Abstract Thursday : : Patterns

There's even a name for the repeating pattern getting smaller and smaller, as seen in this euphorbia growing in our garden. It's a fractal. There's even a mathematical equation which describes it, but I would have to spend more time trying to learn how to type it than I have already spent trying to understand it. It's called the Mandelbrot Set and is found everywhere in nature.

The artistic side of my brain goes to war with the reasoning side of my brain when I try to understand the scientific explanations for what I can see in front of me. There is something however, about the concept of fractals and how they can be repeated and replicate a smaller version of themselves an infinite number of times that fascinates me. Here's  a link to a definition and some computer images. Sort of the opposite of stargazing or trying to understand the concept of the universe. I know that many mathematicians are seen as artists, or philosophers but I'm not convinced it works the other way around. I will never be a mathematician. 

My  neighbor's daughter, home from Austin Texas for Christmas, will be is going back  for the last time today before she gets married in May. Another friend's daughter is having some kind of complicated lung surgery to prevent a recurring spontaneous pneumothorax. My thoughts are with them both for different reasons.

We took the old paint and solvents to the hazmat dump, and I took a walk up to the arbor....