Dear Eddie:
You have a knack. What a funny word but the proper one. You have “an acquired or natural skill” at performing a task. You really have a knack with flowers, and you have a knack with me.

Dr. Rob’s Garden Bouquets is making regular appearances at the Waleksa Farmers’ Market. You provide a bright spot for strollers as well as for those who adopt your creations. Daily, you sweat through multiple sets of clothes weeding in the garden. Wednesdays, you cut so the flowers can “harden.” On Wednesday nights, you assemble color and filler. Zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, and celosia are joined with mint, basil, pampas or whatever else looks pretty with them. One week, the palette is pink, another orange, another yellow.

You have a knack with flowers. You also have a knack for including me. I have never been required to sweat in the garden to have your attention. Sometimes, you like for me to sit and read in your vicinity, but, either way, flowers appear by the kitchen sink, on the mantel, in the bathrooms. I just add the “Ooo, Ahhh, Gee, Wow” factor. This summer, I am happy to be part of your market experience.

By 7:30 Thursday mornings, we are setting up the stall—the canopy, the table, the vases, the buckets of flowers. We started with two chairs, and then, one morning, you loaded the wicker lovereat instead. And that showed your knack for doing something different to connect with me. It happened to be an atypical cold, rainy August day. You cuddled me up to keep me warm and dry. We were not comfortable, but I was comforted. Now, the loveseat always goes to market, rain or shine.

Your knack for connecting with me changed an already joint experience into a romantic experience. Changing the loveseat for the chairs makes the 9 to 1 time block a long date. We get smiles from some. We are kidded by some. It is all good. We have learned that doing something different together turns up the romance. Who would have thought that something different could be a change of seating? Thank you, dearest.

Love, Sylvia