🌍Happy Earth Day!!🌍

Today it's Earth Day!!!🌍

Many people will celebrate it in different ways: cleaning a park or a beach, taking care of the garden, having a walk..

I tried to contribute creating some inspirational collages of pictures I take.

Hoping you will like them and you will feel inspirated by them, I wish you a HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

The floral power, the natural beauty.

The water power, the natural beauty.

The sky power, the natural beauty.

🌊🏖💙Blue Cave Croatia💙🏖🌊

Today my feet.. well my memories.. took me to Croatia and in particular to the famous Blue Cave!!!

The Dalmatian coast is so called because it's formed by many many little islands and islets, which recalls the black spots on a Dalmatian dog.

The Karst region is a really and crumbly territory because characterized by limestone.

But how this beautiful cave was born?

As I said above, the limestone is very fragile and the wavy motion erodes the rock escaving half submerged caves.

Through the rock cracks, the sea water gets inside underneath the island, filling the cave up.

The entrance is really tiny, as it's half submerged, in fact to enter it we had to crouch on the boat, we weren't allowed to sit on the benches.

And this is what we saw:

the sunlight reflected by the outer water is diffracted into the inner one, creating this beautiful effect!!

I obviously embraced that moment with all my senses: I stretched my hands overboard and the water was so warm; the silence was wrapping everyone up, even if it was full of tourists, for just few seconds in the darkness, I felt connected with Mother Nature.

Curious & Curioser Facts: Animals Laugh!! 😂

Have you ever seen those programmes where people don't have to laugh otherwise they are out? 😂😂😂😂
Laugh is a natural behaviour to express happiness and joy!!

But did you know animals laugh too??!! 😰😂

According to some ethologists, monkeys 🐒 laugh a lot as much as children. Dogs 🐕, best man's friend, do the same, changing their muzzle expressions when they play, basically when we see pictures on internet like this one, wondering if they are real, well they are!! Cats🐈 instead, to express their feelings, meow in a particular way.

And finally parrots 🎶🐦, famous for their copying skills, can even sound like they are having so much fun!!😉

So, did you like this curious fact about animals?

Would you like to add anyone else?

🌸🏵🌹 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!!!