Mrs. Teabody Greets the Day

Here it is New Year's Eve 2015 . . . already. For all you youngsters out there, remember this: time speeds up exponentially past age 50 and continues to fly by faster and faster with every passing year. Why it seems like just yesterday I said to J: “Are we doing anything for New Year's?”  Either he was in the garage and could not hear me or else he was in the office simply ignoring me because there was no answer. Well, there may have been a little derisive snort, but that could also have been the furnace acting up.  No matter. We have NO plans. We are not New Year's Eve people. No apologies. If YOU have a big celebration planned, have a blast! We know we can count on  a fair amount of gunfire echoing along the mountain and down in the valley to announce the arrival of 2016. That is fine with us. We are too old to play dodge cars after midnight. One of the unavoidable aspects of New Year's Eve is a little reflection on the passing year, and this technologic...

Eighth generation poses wearing Christmas cracker hats Clear Ridge is just that --- a sudden rise out of the woods of Plum Hollow, a  CLEAR unwooded RIDGE that runs north and south between two lines of blue mountains. Rounding the bend after Flemings' farm, the tiny hamlet comes into view, a cluster of dwellings perched high above. Freda Booth's house anchors the view north as it is tucked into the wood's edge. In between, all the land on the right hand side of the road--all the way to the top has been "our" land for as long as I have been alive, for as long as I have made this trip to HOME. A straight stretch past the Millers-- now Truaxes --, a curve to the right and a climb and the urge to look at Gobbler's Knob is irresistible. There it  stands majestic as it always has to the six generations of Henrys who have grown up watching the sun rise over its isosceles triangle shape. In its shadow lies the farm, hilly, precipitous, a pond, Bald Hill...

Good Morning, Gentle Readers! Here it is December 8 already ! December just flies by with all our to-ing and fro-ing, doesn't it? And it's not as though the laundry pile stops growing or the dust bunnies stop tripling in size almost overnight just because we are all getting ready for Christmas. All last week Tickle Your Fancy was as busy as a beehive in summer as folks came by to purchase special presents. One gentleman had seven different women to buy for including his grandmother, mother, wife, and daughters. He spent well over an hour choosing his gifts, and each one was chosen with love and a desire to please the recipient.  As I wrapped each present, I thought about how pleased each woman will be when she opens her  personally-chosen gift. Mrs. Teabody herself ADORES presents and thinks  the current practice of exchanging gift cards takes away much of the surprise/delight of Christmas, or any other special occasion. Besides that, perhaps you are not aware of t...

Pete, H. and Don-o Together at Rillo's Nostalgia has been described as a wound of the heart and was once thought to be a sign of depression. However, in more recent years nostalgia has been regarded in a much different light showing that sharing stories of the past is a way of underscoring the connections that made life more meaningful. When old friends and/or families sit together in a room sharing happy stories from the past, the temperature of the room actually rises, according to recent studies. Good Morning from Chez Teabody  where everyone is stirring about in these pre-dawn hours in preparation for a long journey full of excitement, adventure and nostalgia. Mrs. Teabody has made it a point in the past few years of reconnecting with the people who have played important roles in her life in all of its stages and the results have been much more than gratifying. They have also been rejuvenating. Pictured above are two friends who were a huge part of her life during her e...

John Thaw was Inspector Morse For all those unhappy with these brilliant end-of-August cool mornings, Mrs. Teabody is giving  you a  peanut to the side of your head.  How can you begrudge anyone such windows-open, humidity-free starts to days? Do make yourself a cuppa and go sit in a corner on the porch and stop being so churlish. In no time at all, you will be trading out all those pasty-skin revealing clothing for nice, cuddly knits in lovely heathers and grey and blacks. Wonderful boots. Tights. Hair that stays curled. Surely there is a spot in the universe where one can live in such pleasant temperatures year-round? The Teabodys are back in Oxford again, albeit through the television and those gifted writers, cinematographers and actors at the BBC. The show of choice is ENDEAVOUR featuring Shaun Evans as the probable youthful incarnation of beloved Inspector Morse shown above. Inspector Morse first swam into Mrs. Teabody's view whilst she truly was IN Oxford ...

Good Morning from a moist and muggy Meadow Grounds Mountain where the fish are jumpin' (in the aquarium) and the cotton is  high (on the bed). If anyone had ANY shred of doubt about Summer being  firmly ensconced, you simply must be housebound and not among those individuals who climbed a flight of stairs to a very warm "Second Story" to revel in the presentation of the artwork of eight of the best local artists as well as  the folk art finding its way onto the sides of local barns and other buildings through the efforts of the Fulton County Barn Quilt Trail. Opening weekend with over 200 visitors  during the artists' reception Friday night and  well over one hundred more on the weekend was evidence enough that folks want art in their lives, that they DO value the creative process. Like any undertaking of this magnitude, it takes a village of people and Thanks are due so here goes: Antietam Ironworks is owned by Kathleen Gunnell and her family. Without her o...

Quiet hangs on these rooms and on the fully-leaved and lushy green trees that surround Chez Teabody this Fourth of July 2015. Cool breezes waft through the house's open windows and screened doorways this fourth morning in a row where low temperatures have provided the best of sleeping conditions. It rained in the night again making gardening  iffy and the forecast is for cloudy and overcast with a chance of picnics. Mrs. Teabody woke up with these  memorized and sacrosanct words on her mind this Independence Day: "We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, That among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Created equal. All men. Everybody. Everybody. It is no leap of faith to conclude that those born in China or Persia or Sweden or Africa are also created equal. Even if they have a different flag. They do have different flags. Mrs. Teabody does not feel any scars...