🌸🏵🌹 Blossoms 🌸🏵🌹

It's fully #spring, and even if the temperatures are not the highest at the moment, we are surrounded by beautiful and colorful blossoms!!!

Very famous is the Japanese cherry trees event happening in Tokyo during this month, which I really wish one day to go to. 😍🌸🌹🏵

Although in London there is a beautiful place where you can enjoy a walk surrounded by nature in bloom. I am talking about the Kew Gardens.

But do you know what the differences are between a cherry🍒, plum 🏵, almond 🌳 and peach🍑 tree?

They might be mistaken but if you look carefully you can see they have peculiar characteristics, starting from the flowers.

All of them belong to the same family, in fact they all present the following floral formula, which is:

K5 C5 A10+ G1+

and means they have 5 sepals, 5 petals, the male part of the flower is formed by 10 or more stamens, and the female part by 1 or more carpels.

The cherry🍒 flowers have a little rift on the tip of the petals and they are distributed on the branch in long single stems.

The plum 🏵 ones are rounded and don't have any stem.

The almond 🌳 flowers instead are white/pale pink with many rifts on the petals tip.

Finally the peach🍑 ones have a tear-drop shape and the blossoms are united in pairs on the branch with shorter stems.

SOURCE: University della Calabria, Facoltà Agraria.

Chocolate Eggs

It's #Easter week!!! 🌈

The #chocolateegg is the most popular Easter gift!! 

Colorful and deliciously chocolately to remind Spring has finally bloomed!!

But what's the origin of this yummy tradition?

It all started in Egypt: the chicken egg, for it's important food properties, was considered a symbol where all the 4 elements were reunited.

According to the Romans, Spring is when the nature is reborn after the long cold season and the chicken egg represents the life's rebirth, that's why they were painting with leaves and onion skins and exchanging them.

For the Christians it was the same theory: the chick hatches out alive from the egg like Jesus did from his tomb.

But the actual chocolate egg tradition started during the Middle Ages, while in the 18th century in Russia, a matrioska egg was invented, that gave the idea to put a surprise inside.

... And voilà!!! 

That's how the modern 

Chocolate Easter Egg was born!!!

Enjoy it 

& 

HAPPY EASTER everyone!!!

Want to know more about Curious facts read this post 

Curious & Curioser Facts about Eggs

 In honour of #Easter 🌈, here few curious facts about eggs!!!🐣🐤🐔

Probably everyone knows that the biggest egg on Earth, (at the moment not in the past) is the Ostrich's (weight 5 kilos), and the smallest is the Humminbird's🐦 (weight 0,4 grams).

But not everyone knows that the weight of a kiwi’s egg is usually about quarter of its own weight, for humans it's like giving birth to a fully grown 4 years old kid, or for a chicken laying an egg that weights half a kilogram!! 

😥 Ohi ohi!! Poor them!! 😫

Instead, the dinosaurs🐊, after laying a egg, needed to wait 6 months before becoming parents!! 😲😲

But how do we have this info?

Few fossil eggs were discovered and put under an X-Ray exam which revealed little embryos at the 60% of their development.

Studying their teeth they found out a baby dino needs 6 months to hatch!! ⏳😰🙈

Probably this was another factor which caused their #extinction: the time between one #generation and another was too long, therefore they didn't manage to adapt to the new #weather. 😞

About cold, an animal who got adapted to extreme weather is the #Penguin 🐧!!!

The female lays the egg but it's the male who takes care of it for 65 days, keeping it warm and making sure it doesn't get dropped in the snow, holding it on top of its feet. It's so funny seeing how they walk protecting that egg with parental love, or watching the parents passing it between them.

If you want to learn more about eggs go to the NHM at Tring, that has the largest birds' egg collection. Click here if you want to read it!!!

Enjoy the reading and 

Happy #Egghunt!! 🐣🐰

Zombie Cicadas

Who said #Zombies don't exist?!! 

Some #cicadas get infected by a fungus called Massospora, which eats them from inside, feasting with their internal organs but leaving the brain untouched so it can control the corpse.

The dead cicada walk and mate with others to transmit the infection.

In this video you will see how the fungus controls the cicada's brain making the insect walk like a puppet.

#creepy and #fascinating at the same time!!! 

Walking Towards Spring

 Today my feet took me to a beautiful natural place, surrounded by flowers and green lawn.

The temperature was really nice, reminding me Winter is over, Easter is a week away and Spring is spreading all over the landscape.

The fresh and clean air increased my mood, which during this lockdown wasn't that great.

Among the birds chirrping and the buzzing bees, on my path I found something really singular: a circular structure digged in a rock for the rain collection.

In fact in the past the people to water their fields didn't have a pipe system, so they had to use what Mother Nature was offering them: rain!!!

The interesting geological part is that the place is situated on top of a whole piece of clay rock, which is impermeable and so perfect to collect and contain water.

I have been told going down the road there is a natural drinking water spring, next time I will let my feet taking me there.

International World Water Day

During these past days we heard talking a lot about the International #worldwaterday, but why water is so important?

Even if humans are terrestrial living being, before we are born we live in a liquid environment, our body is formed by 70% of water, in fact we are  always recommended to drink at least 2 litres of water per day, to allow our organs working properly. 🍹

Lately we have sent a rover to #Mars and guess what we are looking for? WATER!!! It's the only way to demonstrate the planet was #habitable, as that's how life began on Earth!! 🌍

The biggest civilizations started around important rivers, the first commercial exchanges were done via sea. ⛵

Also who doesn't like to spend a day in a spa🛀 or a swimming pool 🏊 to feel relaxed and reborn, and what about the calming effects of the marine landscapes on the human brain. 🌊

The relationship humans-water is very ancient, but nowadays we use it as it's a spendable good and not a precious one!!

We always consider the water pollution someone else's problem, instead we need to act!!!

By acting I mean taking these little precautions!!

1) Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth, even better if you use a glass to rinse your mouth.

2) Prefer showers instead of bath, if taking a bath don't refill it too much.

3) Wash your car in a self-service or if you wash it yourself turn the tap on only when you need to rinse it up.

4) Water your plants only in the morning and evening so the water doesn't evaporate before reaching the roots.

5) Use the dishwasher and the washing machine only fully loaded.

My First Travel to London

It seems yesterday when I first left to go to London, instead it has already been 6 years. It feels like those years have been reset: again I am looking for a job (with low results 🙀), my phone number 📱has been deactivated, which means as soon as I get back I need to buy a new one.😵

I have to kind of start over again.

I still remember the feeling when I jumped on that 🚁airplaine: full of hope and fear. 😋 😂

I had never felt those emotions, but in that moment I truly understood what was going on inside Rapunzel's head when left the tower. 😂😂😂

I am not only talking about the sense of freedom (especially because it wasn't my first time far from home) but it was a mix of excitement 😎💃for being in an adventure bigger than me and at the same time realizing that I was in an adventure bigger than me!!!😨😨

It was pretty much something like this!! 😹😹