REVERIE

There is nothing quite like snarfing down a plate of pork and cabbage dumplings 豬肉白菜餃子 ('jyu yiuk paak choi gaau ji'). No hot mik tea, because it's a Shanghai place, and that isn't their thing. But they have chili crisp (香辣脆 'heung laat cheui'). And their dumplings are quite good. So I enjoyed my meal. Immensely.

Had a long smoke in the Financial District afterwards. I must have looked jaunty and dashing with my pipe sticking out of my mouth, as a passing lady security guard smiled warmly at me as she passed. A fine briar is definitely an excellent style accesory. It makes any man or woman look brilliant, like Einstein or Faulkner. And soigné, like Clark Gable.

Warm enough today for shirtsleeves. Even at dusk, when it was cooler.
Downtown, empty at evening, is reverie inducing.


Over in England it has, I have been informed, been rainy and autumnal. Twenty degrees Fahrenheit colder than San Francisco, with some downpours. Perfect for a stomp in the woods with a magnifying glass to inspect the small bugs and slime molds.

Myxogastric slime molds of the genus cribraria have globular and soft fruiting bodies with an abbreviated thready peridium, forming a net-like structure. They are widespread, with more than thirty species. They flourish in shady moist environments, often on rotting wood or dense vegetal matter in forests.

In the illustration above, cribraria are shown on rotting wood.

Slime molds are in fact quite fascinating.

Some are dumpling-shaped.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================