Many, many years ago I was visiting a friend in the Netherlands. It was Saturday morning and her husband came home from his weekly excursion to the market. Among other purchases, his arms were laden with bunches and bunches of beautiful flowers. My friend went to work quickly and arrangements took their places in every nook and corner of her lovely home.

Ever since then, one my aspirations has been to follow her decorating practice. Fresh flowers so perk up a home, adding beauty and an indescribable ambiance. Even though I do not come close to filling the house, flowers on the kitchen counter brighten my life!

From time to time, Constant Companion will surprise me with a bunch of lovely flowers bought along the way he might be on that day or from a specific trip to the supermarket.

I came home on Friday to find this simple, lovely display, purchased before the rush of extravagant arrays sold for Valentine’s Day. I love it!

Who was it that said, it’s not quantity, but quality that’s of importance? We then went out for a dinner at a favorite Greek restaurant, to avoid the rush and high prices of V’s Day. This place has a great Happy Hour Menu, which we enjoyed thoroughly, without crowds …

Last weekend, we continued our prequel to Valentine’s Day. It started with a performance of Miami City Ballet’s new Swan Lake choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. No photos of the performance, this is not permitted, though the lady seated next to me did not get that message (oh, I wanted to punch her!). As I waited for the performance to begin, I was transported by the Hibuscus Grand Curtain an  Guide for Accessing Your Reemployment Assistance Account exuberant array of flowers translated onto fiber by artist Robert Rahway Zakanitch.

Constant Companion braved the post-ballet traffic to pick me up so we could join a pre-Valentine’s Day art tour of the Design District. We always enjoy learning about the public art in this area during the annual Art Week (see Nov. 30, 2021 post). This deep dive introduced us to some additional artwork from the perspective of a guide. Here’s some of what we enjoyed …

A multi-artist exhibit featuring residents of the Bakehouse, Parrots in the Kiln, included this public art wall paper by Christina Petterson.

After several stops we ended up at the Museum Garage. This quadrant of the façade is the work of Berlin design practice J Mayer H.

From one garage to another, is the City View Garage (somewhere it’s termed “parkitecture”) emblazoned with a photo by John Baldessari.

The LOEWE Miami store reopened during Art Week, last December with this custom mural by Sol LeWitt.

And then there was Mother Nature’s contributions to the evening’s art viewing – wonderful clouds and moons peeking through.

And then … another octopus made an appearance (see Jan 24, 2022 post) … you’ll never know what you’ll observe:

Happy Valentine’s Day!