Musings from Marilyn

Posts Tagged ‘Autumn’

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, one of my very favorite holidays.  One of the more superficial reasons that I like Thanksgiving is, for the most part, it hasn’t been blown to smithereens by nauseating commercialization.  Oh sure, we have to put up with the Black Friday (and now, Brown Thursday) ads and hype, but the holiday itself seems to retain most of its original intent.

I love that the focus is on good food, loved ones, and not only giving thanks but feeling appreciation for all that is in our lives.  Yes, even the “bad” stuff!  I have a lot to be thankful for, and as I’ve gotten older and hopefully wiser, I am learning to give thanks even when things go terribly wrong.  For it is in those times I have gotten deeper spiritually and learned a lot about myself.  Not to get all zen on you, but I’m feeling less resistant and am trying to just go with the flow of things instead of complaining, blaming, and creating drama.  It is a big relief to just “be”.

While I will be gathering with family and friends tomorrow, sharing the repast of Thanksgiving, I will be feeling much gratitude for everything in my life.  Especially the stuffing. 

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you”, that would suffice.  ~Meister Eckhart

~Marilyn Huttunen

Even though Autumn has been quite firmly ensconced for several weeks now, there are always several things that I do with amazing regularity once the autumnal equinox has passed.  On the household side, it is cleaning out the furnace (an utterly thankless task) before turning on the heat for the first time.  I think I made it until October 7th this year before finally giving in and turning it on.  After the low utility bills of summer, frugal me is always loathe to have to spend money on such obscure things as heat.  But being a creature of comfort, I do love to have warmth!

Being an air-dryer, the outdoor clothesline is now pretty much closed for the season (or two, or three…).  My drying racks have pretty much set up permanent shop in my kitchen, with a constant rotation of wet laundry yearning to dry.  It takes a day or two for the laundry to dry indoors…gone are the days of laundry drying in mere hours out on the sunny, breezy clothesline.  But I adjust pretty quickly to seeing the constant array of underwear, towels, and clothes adorning the drying racks 24/7.

On the fashion front, I’ve dug out my vintage cashmere sweaters and have been wearing them every day, and most likely will until next spring.  I adore wearing cashmere, especially the thick vintage sweaters that keep me warm without the tremendous bulk of wool.  Cashmere is about the only natural  fiber that I can wear next to my skin without irritation.  I have gotten into wearing skinny jeans as well.  I like the look of cashmere sweaters and skinny jeans on me, and it is certain that this will be my uniform for the next 8 months or so!

I’ve always been a bookworm, and fall tends to lend itself to reading quite easily.  There is just something about wrapping up in a wool blanket, or my leopard Snuggie , and getting lost in a good book.  I’ve made a concerted effort lately to read more novels, and delve into the classics that I somehow missed reading over the years.  For instance, I just finished reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, and I was engrossed, stunned, and completely engaged in this magnificent book.  How I never managed to read this classic until now is beyond me!  But it was a total delight.  I’ve got a stack of books just waiting to be read, and there is nothing quite so intoxicating.

The leaves are falling, the rains have set in, the wind is blowing;  settle in and enjoy!

“Autumn’s the mellow time.”  ~William Allingham

~Marilyn Huttunen

With the Autumn change to cooler weather and shorter days, I always get a hankering to make soup.  No, not from the can that I usually eat most of the year, but good old-fashioned made-from-scratch soup.  I especially like the heartier bean and legume varieties.   There is just something so satisfying about the process of  washing and soaking the dried beans, then adding all the ingredients and letting it simmer on the stove for hours.

Yesterday was a good crisp soup-making kind of day, so I decided to make split pea soup.  It only took about an hour to cook, maybe because the peas are small.  Anyhow, I was totally amazed at how such a relatively small package of dried peas could make a huge vat of soup.  It turned out really well; even my picky teenage son thought it smelled good while cooking and devoured a huge bowlful!  This always warms my heart.

My tried and true handmade soup is the 15-Bean variety.  This incredible soup absolutely defies any law of physics.  It expands to an immense amount after soaking and cooking, and is the most filling soup you will ever want to eat.  The only problem is that it makes so much!  I end up eating it for weeks afterward and usually get very tired of eating it.  And really, 15 bean varieties?  To me, that is about 13 or 14 bean varieties too many!  I need to find a recipe for a delicious one or two bean soup.  A little bean goes a long way!

Homemade soups are hearty, wholesome, and cheap to make.  It  does take longer to cook, but nothing is more comfy than aromatic soup simmering on the stove on a cold day.  Soup’s on!

“Soup is a lot like a family. Each ingredient enhances the others; each batch has its own characteristics; and it needs time to simmer to reach full flavor.”  -Marge Kennedy

~Marilyn