It's turtles all the way down

a

turtle rising from the waves - hand painted by nature

In a Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking tells of an old lady attending an astronomy lecture. After the speaker had described the movements of the stars and planets the old lady stood up and said: "Young man, what you have said is nonsense. The world is on the back of a turtle." "And what is the turtle standing on?" countered the scientist. "It's turtles all the way down!" the old lady informed him.

Don't laugh at the old woman. I found the above stone on a beach at the precise spot where I had found a turtle strangled to death by a plastic sandwich bag the previous day. There were millions of stones on the beach. How this singular stone caught my eye as I was walking along is also a mystery. There were no other illustrated stones to be found. I looked for them. Turned many stones over.