Wet cold windy weather, just right for reading and making soup.
I made a large pot, enough for about eight meals, of pumpkin (off the front step), sweet potato, yellow potato and leeks. Seasoning was berbere, turmeric, seasalt, smoked paprika, cumin. Added whole milk and called it cream of all-the-above.
With broiled whole-wheat spread with butter and garlic paste, it worked out well. Plenty more in the freezer.
I've been surprised to find I like the Ruth Galloway series of mysteries. I'd expected books about an archaeologist to be set in Egypt for some reason, to me the most profoundly boring of settings. Sand, heat, camels, hard writing, no. I don't like any of the Christies set there.
Then I find she's in Norfolk, and there are interesting characters at work, sometimes so many I have trouble with who's who, but I like it a lot.
It's very cinematically written and I wonder if there are TV series about the books. It would lend itself to long shots of sea and sky, car chases, hair raising kidnappings, nice dogs, cute kids, druids, the pitch dark scenes beloved of TV producers, the lot. No doubt I'm the last person to discover I like this writer.
I have a small personal milestone to mention. Usually November is a difficult month for me, containing two late sisters' birthdays, the 7th and the 17th, and my parents' wedding anniversary, the 18th. This year I decided I'd mourned long enough for people who didn't value me as I valued them. And it went very smoothly. I got past all the days. Dues paid. Probably about time, too.
Happy day, everyone. It's okay to decide how much is enough. Sez Ted and Big Ursy
You're taking good advantage of soup weather!
ReplyDeleteMoving on from your late sisters' birthdays must feel liberating. I suspect your difficult childhood sculpted your character into its can-do approach to life. But still - I want to tell the young you what an amazing person she'll turn into.
Chris from Boise
That was lovely to read, thank you!
DeleteYou might be right about being the last person to find the Ruth Galloway books ! But better late than never!! You have lots of enjoyable reading ahead through all of the series.
ReplyDeleteNo TV series yet but it would be good if they did.
I agree, plenty of good reading ahead! I like it when I find a writer who has written plenty for me to get to.
DeleteMmm, soup.
ReplyDeleteThis kind is amazingly filling. A bowl with garlic bread is a meal.
DeleteSo glad you think enough of yourself and your life to not feel obligated to mourn just because you should. I think of my sister with love on her birthday. Interestingly, not much arises on my parents’ birthdays.
ReplyDeleteI tend to have the same reaction about mysteries set in Egypt. Maybe they’ve just been “too done.”
I think it was longing to be accepted as much as mourning. But I now think it's enough.
DeleteI find the whole Egypt subject a big bore. Possibly because of late husband's obsession with the subject!
I'm reading The Ghost Fields at the moment. Elly Griffiths has created an interesting set of characters. The Fenland country comes to life in her books, exactly as I remember it. Best read with Benjamin Britten's Sea Interludes in the background
ReplyDeleteI've never seen the fens, despite the (joke) name of this blog, so I know it only through literature. Interesting idea with background music.
DeleteI liked those books too and wish that she hadn’t finished with the series. Like you, I thought they would make a good tv series. Instead, they do another Lynley series, or Maigret, or Rebus.
ReplyDeleteAll of those series, especially Lynley, could have been quietly laid to rest long ago. But I think they bank on familiarity to sell yet another series.
DeleteIt was quiet in my neck of the woods too. Well, except for the neighbors on the ridge sighting in their deer rifles. Poor Charlie was a quivering mess. However, the rain, fog, and dreary day made for a perfect homemade soup day.
ReplyDeleteSoup can fix a lot of situations. Around here fewer sounds of deer hunting as more developments have driven the hunters off. There is legal hunting in the Preserve at certain dates, so I don't go there then, because you never know.
DeleteThis is soup making day here as well. Butternut squash is on the menu. I am glad you found some peace of mind regarding some family members, Boud!
ReplyDeleteNovember has been more about self than ever before. It's different, and I think okay.
DeleteI've not read Galloway yet, so am glad to consider a new productive author. I just bought 2 non-fiction books, and a fiction which I'm dragging myself through...hoping the violence settles down and something else interesting happens.
ReplyDeleteI was happy to find a series with characters I'm interested in following as they age and change.
DeleteLetting go is liberating, harms no-one and leaves room and space for fresh pursuits - not that you need too many more new paths to follow!
