Space Cowboy or Gangster of Love?

Get your you on for Valentines Day.

On Valentine’s Day, when I was a kid my Dad would bring my mum a dozen red roses wrapped in cellophane and garnished with baby’s breath. The roses came with a card that I never got to see. With four kids there wasn’t much else for it but to give her the roses and the card, give her a hug and a kiss and then they’d get on with making the family dinner.

Over the years, Valentine’s Day became more commercial and more expensive, and the bought roses just didn't seem to justify the budget anymore. Not to be beaten by the dark forces of commercialism, my Dad simply grew his own. Being a practical man, what he grew was also seasonal – one year my Mum received a Valentine's Day note along with a basket of cauliflowers.

But he never missed it.

He simply paid no mind whatsoever to the escalating commercial noise - there was never any chance we’d see Dad come home with a teddy bear and foil-balloon-on-a-stick arrangement. He just wasn’t that kind of guy. It was his message, done in his way.

For a man that wasn’t terribly forthcoming with his “feelings” it always seemed incongruous to me that he insisted on making these gestures every year. For my Mum though, it was so special. A knee-weakening, yep-that’s-my-man, kind of special. You know the kind.

And that’s what it’s all about. Do your thing on Valentine’s Day - Space Cowboy, Gangster of Love or Vegetable Gardener - whatever your flavour. The message is all yours.

Just make it last more than a couple of days in a vase.