surrounded and uplifted in my loneliness

Some days are quiet, slow, calm days. Today was such a day. I mostly spent my day working to finish my crocheted heart doily. Still the last few outer rounds to go, but really getting near to finishing now.
The sun stayed hidden til mid to late afternoon and the sunset, too, was quiet compared to the many "full orchestra finales" we've had this fall. I did go out to catch the bit of color and the woodpecker who has been a frequent visitor didn't budge as I stood near on the deck. I was able to take photos of both.

All the bird photos I've posted before this have been taken from inside my sewing room through the glass of the French doors. Today I was standing not 8 feet from the feeder able to hear the sounds of his pecking and some sweet chirps between.
Not really moved to work on outside projects I ventured out only to collect the mail. Fortunately there was some today. I love days when the mailbox has mail, real mail. A magazine, a bank statement. A good mail day for a relative newcomer.
Wandering in a bit of a loneliness fog I took a few photos of things around the house...
Yesterday I had a brainstorm regarding the paper I need to do some iris folding. I came upon a collection intended for origami, lovely printed tissue-thin sheets. And wouldn't some nice solid tissue papers work in concert with them?
I also bought some printed card stock and picked up more paint sample cards for my paper quilts.

I had been collecting brightly colored samples at paint departments for a while when I borrowed a Jinny Beyer video from my library about the use of color in quilts. She had a color swatch stack organized by the spectrum attached with a pivoting pin so you can fan out the colors. I used something nearly exactly like it in college during one of my art courses. In fact I still have it there snuggled up against the paint samples. She recommended buying her color "chart" but suggested collecting color samples from the paint store if you preferred. Wow.

To help me focus on the blessings that surround me I took pictures of other things too. I needed a reminder to  really look at and appreciate the little things my eyes glance at but I don't fully see, such as my new lamp and the small gathering of lovely things on top of my oak card catalog that holds my rubber stamp collection.

And the art glass window that I bought to remind me that though I am often alone here at the farm, I am never alone, as I am in God's mind at least as much as the lilies of the field.

And I have to stop and admire the brief explosion of bloom on the Thanksgiving cactus plants.

I had been watching the buds form for a few weeks now, and so am not surprised to see the flowers open. But what I hadn't been watching and was surprised to find today, a flower spike on my one, sorry neglected moth orchid.

Grace, healing energy, chi, surrounds us. All we need to do is breathe it in.