ReplyDeleteI did need to conserve the energy I was using on that emotion though. So there's that.
DeleteLetting go of one-sided relationships is an important action, no matter when it occurs. Good for you!
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy, always that longing for acceptance, but there's a time to stop.
DeleteI am SO glad you have found the Ruth Galloway series! A real treasure ahead of you. I listened to them all through Libby. What's better than good soup and a good book?
ReplyDeleteI suppose it is somewhat telling that I could not tell you the date my mother died, month, day, or year. I find that astonishing but have no desire to look it up. I do know her birth date. This doesn't mean I don't honor the good things about her and the difficulties she had in her complicated life.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are enjoying the Ruth Galloway series. I thought they were great!
ReplyDeleteI had not found the Ruth Galloway series, so you are not the last.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to let those things go. We get there when we are ready.
Yes, it took me a while to be ready. Let me tell you about Ruth Galloway..
DeleteI've never heard of the series either, you're not alone.
ReplyDeleteI cut off contact with one of my sisters in 2013. She never really liked me but "loved" me, as long as I played by her rules. She suffers from toxic christianity syndrome and I no longer wanted that in my life. I'm the scapegoat and I don't want that either.
I'm glad that this November was better for you. Old wounds can be hard to deal with, they can still ache years later.
I kept up with one sister, though she was a difficult person. The others I couldn't cope with at all, such hostility. But there's a time when you need to use your energy in better ways.
DeleteYour soup looks good! I think I'm going to make something similar with our front-porch squashes.
ReplyDeleteThey make great soup. I like to thicken it with potatoes, or pasta.
DeleteNothing like a good "I will just grab a soup from the freezer" option up your sleeve!
ReplyDeleteExactly right. I like that supply for when I can't think what to eat.
DeleteSoup and bread look really good.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is okay to decided when enough is enough. ;)
They're nice in cold wet weather
Deletelovely having soup this time of year, it warms the soul. Good for you for moving on.
ReplyDeleteIt is never easy. I have had to move on from some family members still here on earth never easy, but it has been good for my peace of mind.
Cathy
I left behind a couple of living sisters who believed that no matter what horrible things vthey did or said, I had to take it because they were related. They were astonished when I quietly quit. When another sister tried to force me back I explained I didn't have the clinical skills for that. Which was true. I don't think any of them was quite balanced. But even after they die you still wish to be accepted. Not now. You get it.
DeleteI wish there was a tv series of the Galloway mysteries but alas, not. I wonder if it would bother me as I have such vivid pictures in my mind of Ruth, Nelson, Cathbad and the others. Read them sequentially and all of them. They are wonderful. (The soup looks great!)
ReplyDeleteI'm reading in any order I can borrow them, and piecing together the parts.
DeleteI am a soup fiend , recipe please
ReplyDeleteNot exactly a recipe, but a teaspoonful of all the spices I named, sizzled a minute in olive oil, then a couple of handfuls of pumpkin, two cups cooked sweet potato, couple of fistfuls of partly boiled not peeled yellow potatoes, same amount white part of leeks, about three pints of liquid -- here chicken broth -- tablespoon of lemon juice, simmer till cooked through, blend with stick blender, add in about a cup of milk, blend more. Try for salt maybe add some. That's about it. The second day it may be thicker and you might want to thin with milk or broth. This freezes fine in single helping containers.
DeleteNot pints, more like quarts. Enough to cover the vegetables.
ReplyDeleteYou perspective about grieving is interesting. I cried more when my mother died in 2023 than I did when my partner died in 2024. I didn't cry at all when my step mother died. I wonder if you become conditioned to death. I am sure you've had many more people die who you knew.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you ever get used to death. I've outlived so many people but it's a shock every time. I've cried more about animals. I think they have a more purely emotional connection.
DeleteI enjoy the Ruth Galloway books too. Great characters. And the soup sounds delicious. Just had some heinz tomato soup for lunch! Not quite the same but it's a taste from my childhood.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we ever had canned soup at home. Not practical with a large family, I expect.
DeleteI'm glad there are plenty of the Galloway series, because they're filling a need here just now.
In our household a soup such as yours would be called 'Kitchen Sink Soup' (as in...everything's in it BUT the kitchen sink). I'm glad you have put the mourning behind you and have chosen to remember the good times instead.
ReplyDeleteI've chosen not to give them any emotional energy. Not many good things to remember.
Delete