The Magic of Winters

 

View of snow-covered mountain tops. A large cloud contrasts with a bright sky in the background.

Red autumnal leaves fall on a frozen canal.

A perfectly still and clear winter sunset over a lake in Agyll, Scotland. Tree silhouetted in foreground.

White woodland surrounds an icy river.

A winter sunset casts an ethereal glow on a frosted field. Trees at the far end of the field.

The frozen River Ayre is filled with blocks of ice, creating an unusual effect.

A robin redbreast perching on a snow covered wall

Claw-like icicles protrude and surround a freezing pond

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                                     Snowfall on holly bush, bunches of bright red berries hang from branches

Labassin Waterfall Restaurant, Villa Escudero Philippines

Villa Escudero Plantations is 800 hectares of working coconut plantation and hacienda located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of the city of San Pablo, Laguna province on the border with Quezon province in the Philippines.

SALAR DE UYUNI - Geologic Features

 

• Potosi, Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) is the World's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 sq mi). It is located in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes and is at an elevation of 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above mean sea level.

The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves, which is in the process of being extracted. The large area, clear skies, and the exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar an ideal object for calibrating the altimeters of Earth observation satellites.

EASTER ISLAND - Islands

 

• Valparaíso, Chile

Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.

Polynesian people most likely settled on Easter Island sometime between 700 to 1100 CE, and created a thriving and industrious culture as evidenced by the island's numerous enormous stone moai and other artifacts. However, human activity, the introduction of the Polynesian rat and overpopulation led to gradual deforestation and extinction of natural resources which severely weakened the Rapa Nui civilization. By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population had dropped to 2,000–3,000 from an estimated high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier. European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, to a low of only 111 inhabitants in 1877.

Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. The nearest inhabited land (around 50 residents in 2013) is Pitcairn Island, 2,075 kilometres (1,289 mi) away; the nearest town with a population over 500 is Rikitea, on the island of Mangareva, 2,606 km (1,619 mi) away; the nearest continental point lies just in central Chile, 3,512 kilometres (2,182 mi) away.

Easter Island is a special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888. Administratively, it belongs to the Valparaíso Region, and, more specifically, it is the only commune of the Province Isla de Pascua. According to the 2012 Chilean census, the island has about 5,800 residents, of whom some 60 percent are descendants of the aboriginal Rapa Nui.

HUMMINGBIRD LANE

 HUMMINGBIRD LANE

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This woman lives in
a Hummingbird fly
zone. As they migrated, about 20 of them were in her yard. She took
the little red dish, filled it with  sugar water and this is  the result.
The woman is Abagail Alfano of Pine, Louisiana - she has been studying  them daily and one morning put the cup from the feeder, with water in it, in her hand;  as they had gotten used to her standing by the feeder they came over to her hand. She  says in touching they are as light as a feather.
Abagail also said, 'if she had known her husband was taking pictures
 she would have put on makeup.'

Beautiful Borders Between Two Countries

Crocodile & Hippo Unseen Fight

 Crocodile & Hippo Unseen Fight

 

 

 

  

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