Monday, October 4, 2010

Lovely Autumn... Happiness.... Good memories

It was a beautiful day here!  Blue sky, sunny, about 75 degrees F, slight breeze - we were just missing the slightly changing colors of leaves!

Started working on my last assignment for my online class (it is due by tomorrow).  I went to a great gym class this morning - maybe I will achieve 3 times going to the gym this week!  Came home and made Nutty Fruit Muffins - an alternative for breakfast for my diet.  Had lunch on the balcony.  Finished and sent in my online assignment.  Had a lesson.  Read a chapter from The Happiness Project on the balcony.  Went to the grocery store for some essentials.  Made homemade butternut squash and apple soup.  Listened to music and had some wine.  Today was happiness.

This butternut squash soup recipe I received 15 years ago and I try to make it every year.  it was from a dear older woman named Shirley Morton.  I was a senior in college in NH. In the fall of 1994 I was doing my internship at New London Elementary school and I got really sick.  I had bacterial pneumonia, was hospitalized and came close to the white light!  After a surgery and when I was released from the hospital, I needed a place to recover - the dorms weren't really an option.  So this wonderful woman, Shirley Morton, mother of a teacher at the elementary school invited me into her home to recooperate.  I had never met her before.  This was one of the wonderful attributes to a small New England town.  I lived with her for about 2 weeks.  We played a lot of Scrabble.  I don't really remember what else we did, I think she chatted with me a lot and I remember she made hook rugs?  Anyway, one day she served me this delicious soup and so I got the recipe.  I sent a Christmas card every year to Shirley and then one day her daughter wrote back to inform me that unfortunately her mom, Shirley, had passed away earlier that year.  I think it was a least 5 years ago.


2 comments:

Sarah said...

Sounds beautiful there. It's just beginning to turn fallish here.

Unknown said...

jill -- good thoughts - might want to type up that recipe it is hard to read in its current form. would love to try it.
k