straight around till I was come Back to where I’d started from; And all I saw from where I stood Was three long mountains and a wood. ~Edna St. Vincent Millay  (1892–1950) 6:10 and the windows are full of  nothing but darkness. It is pre-dawn quiet here on the side of Meadow Grounds Mountain and another winter's day is in the offing. Perhaps like the Teabodys you are feeling Winter's grip and not much liking it. That beastly  Punxsutawney  rodent saw his shadow on Monday, and to say many have unkind thoughts regarding "Phil"  and his forecast is understatement.  House captives. As much as you love and adore those who share your abode through these long winter nights, there are times when you long for fresh compan...

Come sail away? ( Written January 15 on Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo) Ordinarily, Mrs. Teabody restricts the writing of her little missives to time at home -- greeting the day whilst looking at her beloved Tuscarora Mountain. After all, on holiday one likes to keep one's brain set on "barely functioning" when a body of blue water is nearby. HOWEVER, the brand new but thoroughly-soaked vacation ensemble that lies drying in the Caribbean breeze has sent Mrs. Teabody to the keyboard to share her thoughts about the nature of the sea and the nature of life with you, Gentle Reader. As Mrs. Teabody writes, the always beautiful and ever-changing sea fills her view. Less conspicuous are the forms of sea life that she knows are gurgling, piping, and leeching along less than one hundred feet away as Mrs. Teabody taps upon the black square keys. The Teabodys are dwelling in a smallish but stunning and impeccably-maintained house perched directly on the seafront in...

Good Morning from the silent and placid Chez Teabody where the Christmas season is still much in evidence with glittering tree in the corner and fairy lights sparkling along the porch railing. Packages from friends and family nestle beneath the tree as testimony of Christmas fetes far and near and the memories of so many festive occasions  underscore the bounty of coming from a large family and being fortunate enough to have wonderful friends. Whether sitting around a table with friends making egg cartons into  Christmas ornaments, sitting  jam-packed and fun-filled, shoulder to shoulder with family in the ancestral home, sitting in front of a hundreds years old walk-in fireplace enjoying witty repartee with far-flung-home-for-Christmas friends, or sitting in one's own lit-only-by-the-Christmas-tree living room contemplating decades of Christmases past, this season has been delightful. Mrs. Teabody had a day at her little shop, Tickle Your Fancy , that began with a Kri...