Remembrance of monastic things past

Here in a monastery in Danuphyu, an obscure river town on the Irrawaddy, the subsidence into gentle decay largely goes unremarked, the local villagers come to pay their respects to the senior monk, elbow, toe, little finger, knee and forehead touching the polished teak floor of the reception room, a gloriously proportioned room bare of most things except the elegant spiral of a mahogany staircase, the teak floor smooth under bare feet, and on the shelf, someone, in an act of causal intimacy, has left their blue toothbrush.

Fibonacci’s Begonias and The Comma Orchid

 Singapore’s Cloud Forest greenhouse in Gardens by the Bay has the drama and complexity of the Magic Flute, there are plants there in such luxuriant abundance, one million  they suggest and 19,000 species , so that snap happy doesn’t not begin to say.  Foregoing the exuberant riot of colour the spiral begonia here and the running white double comma of the orchid claim have the elegance of Fibonacci on their side.