I call them black freckles. In the last few days, I've run into several clusters of black spots on local sidewalks, sometimes paint, sometimes debris. I took a photo of the third set I came across, this time near a middle school yesterday. Then I wished I had pics of the others; they were eye-catching, kind of silly, and might have worked as a blog post.

Tonight, I was writing a message on a post card (see above). It's a photo of Hiroshige's woodblock color print of Kinryuzan Temple, Asakusa, taken by Philip Pocock. I turned it over to admire the art. There at the base of the 1856 print was a spray of black freckles.

So. Alright. Seems to be a kind of timely nudge to go ahead! Write about black freckles.

So I searched through my file for the middle school image. I found the sidewalk picture, and then I looked at the picnic table photo just before it.

Another patch of black freckles.