I'm in Heaven!

Is this what I think it is?? How can that be? I have never, ever seen one. Nor have I even dared hope to! So unlikely was my encountering one that I have never learned its name.

And yet, driving to pick up Philip for tutoring this morning I passed this chubby fellow, alert and at the ready, on the side of a very busy urban street about 18 inches from the edge of the pavement. It was standing there naked as if, a la Garbo, it had requested alone time. Not in the forest, not crouching behind a mossy stone, not even in someone's yard, but on the edge of the road as if campaigning for some festive holiday cause.

I am amazed and so pleased! And I'm so surprised that no one has kicked it or picked it or, heaven forbid, licked it. Maybe no one has noticed it though it's rather large! Maybe people are respecting its time to shine? I am delighted that it's just across the street from the corner where the magical variegated holly used to make the evenings glow during the holidays. And it does appear bedecked with sparkles!

I have long read stories to myself and then to my girls in which these cheerful red lanterns decorated the pages signalling the promise of faerie rings and gnomes and small woodland mysteries that go bump in the night! But to drive past one standing brightly tall in its fresh morning apparel, possibly lost and waiting for a bus, I cannot believe my wonderful luck! I really can't, I am beyond thrilled!

I will always remember this day :) What a wonderful sight!