Tulips and Soup and Friends

Emily brought me an armful of luscious red tulips the other night. I love them! Somehow they change a room.

Why is it that something so simple as having bouquets of flowers in the house makes me feel so rich?

Could it be like Thoreau said? :"That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest. "

Oh, if only I could lay claim to such a philosophy!

Unfortunately I have that not-so-cheap European vacation habit that is a little conflicting......

Another thing that makes me feel wealthy is my abundance of marvellous friends. Here is a picture of some dear people I had not connected with in a while.

And all it took was few phone calls, a email or two, and suddenly we are all together again in my cozy orange kitchen, eating homemade soup and drinking wine.

We have all been off on separate adventures for much of this past year and so there was a lot of catching up to do.

When you feel busy it's so easy to let friendships slide onto the back burner, but oh it's such a good feeling to see all their faces again.

There were actually people sitting around that table who had no idea I had a blog, or indeed, even liked to write. However, no one was surprised at the Spider Girl handle I use.

The revelation precipitated a whole conversation about Spiders We Have Known and Cringed From, spiders met in exotic countries (hiding in mattresses and caves) and practical jokes involving spiders (after which Emily would have cheerfully killed Ted).

We used to get together for Soup Nights fairly often and we're thinking of resurrecting the practice. Someone makes soup (this time it was my Curried Butternut Squash & Grannysmith Apple Soup), someone brings bread, someone brings dessert, and wine, cheese and hors d'oevres usually arrive too. This time Chris made home-made chai too and we talked for three hours around the table.

Good times, my friends, good times. :)