There’s a chill in the air so I doubt I’ll be going on anymore evening walks this year. So this evening, I left what I think will be my last Guerilla Giveaway under our local Chandelier Tree. Over the last few years, this sycamore hung with 30 or so chandeliers has become increasingly popular with people from all over the city, and recently it’s been hard to turn the corner into our street in the evenings because of all the people standing (and sometimes even lying!) in the middle of the road taking pictures of it. To raise money to help pay the burgeoning electricity bill for the tree’s lights, our neighbor Adam (the creator of the Chandelier Tree – see January 30) has refurbished and beautifully decorated a 1960s parking meter and installed it under the tree, and I often see families out there enjoying the magical tree or taking pictures in front of the glowing parking meter. Lately though, I have been noticing more and more couples dressed to the nines standing together enjoying the tree. One night I think I may have witnessed a marriage proposal. Why else would a man have been down on his knee?

This evening, as I was positioning my gift under the parking meter, I heard voices. I looked up and saw a USPS mail delivery van approaching very slowly. The driver, our postwoman, was leaning out of the door with her phone in one hand trying to take a picture. She had already delivered the mail to our street earlier in the afternoon so she must have swung by on her way home after finishing all her deliveries to catch the tree in its full glory. Adam was walking alongside the van, and they were, of course, talking about the tree. When they got close to where I was staining, I joined in the conversation, adding that it’s become a very romantic spot now. He grinned and revealed that last night, a man had proposed and his girlfriend had said yes – making it the 17^th proposal so far under the tree. I showed Adam what I’d left at the base of the parking meter – a CD of Prokovief’s Romeo and Juliet. Who knows, maybe it will inspire #18.