Dear Lon and Lis

I have been making soup tonight. There is no one here to feed but me so let's face it- cooking is something I do for pleasure.
You gave me some very small sweet potatoes which you had grown and I knew I wanted to use those in my soup. And so I did. Hank had told me that there was a soup mix that you could buy at the store which had beans in and which would be a good base for soup and so I started with that.
Okay. I lied. I did not start with that. I stared with water and vegetable concentrate soup base and celery and onions and garlic (oh- so much garlic) and a jalapeno pepper from the garden and some okra hanging there on the spindly plants as well. I cut up and put in a few green and red bell peppers. Then I peeled and sliced up those tiny, perfect sweet potatoes and added them to the bubbling pot and a few carrots too. I spiced it up with Dale's Seasoning and chili powder from the New Leaf and bay leaves and I let all of that simmer for awhile and then I added the beans from the soup mix and some mustard and collard greens from the garden. When the beans were mostly done, I cut up a piece of deer sausage and threw that in the pot with a can of diced tomatoes and some frozen corn, and oh, it was smelling so good. I wished I could put that smell on the blog the way I can pictures and words. The person who can figure THAT one out is going to make billions.
I had some whole wheat rotini which I also put in there and then I put the lid on and let it simmer.
I really wish you two were here to eat this soup with me. It's chilly here tonight and soup is such a good food to warm the body. It's so easy to eat- everything in one bowl with maybe a piece of bread to go with it. We could share a nip of rum and eat our soup and maybe you would be reminded of how much I love you both.
So many people love you. I like to think that I am the one who loves you who makes you soup and bread.
It's quiet here tonight and I'm sure it's quiet at Gatorbone, too.
Why don't we live next door to each other?
I do not know except that we are all so settled in our places, so in love with our own trees and houses. And yes, grandsons are involved.
But I am going to eat soup tonight which has sweet potatoes in it which you grew in the dirt of Gatorbone and it is going to warm me, body and soul.
Thank-you, for the bass notes to that soup. Thank-you for the gifts you give me.
Thank-you for being Lon and Lis.
I love you.
And you know that.

Ms. Moon