Light Cream of Celery Soup

What a delightful surprise! While I like celery soup, I thought this might be a bit dull and underwhelming. Boy, was I wrong! I made this as written, making only one change--in the midst of cooking, I discovered I had no celery seeds and so substituted fennel seeds. Where there was a choice, I went with sour cream over cream or half and half. Rather than transferring from pot to blender and then to pot, I used my Bamix. I also chose to puree the sauteed onions, making the soup entirely smooth. It was not bland. It was actually quite wonderful. I do think the amount of salt is a bit much and that my use of fennel was a happy accident. The soup smells great, looks very pretty--a pale yellow green frothy affair--and tastes terrific. I am tempted to try substituting fennel for some of the celery, but the soup is so good as is that I may have to resist my normal meddling. One more thing--this soup could be the stuff of fine dining with just one additional step--straining the soup so that the end result is quite velvety--and the addition of some interesting croutons. But it's awfully good just as is. Edited to add that on the second day, I learned that this soup is delicious cold.