This is a periodic blog feature I call “grace notes.” It occasionally captures my jottings of incidental gratitude. My hope is that this practice will make me and you more aware of the constant flow of amazing good we are perpetually steeped in, which we are surrounded by all the time. It is here only asking to be noticed and amplified.

So now I am furthering my ongoing goal of appreciating such a continuous, overflowing abundance of random good. I’ve taken photographs of some of them with my iPhone, which you can see in this post.

So let’s start this gratitude list with:

• Spring flowers! I love them all. From the early crocus, forsythia, and daffodils, through the cheery tulips, our magnificently blooming weeping cherry tree (that my parents gave us as a housewarming present), to the magnolias across the street in both directions, and then the quince, the azaleas, with a plethora of irises, so proud and noble, their petals like stained glass in the sun, and now, the rhododendrons are prolific, and the amazing peonies are coming on! I love it all and am so grateful for all this beauty. What a great time of year.
• I’m grateful for our recent trips to Tuscany, Portland Maine, North Carolina, and Boston, and for all the friends and family we saw in those places, and those we stayed with. It is such a blessing to know each of you and have you in our lives.
• I’m grateful for the gala we went to recently with church friends honoring long time fellow church members for their devoted community service. (See the first 6 photos below.) We have a very dear and wonderful church family that I  cherish. One of them has just moved an hour away, smoothly relocating with rare grace, and I’m grateful to have already visited her new place (see photo). I’m grateful for our lovely church building too (which you can see in the photo, complete with our little free library out front.)
• I’m grateful our daughter was able to buy herself a better full sized accordion, and that she finished her first year as a professor with such aplomb. I’m grateful our older daughter has come east so often this spring (the photo below shows her working in a windowsill at Harvard). These two daughters and my dear husband are the biggest ongoing blessings of my life.
• I’m grateful my new podcast, A Cup of Cold Water, is off the ground and becoming a pleasant routine. (If you haven’t yet, please subscribe at acupofcoldwater.com. You  can also listen to it where you listen to podcasts.) I’m grateful that those who have heard my podcast really seem to appreciate it and look forward to its short little message each week.
• I’m grateful that the baby robins nesting in our umbrella over our picnic table, have safely hatched. They’ve displaced us during our favorite time to use that spot, but it has been fun too to watch the process (see photo above).
• I’m grateful for all the graduates we know near and far, launching themselves so earnestly and joyfully into this world.
• I’m grateful for all my art materials, and my outdoor makeshift studio (see photo in the driveway, as well as me painting at the picnic table at the park, since I can’t use mine, because of the robin family). I am also grateful for getting into a bunch of really nice shows recently, including one at the museum at the University of Connecticut.
• I’m grateful for the Ridgefield Clergy Association, where I started representing our church 28 years ago, when the association was all men. Now it is mostly women, and I’m the one who has served the longest. I’m grateful for these genuinely gracious and mutually supportive colleagues. I’m grateful one of them is hosting my one woman show next November (the opening reception is the first Saturday of November, if you can come). I’m grateful I have so much artwork already for that show, so it will come together without any stress.
• I’m grateful for great plans to look forward to, including Annual Meeting in Boston, and the Pastel Society of Maine Annual Plein Air Retreat (that I cook for as well), and especially our extended family trip sailing down the coast of Turkey, paid for by our brother-in-law. Incredible right? So much good! Not to mention taking on some rest and relaxation with our daughter in Sardinia on the way home, to bask in the beauty of remote nature.
• I’m grateful for libraries and cookbooks, and Pinterest, and guests over for dinner, and for all the food I have that is prepared by someone else. I’m grateful for our local fish market, Community Shellfish, for Costco, and for our local farmer’s market, which just reopened, and where I got the food shown below on my kitchen floor  (I usually take those post farmer’s market photos on the picnic table, but alas, not with our robins in residence!) I’m grateful for water purifiers, for companies taking a stand for DEI, for anyone who defends the constitution, for learning how to make labneh, for cool cars spotted in town, for mountains and meadows, for waterfalls and marshland, for cacti and succulents, for sunny days and rainy ones. I’m grateful for friends who know me well enough to send me photos of roots (shown below) that they saw on a hike, and knew I would love, so they took a photos of them to send to me. I’m grateful a cousin of my husband’s send me feathers in the mail when she finds them. I’m grateful for true experts everywhere who humbly educate, for gardeners who work to beautify the world and tend the plants, for the firefighters and first responders that are so ready and willing to help. For veterans of wars that did their duty and gave a piece of their lives for our peace, for antique chairs and welders that fix them, for independent bookstores, and all those that frequent them, for artists I mentor and artists I admire, for beginning artists and accomplished artists, all of which are unsung heroes, tackling the grand commission of expressing themselves. I’m grateful for our new Earth flag, which commenced it’s presence on our bare flag pole on Earth day. I’m grateful for crocodiles that visit, and for a new beaded toggle lovingly made for one of my broken zippers. I’m grateful my husband and I play cribbage most nights, and that sometimes I go out to dinner by myself, like I did to Zohara in West Hartford,  at the golden hour after delivering paintings; see photos below, where I feasted on humus and black lime shrimp.  I’m grateful for the pollen falling from trees, and for the ubiquitous salmon salads I seem to order so often.  I’m grateful for natural fibers, grateful I found a bathing suit I can wear in Turkey and Sardinia, grateful for a couple of new sundresses, and for new Teva sandals. I’m grateful for neighbors that stop by while walking their dogs, for convivial conversations everywhere, even with strangers in the grocery store. I’m grateful for vacuums, mops, lawn mowers, shovels, sponges, and fresh air coming in open windows. I’m grateful for books and poems, and email, and vases that hold flowers. I’m grateful for art journals, charger cords, compost piles, gelli plates, and fountain pens. I’m grateful for quiet Memorial Day mornings on my chilly front porch, one of the few rare moments when no traffic goes by. I’m grateful for strong hugs and for shimmering silence.
• I’m grateful for each of you blog readers. I’m grateful you subscribe to, read, and share this blog. I’m especially grateful to those who comment on this blog (or to me) and/or financially support it. Thank you for making this blog possible as a receptacle for my ongoing and outgoing love, gratitude, creativity, energy and joy. Thank you for being the wonderful people you are and for all the good you amplify into the world.

Share your grace notes in the comments!