Fossils

This is the worst job I have to do every spring - dread cleaning out the goldfish pond.  While still too cold to climb into the foulest, stinkiest water you've ever seen, I am trying to clean it out with a swimming pool net and pole.  I will have to get in soon though, before the snakes come out of hibernation. Be that as it may, it doesn't take long before my mind begins to wander to the fossils I have placed around the pond. 

Oklahoma used to be covered by an ocean, which mildly disturbs me, but because of said ocean, I find many fossils in limestone around here.  I've said give me a fossil over diamonds and watches, jewelry that I do not wear (though I do love a Van Cleef and Arpels Alhambra necklace in turquoise).   Above is a fern leaf and shell creature encased in limestone.

A tree trunk millions of years old.  Guess it grew when the ocean receded or inundation. 

Don't know what the heck this is, but perhaps a tubeworm of some kind.

My favorite though is this fish or sea serpent.  The head is on the right and the rest of the fossil curves up to the top of the rock.  Notice all the bones and plant life scattered around.  

Well, I better get back to the pond scum.  At least I found something to break up the chore.

It's Spring

It's spring alright.  How do I know?  I'm digging through cabinets and drawers.  Thirty years of detritus and all sorts of things.  Rubber bands, receipts and files from too long ago have filtered down to the bottom of cubbies and piles of paper are being purged.  As I dig I wonder, why did I save these old rubber bands, clips, ink pens that no longer work and stacks of papers?  

To tell the truth, I am somewhat of a magpie by nature, but much of this is ridiculous.  Saving things on the chance that they might be needed someday only adds to clutter.  

Like a slip of paper I have saved for years.  It has Phi 1.618 written on it.  Below is the sign for Phi.

Phi, pronounced like fly, was discovered by Fibonacci and is the solution to a quadratic equation (math was my worst subject in school so I know I didn't save this for the math).  Phi is also known as the Divine Proportion, The Golden Mean, or the Divine Ratio.  So, how does it effect us?  Well, Phi is the proportions of the human body as well as animals, plants, DNA, the solar system, art and architecture, music and even theology. Phi unwinds the chambers of a nautilus and the spiral of a galaxy, arranges seeds in the head of a sunflower. So how does Phi 'figure' into my spring cleaning?  Well, I guess it seemed interesting at the time, but out it goes.  

UPDATE ~ I found another slip of paper from a magazine article which is why I copied Phi down in the first place.  Susan Dell (yes, that Dell) started a clothing company in the 1990's (that's how long I have held on to these scraps of paper) and she named it Phi, after the divine proportion.  So, nothing profound or life changing.  Just a bit of minutia that interested me at the time.  Finally throwing them out.  But, oh no.  Wait, here is a third scrap.  I must have really been impressed.  Seems that Phi is the principle on what Leonardo da Vinci based his illustration of The Vitruvian Man. I could go on but I think I've probably lost most of you by now.  So, nuff said about Phi, but isn't it beautiful ~ like spring?