For the past six months I’ve had the distinct pleasure of blogging about happiness, and more important, reading your comments on my “happiness” blogs.  Next week I’ll share with you the unscientific survey that my assistant Marna and I did of your wonderful and evocative contributions.  We saw patterns, but that was no surprise.

Looking back over those blogs, I find that I’ve never really told you what makes me happy.  Not in so many words, at least.  It only seems fair that after asking you to share, I should do the same.

Driving through cold rain this morning to the local outdoor Falls Church Farmer’s Market, I realized just how happy I was.  No question I would be soaked and chilled very soon, but I was going to one of those special places in my life.  I am a huge fan of farmer’s markets.  Like lemonade stands, I feel it’s almost a sin to pass one without buying vegetables from the people who worked so hard to produce them.  All week I’ve thought of the fabulous crabcakes at Chris’s booth, and the fragrant Virginia apples, which make me believe in apples after a Florida childhood of the tasteless grocery store variety.  (But let me tell you about our citrus fruit!)

I parked and was indeed soaked by the time I made it to the first tent.  No matter.  By the time I had finished shopping, I had a canvas bag filled with wonderful things, including two end of the season heirloom tomatoes.  We will eat well. 

All the way homes as I dripped water on my steering wheel and shivered, I was still unreasonably happy .  No surprise.  I’d already managed, somehow, to accomplish so many of the things that make me happy in one feel swoop, albeit a wet and cold one.

I left work behind.  I bought food I’ll enjoy cooking and eating all week long.  I supported a favorite cause, family farms, that deserve our support.  I pitted myself against the weather and won.  I came home to a warm house, a happy dog, a grateful husband.  I knew I had more to look forward to today, as well.  Writing this blog, time quilting and listening to the end of an audio book, riding the exercise bike as I watched the end of a Miss Marple mystery.  Little things, surely.  But that’s what happiness seems to be made of.  The small moments piled one on top of the other.  The wisdom to appreciate them. 

That last, wisdom to appreciate them, is probably most important of all.

A different pleasure this week?  Sending prizes to everyone who won one in my recent giveaways.  (Determined in random drawings.) And the winners were?

2nd Runner Up in the Beach Bag Giveaway:  Anne, of Suffolk, VA, who said:  I am happy quilting with my friends, being with my children and grandchildren, blue skys, being with my husband, the sunshine, I could go on and on!  (The winner and first runner-up were announced last week.)

The Facebook contest to determine which Happiness Key character you were most like?  Lisa of Brookston, IN who was most like Wanda; Carolyn, of Cocoa, FL, who was most like Janya; Lauretta, of Santee, CA, who was most like Tracy, and Cindy, of Mendenhall, MS, who was most like Alice.  Congratulations to all.

Congratulations, too, to all three US readers who wanted copies of the gorgeous French translations of Whiskey Island or The Parting Glass.  Each will receive one.

And finally a round of applause (and a copy of Happiness Key) to Amber of Rising Sun, MD, who, in an impromptu Facebook Page contest this week, correctly guessed the brand new title of the third novel in the Happiness Key trilogy, to be published in 2011.  And the title?

I’ll save that for another blog.  But luckily, it makes me very happy. Add that to my list.