online: 21 july 2010 modified: 20, 22 july 2010 20 july 2010 profusion and order
Seven Sisters ponds
...bullrushes taller than a tall person... too many to perceive or
distinguish... the growth in and around these ponds seems excessive... i whistle faintly in case the robin should respond and return... but it doesn't... hear no birds close at hand, only one or two in the distance ... and now none... a woman walking fast appears through a gap in the undergrowth... for less than a second... the sky is grey but the air is still warm and a bit humid... a man with shaved head appears briefly through the same gap in the vegetation... and i've just realised why there are so few four-leafed clovers: because petals (and sets of leaves on a twig?) are nearly always in Fibonacci numbers:
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 etc (each number being the sum of the previous two)... and it's simple rules like these that account for the overwhelming profusion of forest, ocean, clouds... or the structure of matter and universe... so called... beyond words
...a sudden gust of wind reveals hidden order as the seemingly tangled bullrushes bend together in some kind of pattern that i can see but not describe... while i gently remove a ladybird from jacket to ground...
...and as i walked further i kept stopping to count the number of leaves in the last twigs of bramble and other plants and yes i found none but 3 or 5... but when i began counting the leaves along he length of longer twigs of other plants the Fibonacci numbers seemed no longer to apply... i can see how quickly one can become involved in seeking evidence for or against such a theory... (or dogma... for it's not an explanation)...
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