How Do I Love Thee?

“What the heck is in my pasture?” I thought as the light from the dawn began to break over the horizon. From the vantage point in my upstairs office there should not have been a dark blob upon the pristine snow that had fallen in the previous days. True to February weather, temperatures were in the single digits so I opted to wait for better light and inspect the oddity with binoculars. The sun revealed a giant red heart painted in the snow in my pasture by my Valentine.

Some girls like roses, other want baubles or dinner at a fancy restaurant, a card for certain and maybe a box of chocolates. But we were a few years into rehabilitating a woefully run-down Civil War era farm and every cent was needed to fulfill the dream of making a living off the land. I was working a fulltime job in the tech sector as well as freelance writing to generate enough income to pay the bills and fund the renovations. Lumber cost money. Fencing was expensive. And it seemed like ever new project required tools we didn’t have. Don’t spend any money, I had asked of him.

But he was a hopeless romantic. Using a concoction of old barn paint, food coloring and tomato paste along with snowshoes fashioned out of scrap plywood screwed on to old sneakers he mopped the color in a heart spanning nearly twenty-five feet in the field outside my upstairs office window.

Nothing to date has ever beaten out that gesture of love on Valentine’s Day and it got me thinking about how best people can celebrate in these strange times in which we now find ourselves. Sure, you can order your beloved sparkling trinkets from Tiffany’s online, but it’s the shopping which adds to the experience. This is a holiday based upon mise-en-scène. Seriously, how romantic is an Amazon Prime box? There are plenty of restaurants offering special take-outs for those not willing to risk taking off their masks indoors.

This year I’m proposing something different. Take your sweetie to the farmers market. Put on your face masks, slip your arms together and enjoy the safety of outdoor shopping for the ingredients of a perfect Valentines Day.

You want chocolate? We got chocolate. Sumptuous pastries and baked goods? Check. Flowers? Gotcha. Soaps and lotions? Ooo-la-la. Dining out? Take you pick from wood-fired pizza, Ethiopian and empanadas. Oysters? A reputed aphrodisiac. So you don’t get to sit in a trendy café sipping your coffee. Isn’t the car comfortable enough when you’re with your beloved? And I haven’t even mentioned all the delicious ingredients available for cooking your own romantic dinner at home. Bacon roses would get my vote. No lingerie, but maybe a soft and fluffy knitted hat or shawl. You can continue down that rabbit trail on your own since this is a family market.

And if you’ve got a bad case of the grumpies because you’re alone, skip Valentine’s and go straight for the Lunar New Year on February 12th. Raise a glass of American Shochu to the Year of the Ox and enjoy a sumptuous meal of Korean BBQ or Chinese dumplings without having to worry about someone nicking the last tasty morsel from your plate.